Current Recruitment At Palladium 2017

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with foundations, investors, governments, corporations, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits.

For the past 50 years, we have been making Positive Impact possible. With a team of more than 2,500 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of more than 35,000 technical experts, Palladium has improved – and is committed to continuing to improve – economies, societies and most importantly, people’s lives.

Palladium is a child-safe organization, and screens applicants for suitability to work with children. We also provide equal employment to all participants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran or marital status.

Job Description

Job Title: CCN Agribusiness Partnerships Specialist

Project Overview and Role

The USAID Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID FinGAP) addresses a key constraint restricting the development of commercial agriculture and obtaining full food security in Ghana ? access to finance necessary to enable investment in agricultural value chains. USAID FinGAP uses a comprehensive approach to facilitate agriculture related investment, engaging a broad range of Ghanaian Financial Institutions (or FIs; including banks, private equity firms, leasing companies, investment funds, etc.) in providing agricultural oriented financing, in partnership with strategic investors and buyers of rice, maize and soya in Northern Ghana. USAID FinGAP also facilitates investment in the agriculture sector in Ghana that will complement other Government of Ghana (GOG) and donor programs aimed at expanding commercial agriculture.

USAID-FinGAP?s Agribusiness Opportunities Development (AOD) Unit, identifies, develops, and supports agribusinesses for investments through market linkages with investors that integrate SMEs and smallholders to promote equitable participation of farmers in their supply chains. A core component of this work is developing public-private partnerships (PPPs) with strategic anchor firms to create platforms for the deployment of financing solutions for smallholder farmers.

USAID FinGAP recently completed an internal performance assessment to quantify the impact of project activities on both direct beneficiaries (namely small, medium, and large enterprises (SMiLEs) who receive direct support from FIs and Business Advisory Service (BAS) providers) and indirect beneficiaries (the smallholder farmers linked to SMiLE recipients of financing). While the assessment found that the finance and investment facilitated by USAID FinGAP has had a significant impact on business growth, profitability, and livelihoods of both direct and indirect beneficiaries, it also identified a number of challenges faced by SMEs and smallholders that continue to limit their profitability and prevent the project from maximizing its impact. Farmers specifically noted challenges related to a lack of irrigation, high cost of inputs, access to machinery and tractor services, and inadequate options for affordable storage facilities. With respect to irrigation and storage:

• Irrigation technologies are still not accessible to SMiLEs or smallholder famers. Smallholders indicated that a prevailing constraint to crop production is lack of available irrigation systems, as they are mainly dependent on rainfall. Across regions, rainfall is used by 88% of rice farmers, 92% maize farmers and 96% soya farmers, which has not changed from 2013 to 2016. Traditional dam/ stream/ river (buckets) are mostly used among rice farmers in Northern (18.2%) and Upper East regions (3.3%), while 100% of farmers in Brong Ahafo only use rainfall.
• Most SMiLEs (72%) and smallholder farmers (84%) store all crop produce in sacks and bags, which has not changed significantly since 2013. While overall production levels have increased, SMiLEs have experienced increased crop losses since 2013 (57% increase for rice and 2% increase for maize), as have smallholders (5% increase on average). Farmers primarily attribute crop loss to lack of modern storage facilities and their inability to mobilize both human and material resources to harvest crops on time. Farmers who participated in FGDs also noted that crop losses occur due to insects and bird attacks, as well as issues with handling, processing, weather, production practices, transportation, grading, and access to market. SMiLEs and smallholders have differentiated needs when it comes to storage. Smallholder require access to on-farm hermetic storage facilities, and SMiLEs require larger facilities to aggregate products they are receiving from farmer suppliers.

USAID-FinGAP aims to tackle the challenges described above through the creation of strategic PPPs with technology providers and anchor SMiLEs, which include structured financing arrangements with partner FIs to make these technologies accessible and affordable.
Responsibilities

Primary Duties

The primary duty of the CCN Agribusiness Partnerships Specialist is to support USAID FinGAP to design, implement, and oversee the roll-out of PPPs in the following areas:

1. Irrigation PPP which will increase smallholder access to irrigation technology, and demonstrate to SMEs and smallholders that drip irrigation has the potential to double yields and be affordably purchased through appropriate financing arrangements;
2. Storage PPPs to increase access to storage solutions appropriate for smallholder farmers and SMiLEs, and demonstrate benefits in terms of reduced crop losses and increased revenue.

Irrigation PPP: USAID FinGAP has already identified and began discussions with two key partners for this PPP, including a SMiLE looking to invest in drip irrigation and a provider of high-quality drip irrigation technology, which is interested in implementing a pilot scheme. The SMiLE has recently acquired 13,000 HA of land on which it seeks to grow irrigated staple foods through a mix of commercial farming and leasing to outgrower youths. The firm is interested in conducting a drip irrigation pilot on 40 ha of land in the immediate term.

