Summary
Date Posted: Friday, October 01, 2021 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Background
DAI works at the cutting edge of international development, combining technical excellence, professional project management, and exceptional customer service to solve our clients' most complex problems. Since 1970, DAI has worked in 150 developing and transition countries, providing comprehensive development solutions in areas including crisis mitigation and stability operations, democratic governance and public sector management, agriculture and agribusiness, private sector development and financial services, economics and trade, HIV/AIDS, avian influenza control, water and natural resources management, and energy and climate change. Clients include international development agencies, international lending institutions, private corporations and philanthropies, and host-country governments.

Background:
DAI seeks an Environmental Specialist, Grants and Procurement Office and Market Systems Advisor for a five-year, $24 million dollar USAID-funded agriculture program. The Feed the Future Inclusive Agricultural Market Activity (FtF JAM) is a five-year program implemented by DAI Global Inc. The Activity seeks to increase incomes and improve the livelihood of households through agricultureled inclusive economic growth in 38 focused zones of influence (Zol) districts in Uganda. Inclusivity refers to the active participation and engagement of all actors looking to participate in the market system including the poor, women, youth, ethnic minorities, or other marginalized groups who are often excluded, or even exploited by the traditional market systems. FtF IAM works through market actors to build capacity and enable them to respond to opportunities within the agricultural sector. The approach empowers local actors, especially the private sector, government and producer groups, among others, to align incentives for improved market performance. FtF IAM places women, youth and other marginalized groups at the core of its strategies and focuses on creating efficiencies in cross-market functions that influence systemic changes in order to have sustainable impact on the agricultural sector and the country.

Job title: Market Systems Advisor

Role's Purpose:
The Market Systems Advisor will be responsible for ensuring FIF IAM is consistently applying a facilitative market systems development (MSD) approach to achieve the Activity's overall objectives. FtF IAM's causal model seeks to increase the competitiveness, inclusivity, and resilience of Uganda's market systems by building capacity of local market actors and offering incentives that de-risk investments and encourage behavior change. Gender equity, youth and social inclusion (GEYSI) is an integral part of this approach and the advisor will support FIF IAM to advance and scale inclusive business models. The advisor will also support FIF IAM to advance its interventions and learning around market systems resilience (MSR), an increasingly important framework that complements MSD.
The Market Systems Advisor will provide technical leadership and capacity building to the FIF IAM team and its partners to ensure the FIF IAM has the capability to facilitate improvements and changes in the market system. The advisor will be responsible for staying abreast of learnings, research and market trends to bring best practices to FtFIAM. They will collaborate with the technical team to apply learning and technical approaches to the design of intervention and partnerships strategies and support how learning enables FIF IAM to adapt and scale.

Objectives and Duties:
The Market Systems Advisor is responsible for the following:
Provides strategic and technical market systems development leadership for the Activity, providing expertise and guidance in all results areas in planning, design and field implementation of intervention areas, including inclusive business models and MSR.
Supports the Chief of Party, DCOP and senior field technical staff in developing, reviewing and adapting FIF IAM vision and intervention plans to ensure its partnerships lead to transformational changes in the agricultural market systems. Leads and/or conducts periodic updates to market systems analyses where needed, evaluates the business case and potential of business models and technologies improve impact.
Collaborates with technical team and learning advisor to lead initiatives that advance thought leadership priority topics, such as MSR; supports staff and partners to understand MSR and apply the concept to intervention planning, monitoring and learning.
Provides mentorship and guidance to the project's Partnership Intervention Managers (PIMs) in the implementation of market facilitation activities in line with the intervention plans; develops partnership strategies in collaboration with the DCOP, supports PIMs to identify and engage private and public sector partners; supports the application of creative tools for disbursing donor funds to private sector actors, negotiating partnerships, monitoring agreements, and making changes where necessary.
Defines and coordinates research to capture lessons learned and best practices from projects and ensures their documentation and dissemination to inform Activity intervention design, implementation, and industry best practices.
Supports writing of case stories, articles, and thought pieces; provides review and substantive editing to interim and technical reports.
Identifies, builds, and manages collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.
Works with the MEL Advisor identify what data can be collected to inform and drive learning (ex. evaluating the business case for specific intervention that have the potential to scale, evaluating changes in MSR, evaluating consumer satisfaction, etc.) in support of Ft IAM adapting and scaling its interventions.

Reporting:
The Market Systems Advisor reports to the Chief of Party.

Qualifications:
• Relevant degree: Master's degree in agricultural economics, business, or related studies with specialized study in market systems development or relevant field OR a Bachelor's degree in a related field with 10 years of experience in economic development or similar programming. (Note: Education requirements are a preference and are highly desired.)
• At least five years (10 years for holders of a Bachelor's degree) of experience in economic development competitiveness program design and implementation involving projects/programs of similar size and complexity using a market systems facilitation approach.
• Five years of expert-level experience in analyzing agricultural market systems (identifying opportunities and challenges) and designing and implementing strategies/ interventions that apply globally recognized approaches and tools, including partnering with the private sector, to facilitate inclusive and sustainable market systems improvements. Familiarity and/or experience with Market Systems Resilience an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in creating and maintaining effective working relationships that foster collaborative learning.
• At least five years of experience working in related fields in Africa, preferably in East Africa.

Education Requirement: No Requirements

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

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Job application procedure
To apply go to: https://fs23.formsite.com/OLJTgx/zkofgyhsko/index.html and attach your CV and letter of interest no later than October 14, 2021. Only short-listed candidates will be notified.

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