Program Officer – Gender

Job description

AGRA and its Work
AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million small-farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and link to profitable markets. In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:
1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers, allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.
5. Youth, Gender, and Inclusiveness – We enable women and youth to contribute to and benefit from agriculture for their economic empowerment.

Implementing Our New Strategy Through People
People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent, combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems’ transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive, and Increasingly Entrepreneurial, aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship, and Equity).

The Program
The RE-GAIN program – Scaling solutions for food loss in Africa, aims to address the impacts of climate change on harvest and post-harvest food losses in seven African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The program focuses on strengthening food security by supporting the innovative adaptation of the harvest and post-harvest value chain. It seeks to reduce food loss, improve food quality, enhance local capacity, and reduce climate risks through the wide-scale adoption of Food Loss-Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) among smallholder farmers. The program operates across three primary pathways: farmer-centric, supplier-centric, and institutional support
We are looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems by improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

The Position
Program Officer – Gender Job Reference: PO/ZA/04/2025

The Program Officer – Gender will support programs in Zambia, Malawi and one more country (as will be advised) ensuring sustainable, inclusive, and equitable program outcomes and that each component of the program carries key gender-responsive actions and not only ensures equal participation of women but also actively empowers women within the FL-RS value chain.

The ideal candidate will ensure the availability of business development opportunities that directly target women’s and youth groups and women/ youth-led enterprises, recognizing them as key actors in the market, and supporting these groups to establish robust, sustainable services in the FL-RS value chain. The role holder will ensure the provision of platforms that will promote gender and youth integration, hence leading to gender-sensitive outcomes. The role will focus on addressing gender disparities in post-harvest practices, promoting gender equality, and empowering women, youth, and marginalized groups in food production, storage, processing, and distribution systems. The Program Officer will be responsible for the implementation of gender-responsive strategies, advocating for women’s participation in decision-making, and ensuring the program’s activities are inclusive and equitable.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Oversee the delivery, monitoring, and evaluation of the Gender and Inclusion Action Plan, and ensure continued compliance with related processes, including the application of the grievance mechanism, safeguarding protocols, and ESMS.
Implement the gender and inclusion action plan to ensure that the RE-GAIN program is rolled out in a gender-responsive and socially inclusive manner.
Support and ensure improved and inclusive access to finance for women and youth for increased and more equitable participation in FL-RS.
Provide technical guidance at the country-level on how to integrate gender perspectives into activities related to post-harvest management, food security, and resilience building.
Support the preparation of proposals, reports, and presentations for donors, emphasizing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Champion and collaborate with stakeholders, including local communities, government agencies, and NGOs, to ensure that gender-sensitive and youth-inclusive approaches are integrated into all program activities.
Analyze data related to food loss and its impacts on women, youth, and marginalized groups to advocate for targeted interventions in countries of assignment.
Coordinate the provision of technical assistance to the ministries of gender, youth, and agriculture that are in line with creating an enabling environment for upcoming entrepreneurs in agrifood systems.
Monitor country gender-related and youth-focused programs, milestones, and deliverables, ensuring adherence to project schedules.
Collect, analyze, and interpret data related to the RE-GAIN program’s gender performance, impact, and outcomes at the country level.
Work closely with the M&E team to ensure that gender and youth-centric considerations are reflected in the Monitoring and Evaluation plan, frameworks, and reports to assess whether the gender and youth-centric objectives are being met.
Organize quarterly review sessions with the country team office to analyze what’s working or failing in gender/youth integration.
Provide real-time dashboards for key indicators disaggregated by gender and age.
Document evidence-based success stories and learnings using project beneficiaries and stakeholder insights for continuous learning.
Contribute to gender specific outcome harvesting to identify unintended outcomes and learn adaptively.
Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including governmental agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and other organizations involved in addressing the challenge of post-harvest food losses at the country level to increase the voice and collective capacity of men and women networks.
Work with local government and AGRA’s policy and advocacy teams to domesticate policies that address food loss and climate change impacts across the agri-food systems.
Support policy translation into actionable, context-specific implementation plans that are inclusive of women’s and youth associations, cooperatives, and agri-entrepreneurs.
Provide technical input for the establishment of an effective gender response monitoring system for the delivery of program results.
Develop metrics and tools that track gender norms, power shifts, changes in voice and agency, and access to and control over post-harvest resources.
Coordinate the collection of lessons learned on RE-GAIN to build on AGRA’s knowledge base for gender-related and youth-focused intervention on harvest and post-harvest food losses.
Design and lead the implementation of capacity-building activities targeting both internal and external stakeholders focused on gender-related issues in harvest and post-harvest management.
Support the capacity building of local actors and AGRA teams to interpret and act upon monitoring data, and to adapt program delivery to close gender and youth inclusion gaps over time.
Ensure data systems disaggregate by gender, age, disability, and geography, and integrate community-led feedback and real-time learning.
Organize briefings, meetings, visits, and events; and set action plans for follow-up to ensure effective communication and accountability on gender-related matters at all levels of the program implementation.
Ensure strict adherence to both internal and external reporting requirements to maintain transparency and compliance.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

Bachelors in Gender Studies, Development Studies, Agriculture, Social Sciences, or a related field.
Experience working on gender-related issues, particularly in agriculture, food systems, or resilience programs.
Experience in designing and implementing gender-sensitive strategies in international development projects.
In-depth understanding of gender analysis approaches, frameworks, and tools.
Proven ability to design, implement, and evaluate gender-sensitive interventions.
Familiarity with post-harvest food loss, food security, and resilience-building frameworks is desirable.
Experience in providing technical support in identifying opportunities for the development of relevant advocacy and communication and advocacy materials to address gender issues.
Strong project management skills with the ability to prioritize tasks, manage multiple stakeholders, and meet deadlines.
Experience working with vulnerable populations, particularly women and youth in rural areas.
Demonstrates knowledge in gender-related challenges in agriculture and food systems, with a focus on post-harvest losses and resilience.
Demonstrates capacity to engage in advocacy for gender-sensitive policies, ensuring that women’s needs and voices are included in policy discussions on food security, agriculture, and post-harvest management.
Familiarity with international frameworks and agreements on gender equality and food systems.
Ability to prepare project plans, budgets, timelines, and monitoring frameworks and adapt program strategies based on monitoring and evaluation data, particularly from a gender perspective.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number PO/ZA/04/2025 in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 26th April 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

For more information on AGRA, visit www.agra.org
AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer