Agriculture Value Chain Specialists with expertise in grain and leguminous value chains (maize, groundnut, cowpea, and/or soybean) in northern regions of Ghana to support the design of an upcoming USAID-funded program. The program will facilitate the development of a competitive market space that is inclusive, resilient, and sustainable in the provision of goods and services demanded by actors. This program will help identify and minimize the root causes of market failure in the targeted value chains , in particular for women and youth participants. This program will also create incentives for value chain actors to invest in developing and sustaining productive relationships for the efficient delivery of goods and services and an improved enabling and regulatory environment for agricultural sector growth. There are market solutions for many agricultural challenges, whether they be inclusive financial/insurance products or new technologies. This program will provide the opportunity to target such solutions: build an inclusive financial system for the rural poor as well as SMEs to have access to finance across sectors; address the inefficiencies in the inputs distribution system; establish strong and transparent relationships between actors, etc. It will also identify energy interventions that can increase agricultural productivity, competitiveness, and incomes; and complement production or postharvest processing, supply chain and value-adding activities.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop a network of key contacts and conduct interviews with key market system actors and local partners;
• Contribute to programmatic sections of the proposal and other written deliverables in close collaboration with and as requested by the Technical Lead and Lead Technical Writer;
• Participate in technical design including presenting possible approaches to overcoming key barriers;
• Provide research, partner and staff recommendations,, and support writers of all proposal sections;
• Support the collection of budget numbers for inclusion of technical proposal/review; and

• Support other needs as requested by the proposal team.

Key Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in Ghanaian agriculture and agribusiness development is required;
• Degree in related field required, Master's degree or PhD preferred;
• Experience designing and/or managing agriculture value chain development projects is required,
• Experience in northern regions of Ghana and in at least two of the targeted value chains (maize, groundnut, cowpea, and/or soybean) is required;
• Strong writing and communication skills desired;
• Professional written and spoken fluency in English is required. Understanding of local languages is preferred.

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