Value Chain Competitiveness Lead, DRC
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Description:
International Resources Group (IRG), an Engility company, seeks a Value Chain Competitiveness Lead, for an anticipated USAID Feed the Future project in the DRC. The Value Chain Competitiveness Lead will operationalize all aspects of technical activities focused on providing assistance to coffee, soy, and grain legume (dry bean) farmers and other value chain actors to increase sustainable demand for, capacity of, and access to value chain-supporting products and services.
The Value Chain Competitiveness Lead will be a part of the Senior Management Team, based in Bukavu with frequent travel to project intervention sites.
- Provide technical expertise and manage technical staff focusing on enhanced coffee production, climate-smart production and inputs, post-harvest handling and storage, cleaning, grading, and processing, improved food safety and quality; and financial and business skills.
- Assist in developing work plans and business strategies for producer groups and communities.
- Ensure adoption and sustainable use of available and appropriate climate-smart agricultural technologies.
Work to improve post-harvest production handling and storage and subsequent packaging and transport for processing and/or sale. - Work with producers to meet production volumes and quality meet minimum requirements in order to sell/export to higher level value chain players.
- Assist the project technical teams in designing methodologies used for identifying measures that can be taken with cooperatives, associations, and other intermediaries and processors, to improve their performance, sales, production and competitive pricing.
- Assist the project technical teams in identifying and developing appropriate processing and value addition activities for village level, small and medium scale producers.
This full-time position is contingent upon award and client approval and funding.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in agronomy, business administration, economics or similar degrees.
- 8 years’ experience in agribusiness, on-farm production, cooperative development or value chain facilitation in developing countries.
- Experience working in eastern DRC.
- Experience managing staff and other resources to achieve results.
- Proven knowledge and implementation of market systems approach toward agricultural production and marketing.
- Direct experience performing hands-on technical agricultural trainings to smallholder farmers.
- Familiarity with ensuring new technology adoption and sustainable use.
- Experience working collaboratively with local governments, the local private sector, and implementers of other donor-funded activities.
- Excellent oral and written English and French language communication skills.
Desired Qualifications:
- Masters’ Degree degree in agronomy, business administration, economics or similar degrees.
- 5 years USAID or other international donor project experience.
- Established relationships with and/or substantive knowledge of international and regional agribusiness firms, processors and market outlets.
- Direct, hands on private sector experience.
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