The CCN Agribusiness Partnerships Specialist will be charged with structuring a PPP with the above entities. This will include: identifying any additional PPP partners; facilitating meetings with PPP partners to determine roles and responsibilities of these; determining the financing requirements and advising on an appropriate financing product that can be developed by USAID FinGAP?s project team and BAS network, and rolled out through partner PFIs; obtaining a PPP agreement signed by partners; and developing a PPP work plan with detailed action items, milestones, and timelines for implementation.

Storage PPPs: USAID FinGAP is at the initial stages of structuring storage PPPs and has not yet begun discussions with potential partners. The project will be mobilizing an international Storage Partnerships Expert, who will advise on the structure of 3-4 PPPs and help select partners. The CCN Agribusiness Partnerships Specialist will work closely with the Storage Partnerships Expert to identify potential PPP partners, structure the roles and responsibilities of key partners (including USAID FinGAP); determine the financing requirements and structure financing products; develop PPP agreements signed by key partners, and develop a work plan for each PPP with detailed action items, milestones, and timelines for implementation.

Specific Functions and Responsibilities

The Agribusiness Partnerships Specialist will complete the following tasks:

Irrigation PPP (estimated 40 days LOE)

1. Facilitate irrigation technology provider?s trip to Ghana in July, including advance information gathering and coordinating meetings and discussions between this firm and the SMiLE discussed above.
2. Identify any additional PPP partners that should be included (e.g. the Government of Ghana, if the GoG is willing to contribute matching resources or support) or other sources of technical support (e.g. BAS providers, donor projects)
3. Develop agreement detailing the roles and contributions of each partner in the partnership, including the irrigation technology provider, the SMiLE, USAID FinGAP, GoG, and participating outgrowers, through facilitated dialogues with these entities.
4. Model projected benefits for the SMiLE and smallholder farmers, including but not limited to increased yields, increased profits and revenue, ROI.
5. Determine financing requirements to make investing in drip irrigation feasible. Work with a pre-qualified BAS provider to facilitate finance for the PPP, including developing a tailored financial product and identifying and securing a partner FI to provide the requisite financing.
6. Develop a work plan for the PPP which outlines:
   1. Action items for each partner with specific milestones/timelines. For example, timelines associated with partnership structuring; initial diagnostics of land, water sources, financial requirements; financial product development; farmer demonstrations.
   2. Expected results and impacts of the PPP, tied to expected timelines.
   3. A plan for measuring the success of each PPP with specific dates for measurement.
   4. Action plan for long-term sustainability and scale, including farmer outreach, communication of results, ideas for expanding proof of concept.

Storage PPPs (estimated 20 days)

1. Support the identification of potential PPP partners for 3-4 PPPs, including lead firms willing to invest in new storage solutions (e.g. trading companies, aggregators), providers of storage solutions, the Government of Ghana (if the GoG is willing to contribute matching resources or support), and other sources of technical support (e.g. BAS providers, donor projects).
2. Assist the Storage Partnerships Expert to develop PPP structures for 3-4 which take into account potential risks associated with implementing the PPP, and integrates solutions that could increase the likelihood of success. For example, incorporating technical support services, support from other donor projects, required financial partners.
3. Facilitate meetings between key PPP partners to develop an agreement detailing the roles, responsibilities, and contributions (e.g. financial, in kind) of each partner
4. Model projected benefits for the SMiLEs and smallholder farmers, including but not limited to: reduced crop losses, increased profits and revenue, ROI.
5. With the Storage Partnerships Expert, determine financing requirements to make investing in storage solutions feasible. Work with pre-qualified BAS providers to facilitate finance for the PPPs, including developing a tailored financial product and identifying and securing a partner FI to provide the requisite financing.
6. With the Storage Partnerships Expert, develop a work plan for each PPP which outlines:
   1. Action items for each partner with specific milestones/timelines. For example, timelines associated with partnership structuring; PPP roll-out; financial product development; farmer outreach/demos.
   2. Expected results and impacts of the PPP, tied to expected timelines.
   3. A plan for measuring the success of each PPP with specific dates for measurement.
   4. Action plan for long-term sustainability and scale, including farmer outreach, communication of results, ideas for expanding proof of concept.

Deliverables

For each PPP:

1. Signed PPP agreement between PPP partners, delineating agreed-upon roles and responsibilities
2. PPP work plans, including elements described above
3. Financing arrangements/products designed and delivered by BAS provider/PFI.

All deliverables must be completed in English.
Post of Duty

Accra, Ghana.

Period of Performance

Estimated period July – October 2017, up to 60 LOE days.

Requirements

The minimum qualifications for the Agribusiness Partnerships Specialist include:

• Bachelor?s degree required; master?s degree in international development, finance, agriculture, or related field of study preferred;
• Minimum of five (5) years? progressively responsible experience in management consulting, business development, or agribusiness, preferably within the private sector;
• Level 5 English ability (fluent) is required;
• Ghanaian citizen