Description
Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with a disability.
Heifer International is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) whose mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. We work with farmers and their communities to identify opportunities that deliver living incomes, creating solutions to local challenges designed to build inclusive, resilient economies. With Increased livestock and crop productivity, farmers provide for their families and improve the health of their communities.
Heifer International is partnering with Cargill Inc. and the International Poultry Council to implement the Transformational Strategies for Farm Output Risk Mitigation or “TRANSFORM” in Kenya. TRANSFORM is a USAID-funded project and a critical part of the Health Security Program that seeks to advance market-driven animal health solutions to increase global health security and access to safe, affordable, animal-sourced nutrition while improving farm productivity and farmer incomes. TRANSFORM focuses on protecting human health by improving practices related to animal production through the mitigation of antimicrobial resistance and preventing emerging infectious diseases (zoonotic and transboundary animal diseases-TADs) while improving farmer livelihoods in Kenya. Heifer is leading the deployment of biosecurity, farm management and Antimicrobial Use Stewardship Practices training to farmers and other value chain players through community agro-veterinary entrepreneurs (CAVEs) and farmer agro-businesses; Social and Behavior Change awareness campaigns in biosecurity measures using different approaches; supporting farmer and value chain actors’ access to finance and market linkages to input suppliers, off-takers, and other actors in the market system.
The project is expected to end in February 2026.
FUNCTION
The role of the Access to Finance Officer will be to support and coordinate between the financial institutions, agribusiness, and farmer cooperatives of the TRANSFORM Project to improve the deployment of bio-secure focused financing products in the project. S/he will coordinate with the financial institutions to develop biosecurity-focused financial products for targeted project participants while promoting and tracking the deployment and repayment of project loan products.
The Access to Finance Officer will work with the program to assess the gaps in the adoption of biosecurity practices promoted by the project and that can be addressed through access to finance. S/he will communicate these needs and opportunities to the financial intermediaries identified by the project to facilitate the development of specific financing products. S/he will work with the financial intermediary in training the farmer cooperatives and agribusinesses in these products and promote the deployment of loan products in the project to adopt biosecurity practices. S/he will work with the financial intermediary and programs to ensure and track the repayment of loans and monitor specific impact parameters identified by the project.
Essential Character Traits
Understanding and experience of financing to smallholder farmers, women entrepreneurs, and value chain players in agriculture. The candidate should be empathetic, emotionally intelligent, honest, and display a positive attitude. Strong leadership, communication and team-building skills will be essential. In addition, the ability to impart a shared vision, drive impact and create an environment that has respect for procedures and norms, while remaining curious, analytical, socially sensitive, and values-oriented.
Responsibilities And Deliverables
- Financing Pipeline Development and Technical Assistance (30%)
- Financing Pipeline Development: Assess and identify financing opportunities for smallholder (women) farmers to adopt improved backyard poultry practices (and improved animal management practices) through financing.
- Financing Technical Assistance: Support farmer cooperatives and agribusinesses to develop bankable business plans (both at start-up and growth stages) and connect with focused financing instruments as needed.
- Prepare strategies to identify credible financing opportunities to promote the adoption of project-promoted practices roll out plans and track progress periodically.
- Identify and recommend the best-suited financing strategies, pricing system for the business ventures,
- Identify new business ventures (medium and large-scale business ventures) in the selected value chains and coach/facilitate entrepreneurs who may access provided financing to scale business.
- Provide technical assistance through formal/informal training, coaching, exposure, and other interventions,
- Guide, coach and facilitate the Smallholder Farmer Organizations (SFOs) and other Value Chain (VC) actors in the process of branding the products.
- Document strategies and procedures for the facilitation of branding Heifer farmers’ products
- Build Capacity of Project Staff, Partners, and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) (20%)
- Assist in aligning the organizational development and business development and build the capacity of the stakeholders in financing.
- Assist in preparing capacity-building plans for project staff, and partners in the field of market system development, enterprise, and value chain development.
