Palladium Ongoing Recruitment

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: Agricultural Insurance Specialist STTA

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 facilitating agriculture-related investment, engaging a broad range of Ghanaian Financial Institutions (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 will also facilitate investment in the agriculture sector in Ghana that will complement other Government of Ghana (GOG) and donor programs aimed at expanding commercial agriculture.

The Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP) offers agricultural insurance to agribusinesses involved in the maize, soya, rice, sorghum and millet value chains, as well as Multi-peril crop insurance tailor-made to cover the various risks experienced by commercial farmers. GAIP offers agriculture insurance products in Ghana and has been doing this since 2011. It is supported by a pool of 17 Ghanaian insurance companies which form the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA), a non-profit organization. GAIP was formed as a collaborative effort among the National Insurance Commission (NIC), the GIA, and the German Development Corporation (GIZ) in 2011. In mid-2014, GIZ pulled out it’s (partial) funding for GAIP because GIZ contract in Ghana ended. Subsequent to this, USAID Ghana and USAID ADVANCE, RAFiP and project implementers being stakeholders in GAIP, resolved to support GAIP to continue to offer agriculture insurance products in Ghana.

GAIP aims to protect farmers and other players in Ghana?s agricultural industry from the negative effects of climate change. It is achieving this through the development of a sustainable portfolio of innovative insurance products that mitigate the financial risks associated with the predicted rise in temperature and other extreme weather events related to agribusinesses.

Responsibilities

USAID FinGAP and ADVANCE have over the past two years been offering grant support to GAIP to restructure its operations and hire additional sales and marketing staff to expand its reach in the three northern regions of Ghana. From the support given, GAIP recruited a marketing manager and six marketing officers who are stationed in the head office and the three northern regions respectively. Logistics such as motorbikes, office equipment, and a vehicle were procured with grant funds by GAIP. With the support, GAIP was expected to scale up the uptake of its insurance products and hence increase sales to shore up income from its premium sales to sustain its operations. It has been two years running with poor performance and the organization?s inability to match its operational expenditure with income obtained is a mismatch and tilts towards inadequate income to support expenses.

It is therefore crucial that the operations of GAIP be assessed and the organization is assisted in diagnosing its challenges and causes of the operational deficiencies to be helped to come up with pragmatic strategies to enable GAIP to scale up its operations with the resultant effect of increasing sales and income to support its operations and to ensure sustainability.

The GOG is in the process of setting up GIRSAL, the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, which is being funded by the Bank of Ghana and has as one of its key components index-based agriculture insurance to bring down the risk of financial institutions operating within the GIRSAL system. GIRSAL is expected to be introduced in the second half of 2017, and as GAIP is the only entity in Ghana offering such a product, it is imperative that GAIP remains operational.

Specific Functions and Responsibilities

The Agricultural Insurance Specialist will complete the following tasks:

1. Review and analysis of GAIP?s operations, including those related to:
   • Underwriting risks assessment, and rating of the risk;
   • Loss assessment/adjustment, for the determination of the quantum of the claims to be paid; and
   • Publicity and awareness creation.
2. Review existing policy sales/marketing procedures of GAIP to determine deficiencies as well as recommend activities for better effectiveness.
3. Conduct deep analysis of the market and current products of GAIP.
   • This task may include a gap analysis to determine if current products offered by GAIP are relevant to meet the needs of the market, or if other products would need to be developed and offered.
4. Assess GAIP Board and Management capabilities.
5. Assess possible implementation for leverage on technologies, e.g., use of Mobile Money and communication platforms for scale up.
6. Develop a strategic/marketing plan to ensure scale up and sustainability of GAIP.

Deliverables

1. Recommendations for improvement in GAIP?s operations.
2. Strategic/marketing plan for 2017 through 2019.
3. Sustainability plan of GAIP, with or without GIRSAL support.
4. A final report on the STTA assignment.

All deliverables must be completed in English and presented in the final report.

Post of Duty

Accra, Ghana.

Period of Performance

Estimated period June/July 2017, up to 40 days, including travel days.

Requirements

Minimum qualifications:

• Advanced degree in relevant subject (MBA, Finance, Economics or related field of study)
• Minimum 7-10 years of experience related to the scope of work
• Demonstrated work experience in agricultural insurance
• Knowledge of best practices in agricultural insurance operations, products, and marketing in relevant markets.
• Experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa a plus
• English fluency both written and spoken