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Job Title:    Horticulture Value Chain Manager

Organisation: TechnoServe

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

 

About US:

TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. We are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

 

About Program Description:

Through the four-year Hortimap program funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Technoserve and partners BID Network and Impact Capital Africa will transform the horticulture industry in Uganda. The program combines catalytic funding through a Market Development Facility and Technical Assistance fund to leverage private sector and local resources and expertise to strengthen SMEs and local supply chains, while delivering world-class entrepreneurship training to farmers and retailers to realize their potential. These interventions are expected to increase incomes for more than 31,000 horticulture farmers, create 11,000 jobs, and improve access to healthy, safe food for 250,000 Ugandan consumers.

 

Job Summary:  The Horticulture Value Chain Manager will coordinate direct provision of training as well as supporting high quality training delivery by suppliers to entrepreneurial farmers, MSMEs and retailers in the Horticulture value chain. This will include agronomic training as well as and with a particular focus on farming as a business and SME business management, utilizing TechnoServe’s proven tools and methodologies. In addition to improving the business performance of micro retailers (market vendors), the HCVM will also develop communications and marketing strategies to educate consumers on nutrition and food safety.

 

Key Duties and Responsibilities:  

Principal Responsibilities:

Entrepreneurial farmer interventions:

·        Promote and support use of digital extension / information delivery platforms

·        Focus support on adjusting planting and marketing according to new market and price dynamics, limit investment and costs of production

·        Deliver gender-sensitive supply side training and TA to improve farmer skills on climate-smart GAP, the application of productivity-enhancing/loss-reducing technologies, with a focus on improving the productivity of farmers within MDF client distribution and supply chains, as well as farmers that have the potential to participate in supply chains.

·        In addition to agronomy, training for farmers will include modules on calculating acreage, sales and marketing, farm profitability, record keeping, gender-sensitive joint household decision-making, budgeting, and access to finance. Training will reflect barriers faced and social responsibilities held by women and youth

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Interventions:

·        Deliver gender-sensitive entrepreneurship training and advisory support to micro-service providers with a particular focus on the recruitment and retention of women and youth.

·        For micro-entrepreneur service providers (such as sprayers, nursery enterprises, agro-dealers), typical trainings include modules on personal effectiveness, basic finance and accounting, identification and evaluation of growth opportunities, costing, sales techniques and basic marketing, building an affordable growth path, available support networks and funding sources, and drafting sustainable growth plans

·        Link EFs, micro-entrepreneurs, POs, and SMEs to appropriate financial tools through internal facilities (MDF catalytic grants, HCL) as well as external sources, to access working capital and loans to finance assets or make other important investments.

·        Advise farmers and POs, with particular attention to women and youth, on how to access and leverage the HCL

Micro retailers interventions:

·        Deliver gender-sensitive entrepreneurship training to micro-retailer market vendors including upgrading sales space, improving product presentation, displaying improved branding, and communicating health benefits of safe fruit and vegetables to consumers. Proactively recruit women and youth

·        Facilitate linkages, through HortiMAP Business Advisors, between micro-retailer market vendors and reliable suppliers of safe and good quality produce

·        Test the business case for retailer-led food safety campaigns.

·        1,080 Micro-retailers (market vendors) receive training on entrepreneurship, food safety, and customer education

·        1 Business case for retailer-led food safety campaign tested and piloted

Program Coordination and Implementation:

·        Build and maintain strong working relationships with partners and relevant stakeholders in the horticulture value chain

·        Actively participate in regular team meetings to track implementation progress and share relevant program and administrative data

·        Ensure the delivery of technical training packages is of high quality, is appropriate to the local context and is effectively reaching participants

·        Share best practices and lessons learned with team members

 

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

·        The ideal candidate must hold Degree qualifications in business-related studies required

·        Track record of building strong client and stakeholder relationships

·        Strong project management and some financial analysis skills

·        Minimum of five years of field and technical experience with agribusiness development, agribusiness experience in Uganda is required

·        Experience working with food aggregation and processing, supply chain development, out-grower networks, and knowledge of Market Systems Development approach preferred

·        Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills a must

·        Ability to develop well-written, cohesive analyses and reports

·        Ability to generate innovative solutions in work situations

·        Proven ability and experience working with teams will be an added advantage

·        Fluency in English required

 

Success Factors: Competency is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) directly related to successful performance on the job.

·        Core Competencies include:

·        Integrity and honesty: Is widely trusted; seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; does not misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.

·        Team Work/ Relationships: Works co-operatively and flexibly with other members of the team with a full understanding of the role to be played as a team member and/or leader, to achieve a common goal.  Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and networks.

·        Learning attitude: Proactively takes advantage of opportunities to learn. Actively identifies new areas for learning; applies and shares new knowledge and skill appropriately.

·        Diversity/Inclusiveness: Demonstrates an understanding and appreciation for diversity and supports diversity efforts. Interacts effectively with and inclusively with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, ages, and genders.

·        Communication: Expresses ideas effectively in individual and group situations. Listens effectively; shares information, ideas and arguments; adjusts terminology, language and communication modes to the needs of the audience; ensures accurate understanding; acts in a way that facilitates open exchange of ideas and information; uses appropriate non-verbal communication.

·        Decision making/Problem Solving: Is able to analyse situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution.  Is able to make effective decisions on a day-to-day basis, taking ownership of decisions, demonstrating sound judgement in escalating issues where necessary.

·        Results Oriented/ High Quality Deliverables: Stays focused on the efforts necessary to achieve quality results consistent with programmatic or departmental goals. Demonstrates the ability to achieve effective results; works persistently to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how small; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks.

·        Planning & Time Management: Establishes a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal. Effectively plans, schedules, prioritizes and controls activities; identifies, integrates and orchestrates resources (people, material, information, budget, and/or time) to accomplish goals. Prioritizes work according to the program or department’s goals, not just own job responsibilities; manages own time effectively.

·        Business Acumen: The ability to use information, ask the right questions and take decisions that make an impact on the overall business performance.

Job Specific/Technical Competencies include:

·        Financial & Resource Management: The ability to estimate, justify, and manage appropriate funding levels to support goal accomplishment. Managing Resources is about understanding human, financial, and operational resource issues to make decisions aimed at building and planning efficient project workflows, and at improving overall organizational performance.

·        Donor/Partnership Management: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, or organizations to help achieve business goals.

·        Analysis, Research, Report Writing: Experience in business planning and analysis, modeling for feasibility and execution. Able to analyze and express oneself clearly in business writing.

·        Innovative Mindset: Curious inquiries, asks questions and seeks out information from multiple sources, learns from mistakes, sees change as an opportunity.

Managerial Competencies:

·        Emotional Intelligence: The act of knowing, understanding, and responding to emotions, overcoming stress in the moment, and being aware of how your words and actions affect others. Emotional intelligence consists of 4 attributes: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

·        Strategic Thinking: Managers should recognize key actions, underlying problems, make connection and patterns, see consequences and implications. Anticipates obstacles realistically and plans ways to deal with them.

·        Staff Development: managers are required to work with employees to plan on the development of skills and abilities so that they can fulfil current or future job/role responsibilities more effectively.

·        Trust to Delegate: managers should have trust and willingness to assign responsibilities to direct reports and give them discretion and authority to carry them out.

·        Feedback/Coaching (mentoring): managers should give instructions, suggestions, explanations, and feedback to subordinates. (SPI+R)

 

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates should apply online at the link below.

 

Click Here

 

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