AGRIBUSINESS SPECIALIST

THE ORGANIZATION

The Alliance of Bioversity International delivers research-based solutions that harness

agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives.
Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and
environmental degradation.

The Alliance works with local, national and multinational partners across Latin America and the
Caribbean, Asia and Africa, and with the public and private sectors. The Alliance is part of CGIAR,
a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing
food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services.
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is an international non-profit research-for-
development (R4D) organization created in 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and
supported primarily by the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
IITA’s R4D is anchored on the development needs of Sub-Saharan Africa and develops agricultural
solutions with partners to tackle hunger and poverty by reducing producer and consumer risks,
enhancing crop quality and productivity, and generating wealth from agriculture.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) seeks to recruit an “Agribusiness

Specialist” to play a leading role in implementing the project “The rural-urban nexus: Establishing
a nutrient loop to improve city region food system resilience (RUNRES)” in Rwanda. RUNRES
focuses on developing rural to urban food value chains and waste recycling solutions to generate
improved resource flows from the rural to the urban and back to the rural areas to improve the
resilience of rural-urban food systems. The project's main objective is to co-design, co-test, co-
implement, and co-scale out and up safe, (cost-)efficient, and socially acceptable innovations to
valorise urban and rural waste resources.

About the position

Alliance, on behalf of IITA, is seeking an Agribusiness Specialist who will manage the RUNRES
project in Rwanda, and closely collaborate with project partners and scientists in the other
project locations in Ethiopia, DRC, and South Africa, and with ETH scientists and management in
Switzerland
Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Prepare investment profiles of the target bio circular innovations.

• Organize investor forums to mobilize investments in bio-circular innovations.
• Identify specific needs of the innovation scaling partners to develop/sharpen their
scaling/business plan.
• Provide technical assistance to each innovation scaling partner to develop/sharpen a
scaling/business plan before submission to the Project Advisory and Steering
Committees.
• Develop an agreed-upon detailed business delivery plan for each innovation scaling
partner with short and medium-term goals in the fields of supply chain management,
marketing, sales, and accounting & financial management.
• Support the implementation of scaling/business plans effectively.
• Formulate capacity building and business development interventions and implement
these interventions through training followed by individual coaching and mentoring the
companies based on their specific needs to further sharpen their business understanding
and skills and to accelerate the implementation of their business plans.
• Supervise business services providers
• Assisting the innovation businesses in formulating an individual strategy to improve their
readiness to secure investment (equity, loan) to scale their operations.
• Lead the engagement of policy-makers and regulators in advocacy workshops and
identify needs and entry points for enabling policies
• Lead the development of policy notes and briefs to engage policy–makers.
• Ensure visibility of the project activities and results in scientific, development, and policy
arenas, as well as among local stakeholders in the regions where project activities take
place.
• Lead effective project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and documentation
with project partners and donors.
• Lead the elaboration of project reports.
• Supervise junior staff.
• Additional tasks may be assigned by the supervisors as deemed necessary or relevant to
the role.
Required qualifications and experience.

• The candidate should have completed a master’s degree (Preferably an MBA or MSc) with
specialization in Finance, Marketing, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Agribusiness.
• 5+ years of professional experience supporting the start-up of commercial agribusiness
production, sales, and marketing operations.
• Experience promoting the introduction and adoption of new agriculture technology in
Rwanda and East Africa.
• Experience advising small and medium private agribusinesses involved in agri-food
systems and/or circular ventures.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience related to SMEs, access to finance, the private
sector, and entrepreneurship development.
• Experience in successful engagement with public sector institutions.
• Excellent communication skills, able to interact with a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary
team of scientists and development partners in layman language.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and working proficiency in
French, and Kinyarwanda.
• Affinity with multi-stakeholder approaches
• Proactive and independent problem solver, and excellent team player.
• A good understanding of the circular economy theories, approaches, and policy
landscape in Rwanda is an advantage.
• Proven capacity in publishing technical, and/or scientific documents such as journal
articles, and policy briefs is an advantage.
• Proven project management skills.
Experience with monitoring and evaluation of research for development interventions is
considered an advantage

Terms of employment
This position is a National recruited position based in Kigali, Rwanda. The initial contract will be
for 2 (Two) years subject to a probation period of 3 (three) months and is renewable depending
on performance and availability of resources.

This position is graded at BG08 level, with a minimum basic salary of RWF 1,741781.00 in a scale
of BG01 to BG14 (BG14 being the highest level according to the Alliance job classification
framework policy). We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits.
The Alliance Bioversity-CIAT is committed to fair, safe, and inclusive workplaces. We believe that
diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission.
Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization that reflects our global
character is a priority. We encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes,
national or regional origins, ages, disability statuses, sexual orientations, marital status, and
gender identities. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply

Applications
Applicants are invited to visit https://alliancebioversityciat.org/careers to get full details of the
position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference number 103313-
Agribusiness Specialist as the position applied for. Cover letter and CV should be saved as one
document using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting. The Alliance collects
and process personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Applications closing date: 25th October 2023

Please note that email applications will not be considered.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We invite you to learn more about us at:

http://alliancebioversityciat.org