Agribusiness Specialist

The USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub (SATIH) project, a five-year trade and investment program for Southern Africa in its third year of implementation, is expected to increase global competitiveness and intraregional trade and improve food security in Southern Africa. The USAID TradeHub engages with partners across the region to increase sustainable economic growth, global export competitiveness, and trade in targeted Southern African countries. It supports these objectives by increasing exports from Southern African countries to South Africa and the United States (under the African Growth and Opportunity Act [AGOA]), boosting capital and technology flows from South Africa to other Southern African countries, and providing targeted trade facilitation support to Zambia. The USAID TradeHub works with market actors to identify and resolve enterprise constraints and to implement sustainable solutions through market-based trade and investment facilitation services. The USAID TradeHub partners with USAID bilateral missions through the USAID/Southern Africa Regional Economic Growth Office in the successful delivery of its objectives.

The Agribusiness Specialist will be responsible for implementing strategies to increase the export competitiveness of Zambian firms in support of the objectives stated below. The position will be based in Lusaka, Zambia with significant travel throughout the Southern Africa region.

II. Purpose of Activity

The Agribusiness Specialist is responsible for contributing to the achievement of the following four main objectives of the USAID TradeHub:

1. Increased exports to South Africa from Zambia.
2. Increased investment (capital and technology) out of South Africa to Zambia.
3. Sustainable utilization of AGOA opportunities by Zambian firms to take advantage of the USA market.
4. Support Zambia’s private sector to take advantage of the new World Trade Organization reforms undertaken by Zambian government under the Zambia Trade Facilitation Agreement program.

III. Responsibilities and Tasks

The Agribusiness Specialist will:

• Oversees the implementation of activities to achieve set targets for each of his/her allocated country while backstopping the Senior Portfolio Manager on his/her allocated country.
• Works closely with the Senior Portfolio Manager and collaborates with Portfolio Managers as well as the Finance and Investment Advisor to ensure an integrated approach in producing deliverables as outlined in the Hub contract and work plan.
• Develops, reviews, implements and reports on the Hub trade and investment strategies for the country/countries he/she is responsible for.
• Provides input for conceptualization, development, planning, coordination and implementation of Hub activities in-country.
• Collaborates, consults with and advises stakeholders on identifying trade and investment opportunities, and develops objectives and strategies to increase trade and investment performance of a country/countries under his/her jurisdiction.
• Provides strategic recommendations to the DCOP on additional methods of identifying, assessing, and improving country-level and program-wide impact.
• Periodically evaluates the performance of country activities under the guidance of the Senior Portfolio Manager against the approved workplan and works with Portfolio Managers for continuous improvement
• Determines support packages for improvement, highlights the challenges and suggests solutions to the Senior Portfolio Manager and the M&E team.
• Shares with Portfolio Managers, as well as the Directors of MEL and Strategic Communications, country-level experiences, successes and challenges on implementing Hub activities.
• Oversees and executes technical assistance to improve the competitiveness of targeted products in the Hub-focus countries and facilitates strategic trade and investment partnerships with commercially viable value chain actors.
• Facilitates private sector engagement and investment among various levels of target value chains including but not limited to producer, processor, wholesaler and exporter levels.
• Manages relationships with key stakeholders, communicates effectively to ensure their and investment and trade needs accomplishments are widely known and understood.
• Ensures that Hub support is clearly highlighted, and feedback is properly channeled to the Hub Communications team.
• Determines export and investor-readiness status of firms in the different countries, facilitates and manages buyer-seller linkages and capital seeker-provider matching.
• Maintains an in-depth understanding of market conditions and country dynamics, trends and overall economic outlook by keeping up with relevant investment and trade updates and convenes meetings with in-country trade and investment actors for better insights.
• Organize and facilitate discussions with Zambia’s private sector on agribusiness investment-related policy issues involving representatives of the private and public sector, with a view to reach consensus on improved trade policies;
• Facilitate the identification of Zambia’s agribusiness firms ready to be linked to South Africa’s capital providers and ensure deal closure of most of the transactions
• Facilitate the organizational capacity strengthening of the collaboration between the Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSe) and the Zambia Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ZAMACE)
• Assist the private sector grain traders and all stakeholders with strengthening the operational capacity of the Zambia Grain Information System in order to promote transparency and effectiveness in Zambia’s grain trade.
• Facilitate the active participation of the agribusiness private sector in various market linkages platforms and events such as Webinars and Business to Business (B2B) events
• Assist with development of Scopes of Work (SOWs) for short term technical assistance (STTA), supervision of consultants under his/her jurisdiction to ensure effective execution and quality delivery of country-level initiatives as they relate to the USAID TradeHub’s four main objectives.
• Helps to identify suitable candidates for STTA assignments and ensures delivery of their assigned duties.
• Ensures compliance with project guidelines, client expectations and observation of protocol requirements.
• Performs any other duties assigned to him/her by the Senior Portfolio Manager, the DCOP or COP.

IV. Deliverables:

• Contribute to the development and manage implementation of the approved country implementation work plan for Zambia.
• Assist in drafting quarterly and annual reports.
• Provides reports relevant to activities requiring coordination and/or support by the USAID TradeHub Senior Portfolio Manager
• Provide inputs on reporting on performance targets and results for Zambia as outlined in the USAID TradeHub PMEP.
• Drafts and submits to the Senior Portfolio Manager weekly highlights on results, key events and upcoming travel and events as well as quarterly and annual reports, success stories, briefs, and any other communication needs requested by the project within the prescribed timeline.
• Develops and submits trip reports to the Senior Portfolio Manager within five working days after each trip.

V. QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in international trade, economics, business administration, or related area; master’s degree preferred.
• At least 7 years of relevant experience in trade promotion and agricultural market systems in Southern Africa.
• Demonstrated experience in export‐focused private sector development in the Southern Africa region
• Demonstrated experience providing strategic advice and technical assistance on trade and investment to private and public sector partners in liaising with Business Membership Organizations (TIPAs), Trade and Investment Promotion Agencies (TIPAs) and Trade Promotion Service Providers (TPSPs).
• Experience in marketing, exports, trade preferences or AGOA promotion in the region, preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with institutional and private sector partners and stakeholders in a multi-cultural setting.
• Ability to organize, present, and disseminate information, and to draft clear and concise documents with minimal supervision.

BASE OF OPERATIONS:

• Lusaka, Zambia

VI. Supervisory Responsibilities

The Agribusiness Specialist will have no supervisory responsibilities.

VII. Reporting

The Agribusiness Specialist reports directly to Zambia Senior Portfolio Manager.

Closing date: January 12, 2021. Send applications to [email protected]. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.