- Orient FPO staff on financing, follow up the job-related functions to achieve the target
- Build capacity of the partner staff and FPO staff through facilitating training, coaching and other capacity-building initiatives on financing of farmers, tracking repayment of loans, value addition at FPO through financing etc.
- Ensure stakeholders have a good orientation on financing needs and biosecurity problems to be solved through financing
- Facilitate training and other capacity-building initiatives as per the Implementation Plan.
- Ensure FPO staff and implementing partners are trained on the biosecurity financing tools customized by the financial intermediary.
- Assist project partners to support FPOs and value chain players to engage and leverage financing to do so.
- Monitoring, Review and Reporting (20%)
- Ensure that the partner and the financial intermediary meet the identified monitoring and evaluation requirements and the deadlines
- Reviewing the adoption of financing tools at the project level with partner staff on a monthly basis
- Participation in ongoing training and workshops
- Documentation and sharing of the best practices in terms of financing and adoption of biosecurity practices in the project.
- Work in collaboration and consultation with the Country Program Office (CPO) team
- Activity-based reports are to be submitted to the Project Manager as per the schedule
- All financing in the project is to be reviewed and reported to assess implications on the adoption of project-promoted practices.
- Forecasting of financing needs at the project level is to be done jointly monthly and submitted to the Project Manager.
- Participate in all trainings with financial intermediary, FPOs and workshops Guarantee Administrator regularly throughout the project
- Internal and external financing-related field visits are organized following the organizational protocol.
- All activities of the specific initiative are at par in quality with project standards
- Portfolio Management and Due Diligence of Loanees and Lenders (25%)
- Work with borrowers to put together an investment package that will meet the requirements of the lenders.
- Act as a linkage between potential loanees, investees and lenders to ensure regular updates on the status of loans requested.
- Portfolio management to assess the repayment status of the loaned-out amount
- Leadership & General Operations (5%)
- Manage the biosecurity loan product development process.
- Develop market development and private/public sector engagement strategy for the project.
- Ensure systematic documentation of successes and lessons learnt for internal programmatic use and external sharing.
- Develop project implementation plans for biosecurity loan products with clear timelines and deliverables.
- Timely delivery of milestones relating to Biosecurity loan products.
- Produce periodic reports and knowledge documents.
- Perform other duties as assigned
- This will be dependent on the specific duties assigned.
Minimum Requirements
- A bachelor’s degree from a recognized university in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, Enterprise Development or other related fields and a minimum of five (5) years of experience with an international organization in a similar context is required.
- Experience working with financial institutions supporting farmers and FPOs (farmer producer organizations)/cooperatives and associated businesses.
Preferred Requirements
- Technical experience with the commercial sector, agribusiness development in a mix of economic growth/trade, value chain competitiveness, investment promotion, or agriculture development.
- Prior work experience in a USAID-funded project.
Most Critical Proficiencies
- Demonstrated experience in agribusiness product development and agricultural value chain financing
- Experience in the commercial sector with skills to develop and evaluate investment opportunities and promote such opportunities to financial institutions.
- Demonstrated capacity to build and manage an agribusiness asset portfolio, meeting or exceeding set targets.
- Understanding of Enterprise-wide Risk Management (ERM) and adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, credit prudential guidelines and management of risk registers.
- A clear understanding of the dairy and poultry value chains.
- Innovative, organized and solutions-oriented.
- Knowledge of enterprise development and linkages to poverty alleviation.
- Proficient in English and other local languages, with strong interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills.
- Excellent command of report writing, analysis and presentation skills using Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Experience in supporting and monitoring field-based programs in the country.
- Track record of building strong client and stakeholder relationships
Essential Job Functions And Physical Demands
- Preparing and presenting documents in a well-designed and attractive format with attention to detail.
- Willingness and ability to travel extensively.
- May require constant sitting, working at a computer focusing for extended periods and performing office environment activities while on the road and/or in remote conditions.
- Working with sensitive information and maintaining confidentiality.
- Ability to manage and execute multiple tasks with little supervision while meeting tight deadlines.
Deadline for applications: 31st December 2024
