Opportunities

Aflasafe AgResults Pilot Manager (Ref: DDG-PCD/APM/02/13)

Background: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) invites applications for the position of Aflasafe AgResults Pilot Manager

IITA is an international non-profit research-for-development (R4D) organization created in 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Our R4D is anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty by reducing producer and consumer risks, enhancing crop quality and productivity, and generating wealth from agriculture. We have nearly 150 internationally recruited staff from about 35 countries and 900 nationally recruited staff based in various stations across Africa. Please visit http://www.iita.org/ for more information on IITA.

Aflatoxin is a poison produced in crops by a fungus that harm health of humans/animals and reduce farmers’ income. IITA and partners have developed an innovative biological control product aflasafe™ (www.aflasafe.com) that reduces aflatoxin contamination in maize and groundnut by more than 80%. While aflasafe™ is effective in mitigating aflatoxin contamination, a range of barriers holds back the adoption of this promising solution. The G20 countries announced the AgResults initiative that involves donors allocating relatively small amounts of public sector money to leverage adoption of technologies for minimizing food security challenges that would otherwise go unaddressed due to market uncertainties. Aflasafe™ was chosen by the World Bank as one of the first three pilot projects in Africa. The goal of the aflasafe™ pilot is to implement the AgResults initiative (pull mechanism model) for significantly reducing aflatoxin contamination in Nigeria. The initiative would catalyze the private sector to adopt aflasafe™ and thereby enable the delivery of significant health and economic benefits to smallholder farmers. It features payments for performance that incentivize implementers to help smallholder farmers to attain crop productivity as well as produce maize treated with the biocontrol product, aflasafe™.

Position/Responsibilities:
The pilot manager will be responsible for general management and implementation of the pilot. As such the pilot manager will perform essential functions such as marketing and promotion of the pilot; coordination with technical teams, implementing participant liaison and management; disbursement of incentive payments; reporting, and others.

The pilot manager will be expected to develop a detailed implementation plan and produce quarterly pilot updates against this plan. The pilot manager will also contribute to the semi-annual pilot evaluation report (in coordination with the pilot supervisor) and produce requests for disbursement reports for the Secretariat when participants have met payment criteria. Other activities that do not include defined outputs include, among others, establishing the pilot, seeking out new qualified participants, and managing participant engagement in the pilot.

This entity will report to the Secretariat and pilot supervisor, both located at the World Bank, on progress and outcomes of the pilot, and make financial disbursement requests to the Secretariat as participants achieve award criteria. Local supervision will be provided by IITA Deputy Director General (Partnerships and Capacity Development).

Responsibilities include:

1. Conduct marketing and promotion of pilot.
2. Liaise with participants and conduct participant selection and eligibility processes, where required.
3. Provide assistance to participating organizations and facilitate market linkages, where required.
4. Facilitate disbursement of incentive payments to participants meeting required outcomes criteria.
5. Report on pilot operations and budget.

Educational Qualifications
The candidate must have an advanced degree in agriculture, project management, business administration, development or related field.

Core Competencies (capabilities and characteristics):

• Strong domain-specific agriculture expertise – e.g., smallholder maize production, commodity value chains, aflatoxin contamination and efforts to control aflatoxin
• Familiarity and, preferably, experience in innovative financing for development
• Experience with stakeholder engagement (including private sector) and participant management
• Supervision of dedicated staffing, as required by timing of pilot needs
• In-country networks with links to government, regulatory sector, market sector, agribusiness, civil society organizations, to maximize participation in and publicity of the pilot
• Proven organizational, planning and budget management experience.
• Ability to work as a member of a multi-disciplinary team in a cross-cultural environment
• Excellent leadership, management, interpersonal, and team building skills

Time frame of services: The pilot manager will be expected to serve for the duration of the operational phase of the pilot, 4 years, plus a preparatory phase to conduct pilot establishment activities as needed.

Duty Station: IITA, Abuja, Nigeria.

General Information: Initial appointment is for three years subject to donor’s approval. IITA offers a competitive remuneration package paid in US dollars.

Applications: Applications including covering letter, curriculum vitae, names and addresses of three referees should be addressed to the Human Resources Manager. Please complete our online application form using this link: http://www.iita.org/irs-online-application

Closing Date: 25th February 2013

IITA is an equal opportunity employer and particularly welcomes applications from women candidates.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.