Program Manager- StreFas Project

TechnoServe is seeking a Program Manager for the StreFas Project in Abuja, Nigeria. The role involves leading efforts to enhance resilience among farmers and SMEs through climate-smart grain production, focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Responsibilities include project leadership, technical support for farmers, market intelligence gathering, and managing relationships with stakeholders. The project aims to support 25,000 smallholder farmers in adopting sustainable practices over three years.
Job Title: Program Manager

Project: Strengthening Farmers and SMEs Resilience through Climate Smart Grain Production in Nigeria (StreFas)

Location: Zaria Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Reports to: Deputy Country Director

About TechnoServe:

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of businesses and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets, unpredictable political dynamics, and, increasingly, the effects of climate change. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing...when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they can access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Job Summary:

The Program Manager -Strengthening Farmers and SMEs Resilience through Climate Smart Grain Production in Nigeria (StreFas) will work under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director/Program Director to provide overall project leadership to the StreFas team in Kaduna and Nasarawa States and the goal is to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through regenerative agricultural practices. This goal will be achieved primarily through upskilling Maize, Rice, Sorghum, and Soybean farmers in regenerative agricultural practices. The Program Manager will also provide technical support to facilitate farmer behavioral change from conventional agriculture to regenerative and climate-adapted agriculture. In addition, s/he will gather market intelligence, monitor performance, and provide guidance while managing relationships with donors, implementing partners, and sub-awardees to achieve project objectives. The tasks outlined below are the key responsibilities of the employee, however, s/he will be expected to perform other tasks that are necessary within the context of the evolving needs of the project.

Program/Practice/Department Overview:

The StreFas Project aims to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions through regenerative agricultural practices and at the same time develop an inclusive, sustainable, scalable, and adaptable regenerative agriculture solution to help smallholder farmers (SHFs) and local SMEs (aggregators) more resilient and produce low-carbon grains in Nigeria. The three-year project will provide a guaranteed structured market for farmers to produce high-quality grains yearly, with a significant quantity of grains produced from environmentally sustainable practices. The project aims to impact up to 25,000 SHFs directly as beneficiaries of the program. Importantly, StreFas will sustain and scale up the successful elements of the regenerative agriculture pilot of the recently concluded Developing Inclusive Grain Value Chains in Nigeria (DIGVCN) project.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities
• Takes full ownership of the StreFas project and drives the delivery of targets.
• Ensure efficient and effective implementation of project activities, output, and outcomes as laid out in the executed contract.
• Engage the relevant practice teams internally to get maximum support that ensures the successful delivery of the project.
• Optimize team performance and ensure that members are adequately capacitated to conduct their respective project activities and upskilled in critical areas of the project such as carbon credit calculations.
• Lead the development of a project work plan and ensure timely and quality delivery of project Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Ensure timely preparation of donor reports according to prescribed guidelines and format.
• Support HR in the recruitment and onboarding process of new hire replacements
• Develop training curriculum for farmers and coordinate all required training, including training-of-trainers (ToTs), and ensure all training manuals are updated throughout the life of the project.
• Enhance strong stakeholder engagement with government, private sector, business associations, community associations, and financial institutions as needed.
• Manage and mitigate potential program risks; develop and continuously review project risk management measures.
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) specialist to ensure proper and timely reports of the program for internal communication and action. Oversee the sharing of best practices and lessons learned from the project and lead program communication activities.
• Manage project budget to ensure that burn rate targets are achieved.
• Understand, respect, and promote TechnoServe’s values, vision, and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.
• Any other tasks that may be assigned about the evolving needs of the project.

Basic Qualifications:
• Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Agronomy, or relevant Social Sciences/ Humanities disciplines.
• Minimum of 7 years’ experience working with communities living on less than $2 a day to improve their livelihoods.
• Alternatively, a Master’s degree with 5 years’ experience.
• Demonstrated experience of working with a corporate donor for at least 5 years.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of regenerative agriculture, carbon credits, and greenhouse gas emission reduction through regenerative practices.
• Demonstrated experience in leading technical studies such as environmental impact assessment, baseline, and endline evaluation studies, and so on.
• Demonstrated experience in report writing.

Preferred Qualification:
• Ability to engage and advise senior-level stakeholders, including senior management of private sector companies, donor representatives, and others.
• Ability to manage budget as assigned and aligned with the donor requirements.
• Demonstrated experience in data collection and analyses, especially in the areas of agriculture and project key performance indicators.

Required Languages: Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English

Travel: 40%

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
• Experienced in writing excellent reports in English.
• Must have strong interpersonal skills.
• Proven skills with Microsoft Office software (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Google Workspace. Knowledge of the use of software platforms for field data collection such as CommCare, and KoBoCollect will be an advantage.
• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English.

Supervisory Responsibilities – Regenerative Agriculture Advisors, Sub-Award Specialist, and MEL specialist.

Closing Statements:

We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.

With our commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.

We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff, partners, and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact the Human Resources at recruitment@tns.org or call +1 202 785 4515.