Advertiser's description (via One Acre Fund):
About One Acre Fund
Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies over 1.5 million smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms more productive and resilient. Our 8,000+ team is drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. With operations across ten African countries, we make farmers more prosperous by providing easy access to quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, and agricultural training to improve harvests. On average, the farmers we serve earn 40 percent more profits from their land when they enroll with One Acre Fund.
Our Uganda program, founded in 2016, serves approximately 27,000 farmers. We offer bespoke training to coffee farmers to help them improve their yields, and distribute a range of different tree species through local nurseries situated close to farmers. Our team in Uganda is headquartered in Jinja, close to the districts we serve, and supported by a small presence in Kampala. To learn more about our work, look at our Uganda program blog
About the Role
One Acre Fund has an organizational priority to more effectively serve young farmers, by layering new youth-focused interventions on existing program channels. We seek a Youth Engagement Lead to help coordinate this work across our countries of operation, integrating youth learning and programming into One Acre Fund’s program design. This is a new role, and an exciting opportunity for a motivated expert with both technical and on-the-ground experience to co-design our youth strategy with leadership by providing data- and experience-driven guidance on new youth-focused products and services.
You will report to the Gender Partnerships Lead and collaborate with senior leadership across the Global Impact, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Business Development teams to develop a long-term youth engagement strategy, and to embed a youth focus into One Acre Fund’s programmatic decisions. You are expected to collaborate across multiple departments both at the global and in-country levels to advise on the implementation of evidence-based programming targeted at young farmers.
Responsibilities
Research, Compile and Enrich One Acre Fund's Youth Learnings
- You will work with the Monitoring & Evaluation and HCD teams to gather learnings on the demographics, socio-economic status, farming systems, and daily lives of young smallholder farmers - through surveys, focus groups, and formative research.
- You will generate and compile insights into young farmer priorities, barriers, needs, pain points and aspirations.
Inform One Acre Fund’s Youth Strategy and Programming
- Based on research and learnings, you will help to inform and scope new products and services to pilot, which are attractive and impactful for young farmers.
- You will support on evaluation of pilots, with a focus on impact, cost-effectiveness and scalability.
- You will facilitate conversations between in-country and global leads on how to best apply research and trial learnings.
- Over time, you will propose and co-design clear and practical recommendation for scale-up of initiatives aimed at addressing the barriers and opportunities faced by young farmers.
Building these learnings and developing youth-focused programming will take time. This is an ongoing, iterative process as we learn, pilot, and - eventually - begin to scale proven innovations. Your role is to help steward the evolution of - and ongoing improvements to - our youth strategy over the long-term.
Career Growth and Development
We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Qualifications
Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:
- Minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in the social sciences or any related field
- Minimum of 5 years of experience working on design and implementation of youth-focused programming or system changes, in the context of smallholder agriculture.
- Preference will be given to candidates with:
- Experience using data to support decision-making with senior leadership and implementing teams.
- Experience developing communications, marketing, or training strategy and materials.
Please note that the listed requirements are not exhaustive. If you think that you have the skills, passion and determination to co-design and report on One Acre Fund's youth strategy and programming, feel free to apply, even if you don't meet all the specified criteria. We welcome your application!
