Tony Blair Institute for Global Change Vacancies 2021

TBI’s work in agriculture in Africa focuses on supporting governments to improve coordination and delivery around the implementation of a whole of sector approach that seeks to deliver agriculture transformation at a national level.

Job Description

Job Title: Programme Manager, TBI-AGRA Partnership

TBI’s value add is three-fold:

• being present in numerous parts of government and anchored in the Presidency, we can enhance inter-ministerial coordination
• by bringing adaptive, flexible and responsive management and delivery skills to progressive and visionary leaders, TBI can improve the implementation capacity of the key ministries and agencies, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the investment promotion agency
• our model of support is best placed to enable visionary leaders in government and their technical teams to drive a coherent and holistic approach for agriculture transformation that can coordinate various development partners and actors

TBI entered into a partnership with the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in 2020 to strengthen government capacity for agriculture transformation. In its first phase, this partnership involved the placement of four embedded advisors in Ministries of Agriculture, Investment Promotion Agencies and Ministries of Trade in Ghana, Nigeria and Mozambique. The advisors work as part of TBI’s country teams in each of those countries. In addition, the partnership also involves TBI’s support to AGRA on thought leadership and investment.

This role serves as the custodian of this programme and this partnership. The responsibilities of the role are to:

• ensure the successful implementation of the partnership agreement
• manage a suitable monitoring, evaluation and learning system for the partnership
• ensure a strong working relationship and feedback mechanism with AGRA on a regular basis, as well as with key funding partners, such as USAID; and
• ensure the extension and expansion of the partnership to increase impact and the benefit of joint working between TBI and AGRA

The role maintains a close working relationship with relevant Regional Directors, Country Heads and the our External Relations team. The advisors recruited under this partnership report to the Country Heads in country: the Programme Manager ensures the deliverables under the implementation plan are delivered. The Programme Manager also works closely with the central TBI advisory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team sitting in London to ensure the partnership MEL plan as per the partnership agreement is fully implemented in a timely manner.

Key Responsibilities

Grant Management (~40%)

• Provide strategic and technical support to advisors under the programme, as well as to country heads, ensuring the implementation of the workplan
• Provide support on fixing bottlenecks and serve as the main communication channel between advisors and AGRA Headquarters
• Based on regular inputs from country teams, prepare and manage a comprehensive overview of partnership implementation and impact including quarterly reports, annual reports, weekly check-in calls, etc
• MEL: work with advisors to monitor and analyse data, discuss findings in regular meetings, and collate into regular reporting
• Participate in quarterly reflection and learning sessions of each country team to incorporate learnings from monitoring data into programme adaptation and theory of change
• Manage the programme budget and operations, working with AGRA grants team as well as with TBI support functions
• Ensure compliance with AGRA frameworks and regulations including but not limited to invoices, expenses, flights, contracts and timesheet management
• Ensure programmatic coherence at all levels

Relationship management and fundraising (~35%)

• Design and successfully roll out TBI’s strategy with AGRA and key partners (eg. USAID Bureau of Resilience and Food Security) in the next two years
• Ensure regular reporting to AGRA, including quarterly and annual project implementation reports, and ad-hoc reporting requests
• Work with AGRA and TBI’s fundraising team to mobilise resources for the partnership, furthering discussions on extension and expansion of the grant
• Produce funding proposals with TBI’s fundraising team and AGRA, as well as additional documents as required by partners
• Use the thought leadership products to further conversations with partners and position AGRA and TBI as trusted actors in this space
• Provide advisory support to AGRA’s Policy and State Capability Department, supporting AGRA in its new strategy
• Ensure a healthy working relationship and provision of results to key partners, particularly USAID
• Manage the wider relationship with AGRA, including with the partnerships team, the President, Vice Presidents, and other relevant stakeholders, to ensure extension, expansion and deepening of the partnership
• Support TBI country teams to liaise with AGRA country teams

Thought leadership (~25%)

• Develop joint products with AGRA that showcase our complementary approach to supporting governments in delivering agricultural transformation
• Deploy these products through an active communication strategy aimed at different audiences within AGRA, with partners and with the wider international community
• Present lessons learnt and success stories to internal and external audiences, in close collaboration with AGRA, through various communication modalities
• Support country teams to participate in AGRF Dealroom and to mobilise private investments into government priorities, liaising with the wider TBI agriculture and investment teams
• Participate in and help organize key learning and networking fora, such as Africa Green Revolution Forum and events with AGRA and its key funders
• Maintain active dialogue with international donor partners, think tanks and stakeholders in the agriculture and inclusive economic growth space

Person Specification

The successful candidate will be a pro-active and dynamic Programme Manager who thrives in an environment where the importance of personal initiative coupled with teamwork and driving impact is critical. Above all they will be strong at coordination, communication, problem solving, creating effective relationships, win trust, and help shape and influence change.

• Minimum of 8 years’ of experience in an international fast paced environment:
• Including at least 3 years’ of programme implementation experience
• Experience working with an agriculture or market systems development partner-funded program
• Strong understanding of market systems and the role of government in markets
• Experience in MEL and adaptive monitoring approaches (e.g. outcome harvesting) would be an asset
• Experience in institutional capacity development, private sector development, communications, economics, value chain analysis, consultancy, investment promotion is desirable
• Exceptional listening, oral and written communication skills with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail needed. Experience of identifying and resolving project implementation bottlenecks
• Excellent strategic relationship skills
• Ability to work under pressure and to lead and coordinate across various people based in different countries:
• Ability to manage shifting priorities with flexibility and accuracy
• Ability to build and manage effective relationships with other organisations and key stakeholders on behalf of TBI
• Hands on approach to work, with the ability to deliver on deadlines in a fast-paced and fast-changing environment, with minimal or no supervision
• Ability to use own initiative and actively look for opportunities to have an impact rather than simply be reactive
• Language skills in Portuguese would be an advantage
• Excellent administrative and organization skills, commitment, attention to detail and strong forward planning skills
• High degree of professionalism to handle sensitive and confidential information and absolute discretion and adherence to confidentiality
• Strong MS Office skills and ability to produce documents to a good presentational level e.g. reports
• An understanding of the needs of senior officials both while office based and travelling
• Willingness to travel, sometimes at short notice
• Experience working in Africa is preferred
• Strong sense of ethics, discretion and perseverance required

Above all, we are looking for individuals with high levels of enthusiasm, resilience, a can-do attitude and ability to consistently achieve results in a fast-paced environment