Associate Program Officer - Youth Gender & Enterprise Development

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Job Reference: APO-YGED/PD/RW/03/2025

AGRA and its Work to Transform Agriculture

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability - We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

Why Join Us?

People are the heartbeat of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery, impact, and success.

We have cultivated a workplace that fuels Depth in Collaboration, Excellence in Execution, Constructive Engagements, and a spirit of being Increasingly Entrepreneurial; all underpinned by our cherished I-RISE Values (Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity)

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the African continent combined with an inclusive, diverse, and talented workforce from over 25 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

We are looking for people who are passionate about being part of a mission-driven team that is making a real difference on the continent; love to work on cutting edge Ag technologies; and able to grow their skills, expertise, and experience career growth, while enjoying very competitive compensation and benefits.

Are you ready to embark on this exciting transformative journey with us?

The Position

Associate Program Officer – YGED Job Reference: APO-YGED/PD/RW/03/2025

The Associate Program Officer – Youth Gender & Enterprise Development focuses on establishing strategic partnerships to facilitate the development of a sustainable Business Development Services (BDS) ecosystem and fostering an inclusive environment that empowers youth and women. This role plays a critical role in driving and coordinating initiatives that contribute to employment creation, youth engagement, and gender integration in countries strategic implementation plan.

S/he will be responsible for designing, implementing, and monitoring initiatives, policies, and plans that align with AGRA's objectives for youth and women empowerment, gender integration and inclusiveness, and enterprise development. The role holder will assist the country team, providing strategic guidance and leadership to ensure that youth, gender, and enterprise development receive due priority and visibility and are deliberately and effectively promoted as a critical component of AGRA in country programming.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic recommendations and advice to Country teams in mainstreaming youth engagement and sustainable Business Development Services.
• Engage in cross-cutting projects to support the overall mission of the youth and women in skills development, access to market and value chain development.
• Support country team to design and implement innovative strategies to promote the establishment and growth of agricultural enterprises, contributing to increased employment opportunities and income generation activities for youth and young women.
• Work with project partners and grantees to ensure effective implementation of youth and women work in the country.
• Work with local government and AGRA’s policy and advocacy teams to domesticate policies that support youth employment and voice. Coordinate provision of technical assistance to the ministries of youth and agriculture that are in line with creating an enabling environment for upcoming youth entrepreneurs in agrifood systems.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret data related to youth program performance, impact, and outcomes.
• Identify opportunities to generate more jobs and entrepreneurial ventures for youth and women.
• Manage and organize field visits and practical training sessions to expose the youth entrepreneurs to successful agriculture enterprises.
• Drive collaboration with experts and agricultural organizations to bring in specialized knowledge for youth and women.
• Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including governmental agencies, NGOs, private sector sectors, and other organizations involved in Business Development Services (BDS) to increase voice and collective capacity of youth and women networks.
• Provide guidance and support to country teams in facilitating connections between qualified youth and young women participants within the food systems sector. 
• Inspiring implementing partners, grantees and like-minded organizations to join forces towards creating jobs in the country and systemic change towards entrepreneurship on behalf of young Agripreneurs.
• Plans and facilitates workshops, interactive sessions and assists in developing the action plans for strengthening meaningful youth engagement.
• Contribute to the development and updating of the program work plan for youth work.
• Contribute to AGRA's knowledge management efforts by documenting successes, challenges, and best practices in alignment with country strategies.
• Support thorough analyses of country's agricultural landscape, socio-economic conditions, and policy frameworks to tailor program interventions accordingly

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• A degree or equivalent in Agriculture, agribusiness development, Development Studies, Agri-Enterprise development, Economics, Gender Studies, or related discipline.
• Strong understanding of the agricultural landscape in country, including knowledge of key stakeholders, challenges, and opportunities for employment creation.
• Experience working in the fields of gender, youth and enterprise development preferably with focus on youth and women employment, entrepreneurship in agriculture sector with demonstrated experience working directly with national level counterparts and local communities.
• Strong analytical skills and demonstrate ability in stakeholder engagement, and effectively business development services partnership building with government, private sector, peer organizations and local communities.
• Excellent track record in leading the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of projects/programs, and in influencing partners and stakeholders to achieve goals and objectives.

Behavioral Competencies

• Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking siloes, sharing information celebrating joint successes.
• Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and increasing accountability to deliver impact at scale.
• Ability to be sincerely constructive in interactions with others by demonstrating trust, sincerity, and care, in recognition of our joint purpose.
• Ability be increasingly entrepreneurial by breaking hierarchies, embracing learning and innovation to unlock the potential of diversity and ideas.

 If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 12^th April 2025.

Due to the large volumes of applications, we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.