WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.  The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes.  Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

FtMA is a consortium of six agri-focused organizations, with a mission of making markets work better for smallholder farmers since 2016. Through a demand-led approach, FtMA works with local agricultural ecosystem players to sustainably improve farmer livelihoods whilst fostering commercial viability of value chain stakeholders. FtMA promotes the growth of viable smallholder facing business models through strategic and hands-on partnerships. FtMA coordinates the ecosystem, co-innovates products and services, and provides information management covering market access, access to finance, access to inputs and technology, and post-harvest handling and storage to overcome critical value chain bottlenecks in smallholder crop markets.

The strategic aim of FtMA is to increase incomes and resilience of smallholders through providing them access to commercially sustainable value chains. This objective of directly linking smallholders into agricultural retail input networks increases their access to reliable, cost-effective productivity-enhancing services, inputs, and technologies, while at the same time opening direct access to markets and long term off-takers. FtMA will establish strong linkages to reliable and open markets and create a new market pull – driving future small-scale farmers’ development. By creating new possibilities for innovation and modernization throughout the value chain, all stakeholders’ prospects of successfully investing in the future will be improved. FtMA’s vision is to enable sustainable food systems through strengthened markets that empower smallholders to increase their yields, incomes, and resilience, and to improve global food security. This will be achieved by creating an inclusive commercial environment throughout the food value chains, supported by appropriate policies and investments in hard and soft infrastructures.

There is developed a FtMA Business Plan for Tanzania that aims to provide quality technical assistance that aligns with FtMA’s objectives and compliments both public and private sector’s investments in developing viable, sustainable and robust agricultural value chains. WFP hosts the coordination of this comprehensive value chain intervention and is looking for an individual to push forward these efforts in the realm of:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Contribute towards the development of market access support initiatives for smallholder farmers in a multi-stakeholder setting
2. Establish and manage public and private partnerships in the Markets, Logistics, Post-Harvest Handling, Storage domain including with Government Agencies
3. Lead in designing and refining scalable, sustainable farmer organizations capacity strengthening approaches and strategies suitable for PHHS, Logistics and Markets pathways
4. Support the identification and targeting of farmer organizations and farmer-friendly aggregators through vetting, and due diligence process. Specifically, assess and analyze the profiles of target farmer organizations and their farm business management practice.
5. Based on farmer data analysis, identify opportunities to build pro-smallholder staple value chains through partnerships with other key value chain stakeholders 
6. Manage farmer training on good agronomic practices, post-harvest handling, logistics delivery planning. Ensure effective knowledge transfer by instituting and leveraging the lead farmer  structure within the supported farmer organizations
7. Link identified farmer organizations and aggregators with forward delivery contracts by private-sector off-takers
8. Provide high quality project management support for FtMA interventions, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider smallholder support programmes and compliance with WFP standard policies and procedures
9. Liaise with internal and external FtMA counterparts to develop synergies and ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project deliver
10. Assist FtMA Country Coordinator in the development of market-based business plans for the national alliance and its implementation model across key value chain stakeholders
11. Other duties as required 

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: University degree in one or more of the following disciplines: Agriculture, Agriculture Economics or a field relevant to agricultural value chain management. An advanced degree in the relevant field is a plus.
Language:   Fluency (level C) in English language and Swahili is a MUST. 

Experience: At least six (6) years of experience in agribusiness, either in private sector enterprises or in non-profit value chain related projects, with a strong exposure to the private sector.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

• Demonstrated knowledge of agricultural economics; field level experience with smallholders and pro-smallholder SMEs.
• Demonstrated knowledge of establishing, mentoring and coaching Farmer Organizations into successful and profitable business entities particularly in aggregation and markets.
• Demonstrated knowledge of PHHS, Markets and Logistics spheres with a strong sense of how to deliver success in these sectors through FSCs.
• Proven success in building up scalable and sustainable crop aggregation business models.
• Ability to work independently, establish priorities and monitor own work plan with minimum supervision in close coordination with the geographically diversified FtMA team.
• Ability to work in a team and establish effective working relations with results-oriented private sector partners as well as internal WFP clients.
• Solid operational skills including problem solving and project management skills, including ability to work and deliver projects proactively and under pressure.
• Good analytical skills; resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment, tact, and negotiating skills.
• Ability to communicate clearly both orally and in writing.
• Ability to frequently travel within the country.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. 

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

The application deadline is 5th March 2021. 

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.