AGRA Senior Policy Advocacy Fellows

Senior Policy Advocacy Fellows
 

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2006 to work with African governments, farmers, donors, NGOs and the private sector to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa through agricultural development targeted at resource poor farmers. AGRA has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and an office in Accra, Ghana.
 

AGRA’s Policy and Partnerships Program aims to increase the capacity of African governments and institutions to develop evidence-based agricultural policies that will drive accelerated and sustained adoption of agricultural technologies by smallholder farmers, raise household incomes and assure household and national food security in four (4) priority countries: Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, and Tanzania. 

The Policy program focuses on five core priority policy areas: Seed sector policies and regulations to speed up adoption of crop varieties; Soil health policies to improve soil and crop productivity; Staple crop market and trade policies to stimulate expansion and efficiency; Land and property rights policies to stimulate equitable agricultural growth for the poor; and environmental and climate change resilience policies.

To achieve its objectives, AGRA is enhancing local capacity for policy analysis and advocacy in each of the priority countries through “policy action nodes”. 

A policy action node is a group of existing or new policy research institutions and other stakeholders that have the technical expertise and are willing to work together to address policy, institutional and regulatory bottlenecks along an agricultural value chain. 

A loose network of Policy Action Nodes constitutes a Policy Hub. 

AGRA is also implementing the AGRA Policy Advocacy Fellowships Program (APAFP) with a broad objective to generate evidence for policy advocacy by the policy action nodes.
 

The AGRA Policy Program intends to recruit two (2) Senior Policy Fellows for the Ghana and Tanzania Policy Hubs with the lead responsibility of advocating and promoting more effective policies in agricultural and rural development. 

Expected to be drawn from a pool of well trained and highly experienced individuals, the Senior Policy Fellows would be provided with the financial support needed to conduct policy analysis and advocacy to support the Policy Action Nodes’ agenda in Ghana and Tanzania. 

Detailed responsibilities are listed in the Terms of Reference on AGRA’s website.

Qualifications

• Candidates should have an advanced university degree in agricultural economics, economics, development studies, public policy, management or other relevant subject with at least fifteen (15) years of experience.
• Senior policy makers with sound understanding of the political economy that shapes agricultural policies who can help translate evidence-based policies into action through their high-level connections with policy makers are also considered. Recently retired Policy Makers are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Extensive experience and familiarity with the seeds, soil, market, land and property rights, and environment and climate change policies.
• Proven intellectual, managerial and technical leadership of a high order in the relevant subject areas
• Extensive experience in the handling of agricultural policies.
• Ability to lead and work effectively with people of different backgrounds in a domestic or international environment.

Competences: 

• Candidates should be conversant with current development debates and policies and should have experience of primary research in developing countries, working both independently and in close collaboration with development actors and institutions in those countries. 
• Experience of coordinating research projects and managing collaborative teams is also essential.

Duration and Location: The Senior Policy Fellowship will be held for up to two (2) years in duration and will be located at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) in Accra for Ghana, and at the Research on Poverty Alleviation for Tanzania.
 

Application procedure and deadline: 

Applicants are invited to send a cover letter illustrating their suitability for the above position against the listed qualifications, competencies, skills together with a detailed curriculum vitae, including names and addresses of three referees knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience. 

All correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Augustine Langyintuo (ALangyintuo@agra.org) with copy to Dr. Konan N’dri (KNdri@agra.org).

Salary: A competitive salary including benefits commensurate with experience is offered. 

This is a consultancy position and is tenable for a maximum of three years.
 

Closing date: October 20, 2012
 

See details at: www.agra-alliance.org
 

AGRA reserves the right at any time in the process to terminate this request without entering into a contract and to accept or reject any or all applications and is not bound to give reasons for its decision. 

Canvassing in any form will lead to automatic disqualification.