Lead – Agriculture Value Addition, Market Linkages and Business Development

Job description

This position is contingent on donor funding.

About Agova
Agova is a women-owned, women-led, impact-driven consulting firm born and based out of Zambia and serving clients across Southern Africa. Agova supports MSMEs to thrive in a way that has a positive social and environmental impact, specifically businesses in the climate-resilient agriculture and green economy sectors. Agova works with public and private sector players to incubate and grow MSMEs and develop gold-standard insights on ‘what works’ to propel the MSME sector to thrive and innovate. To date, Agova has supported 8,300 MSMEs and over 300,000+ farmers across Southern Africa with business growth services.

The Program 
As part of its strategy in Zambia, the Embassy of Sweden is exploring Programme ideas that can contribute to achieving the strategy result: “Increased productivity and competitiveness of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the agricultural sector,”. This initiative aims to boost enterprise development and employment creation for the rural poor including, women, and youth. The anticipated five-year Market System Development (MSD) programme, includes a 12-month inception phase. The inception phase shall include a comprehensive sub-sector selection analysis, in-depth Market System Analysis (MSA), thorough environmental analysis and gender analysis.

The Position
The Lead – Agriculture Value Addition, Market Linkages, and Business Development will provide strategic leadership for interventions that enhance value addition, market access, and business development services (BDS) for MSMEs. This role will drive inclusive agricultural market systems, ensuring that women, youth, and underserved entrepreneurs can participate and thrive. The ideal candidate has a strong background in agribusiness, market systems development, value chain analysis, and business growth strategies, with experience managing high-impact, donor-funded programs.

Key Responsibilities
TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY

Lead the design and implementation of market-driven interventions that strengthen agricultural value chains, enhance MSME competitiveness, and drive systemic change.
Develop and oversee inclusive market linkage strategies, ensuring equitable participation of women, youth, and marginalized groups.
Identify opportunities for scalable, commercially viable solutions that support MSMEs and enhance their access to domestic, regional, and international markets.

VALUE ADDITION & CLIMATE-RESILIENT PROCESSING

Design and oversee interventions to promote the adoption of post-harvest handling and processing technologies to improve product quality, reduce losses, and increase MSME profitability.
Design and oversee interventions to support MSMEs in product development, packaging, and compliance with market quality and safety standards.
Integrate climate-smart practices in value addition and processing interventions, ensuring MSMEs adapt to climate risks while enhancing productivity.

MARKET LINKAGES & INCLUSIVE TRADE FACILITATION

Strengthen commercial relationships between MSMEs and buyers, processors, and industry players.
Design and implement market access strategies, including digital tools, trade platforms, and direct buyer-seller linkages.
Oversee the negotiation and structuring of offtake agreements, buyer contracts, and fair trade initiatives.
Develop gender-inclusive and youth-focused market linkage models, addressing barriers to their participation.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (BDS) & MSME GROWTH

Develop and oversee BDS strategies that enhance MSME capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability.
Build linkages between MSMEs and BDS providers, industry experts, and market facilitators to strengthen the BDS ecosystem.
Design innovative, market-based BDS delivery models, including embedded services, fee-based models, and public-private partnership approaches.
Design and oversee interventions to support MSMEs in business strategy, operations, financial planning, and market expansion to ensure long-term growth.
Drive the adoption of technology-enabled BDS solutions, increasing accessibility and scalability for MSMEs.

TEAM MANAGEMENT & CAPACITY BUILDING

Lead a team of officers and specialists working on agricultural value chains, market linkages, and business development.
Support the professional development of team members, providing mentorship and coaching.
Foster a collaborative and learning-focused culture, ensuring team alignment with program goals.
Provide technical support on market systems development and encourage innovative

Qualifications & Experience

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Agribusiness, Economics, Business Administration, Market Systems Development, Supply Chain Management, or a related field.
Minimum of 7+ years of experience in market linkages, business development services (BDS), value chain development, and MSME support.
Proven expertise in designing and implementing market-driven interventions that enhance MSME competitiveness, business growth, and access to buyers, suppliers, and financial services.
Strong experience in market systems development, including trade facilitation, buyer-seller matchmaking, off-take agreements, and commercial partnerships.
Demonstrated ability to build and strengthen BDS ecosystems, including linkages with service providers, innovative BDS models (embedded, fee-based, or public-private), and capacity-building initiatives for MSMEs.
Knowledge of value addition, post-harvest processing, quality standards, and compliance for domestic and export markets.
Experience working with private sector players, industry associations, and donor-funded programs to foster sustainable MSME growth.
Strong networking and partnership development skills, with the ability to engage agribusinesses, financial institutions, investors, and policymakers.
Excellent analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving abilities, with a track record of developing scalable, commercially viable solutions for MSMEs.
Strong communication and facilitation skills, including the ability to present complex information to diverse audiences and lead high-level stakeholder engagements.
Familiarity with Zambian and regional market dynamics, trade policies, and MSME financing opportunities.