CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – USAID AFRICA TRADE AND INVESTMENT (ATI) ACTIVITY
Project Background
The USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) program is an innovative, five-year, flexible buy-in mechanism that covers the entire Africa continent and is jointly managed by the USAID Africa Bureau, Middle East Bureau, and Africa Regional Missions. It was designed to mobilize enterprise-driven solutions that increase trade and investment in Africa, including North and Sub-Saharan Africa. It strengthens Africa’s markets by developing new trade and investment relationships, particularly between the United States and African continent. It also works to achieve development outcomes across all sectors.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the impacts are already being felt on the African continent. USAID has redoubled its commitment to support Africa’s response. Food shortages and supply chain disruptions have caused unprecedented increases in food prices. This rampant inflation, coupled with climate-related shocks and the longer-term impacts of the global pandemic, is expected to have devastating effects on food security across the continent. In response to these pressing needs and in line with Prosper Africa goals to drive investment across the African continent, the USAID Africa Trade and Investment program is building rapidly deployed private sector-led partnerships and innovative trade and investment solutions to bolster African food resilience.
Specifically, USAID seeks to address the following overarching challenges and impacts caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine:
- Sharply higher food and fertilizer prices are putting significant pressure on households—especially the poorest.
- Higher fuel prices are placing fiscal constraints on importers and exporters of key commodities
- Slowed economic growth as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic is being further exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine.
In support of USAID’s objectives, ATI is developing processes and recruiting staff that will support its urgent efforts to identify and deploy innovative private-sector solutions that improve food security and resilience across the continent in the very short term as well as laying a foundation for addressing chronic and severe food insecurity going forward.
Below is a list of positions the project is currently recruiting for. Positions will be based on the African continent with a likelihood for all roles to be based in Nairobi, Kenya. Positions are open to those with valid work permits only. Positions will be for 1 year only. More details on the position description and requirements can be found at the application link.
Open Positions
Team Lead
- Position Summary: serves as ATI’s designated person providing leadership for the overall management of the fast-paced, high-profile ATI Food Security and Resilience work that will be activated with the Ukraine Supplemental funding that comes into the ATI buy-in mechanism.
- Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s preferred
- 15+ years of experience required
Activity Manager / Senior Activity Manager
- Position Summary: responsible for managing buy-in activities with significant labor and/or field presence, with support from technical advisors and the ATI team. Responsibilities also include providing technical and management support to buy-in activities, working with the technical and operational teams to identify and mobilize resources in support of implementation, and supporting USAID clients.
- Activity Manager: Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 10 years of relevant professional work experience, or a master’s and 8 years of relevant professional work experience
- Senior Activity Manager: Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 11 years of relevant professional work experience; or a master’s degree and 9 years of relevant professional work experience
Partner Manager
- Position Summary: The Partner Manager will support and contribute to the day-to-day management and administration of ATI food security procurement activities, ensuring compliance with USAID regulations and best practices.
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- 10 years of experience working in international business and subcontract management, with experience in complex USAID procurement and subcontract management preferred
Grants Manager
- Position Summary: support and contribute to the day-to-day administration of the ATI Food Security grants pool, ensuring compliance with USAID regulations and best practices.
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- 10+ years of experience required
Operations Manager
- Position Summary: responsible for supporting the operational and administrative management of the ATI project (particularly for Food Security) in the following areas: operations and administrative support to the project team and individual buy-in funded activities, procurement, and subcontracting, overall contractual, compliance and client management support, and recruitment
- Bachelor’s Degree required, MBA, CPA or equivalent is a plus
- 10+ years of operations management and/or finance experience
MEL Specialist
- Position Summary: support monitoring and evaluation for the project’s food insecurity program by drafting, monitoring, and reporting on the monitoring and evaluation plan and progress against each activity; in monitoring/facilitating sub-activities, ensures technical support to each activity area is effective and efficient
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- 9+ years of progressively responsible experience in monitoring evaluation, program management, or knowledge management
Activity Associate
- Position Summary: support the Activity Manager with managing the rapid roll out of activities focused on food security with support from technical advisors and the ATI team.
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- 7+ years of relevant experience
Short-term technical experts with ten years (10) or more years experience + minimum bachelor’s degree in the following technical fields:
- Food security using market-based systems
- Blended finance, with experience structuring and/or deploying blended finance solutions in the agricultural sector Agriculture and agribusiness (including out grower schemes)
- Fertilizers development systems
- Seeds and seed supply systems development
- Market systems development involving agribusinesses and smallholder farmers
- Food Processing and manufacturing systems
- Trade Finance
Additional positions may be added, candidates are encouraged to check back if there is not a position that suits their expertise.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:
Select the position in which you are interested in applying for, fill out the required information, and upload CV. Please indicate what location you are applying for. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as interviews will be conducted soon. Please note, due to the volume of applications that we receive and the urgency to fill-up positions, only shortlisted applicants will receive notification on next steps.
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