Associate Grants Officer

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) seeks to recruit an Associate Grants Officer, as part of the grants management team, who will be responsible for working flexibly and collegially in offering support to the Country Team in pre-award and post-award functions. S/he will support country teams including the In-country GO and the HQ Grants team to execute grants-related functions e.g. financial reports reviews, expenditure validation and grantee compliance with AGRA’s internal policies and processes.

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability - We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.  We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive and Increasingly Entrepreneurial aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity).

We are, therefore, looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

An important component in the market development for FL-RS is the provision of smart subsidies that benefit smallholder farmers through availing more affordable products and services. AGRA will (partially) procure FL-RS for further distribution of the FL-RS to smallholder farmers. To ensure impact delivery, the smart subsidies will only be released upon delivery of FL-RS to eligible farmers.

The role will focus on implementing the financing models and improving the bankability and performance of the MSMEs including cooperatives, youth groups, and other market actors. Additionally, the role will focus on stimulating private sector investment and innovation by addressing systemic barriers to finance and business support services, to achieve commercial viability, sustainability, and impact at scale. The role holder will work to strengthen the enabling environment for inclusive finance, foster commercially viable delivery channels for FL-RS, and facilitate sustainable partnerships that reduce market inefficiencies and promote long-term competitiveness across the value chain.

• Support the day-to-day grants management of the country office portfolio.
• Support program staff to analyze, revise and formalize any necessary modifications and/or amendments to grants and contracts.
• Assist in following up with the program staff for timely grants closure.
• Support tracking of the grant-making pipeline, Request for Concept Notes (RFCN) processing and Grant Award Letter (GAL) issuance.
• Assist in organizing grants charter reviews and compiling grant materials for Grants Committee (GC) review.
• Assist in conducting grantee monitoring and portfolio performance health checks.
• Support the preparation and conducting of start-up orientation workshops for new awards and participate in monthly / quarterly meetings with project staff to ensure grant contract clauses and all project-related requirements are complied with.
• Support review of grant and contract documentation assembled by program staff to ensure completeness, accuracy, and compliance with AGRA and donor policies and procedures.
• Assist in organizing and scheduling reporting requirements and payments for all new grants.

• Support maintenance of a grant tracking database through AGRA Management Information System (AMIS) and other tools to monitor the flow of project proposals from the time full grant documentation is received in the grants unit to the time a grant award is issued, and the first payment is made.
• Ensure complete and accurate expenditure support documentation is uploaded by grantees and AGRA to AMIS in compliance with MCF and other donors as appropriate.
• Review and verify grantee expenditure support documentation for completeness, eligibility, accuracy, authenticity, and compliance with approved budgets, donor regulations, and AGRA financial policies.
• Follow up with grantees to resolve documentation gaps, unsupported expenditures, incomplete submissions, and compliance issues within agreed timelines.
• Maintain grant files (electronic and physical) ensuring all supporting documentation is properly filed, traceable, and audit ready.
• Assist in ensuring accurate data entry and filing of AGRA’s annual grant making budget in AMIS.

• Participate in pre-award due diligence for potential grantees including organization capacity assessments.
• Support monitoring adherence to donor compliance requirements by grantees during the life of the grant to post grants issuance.
• Participate in grantee monitoring visits, spot checks, compliance reviews, and verification exercises to assess financial management practices and supporting documentation.

• Identify grantees requiring technical assistance and support provision of relevant training on AGRA grants compliance and reporting requirements.
• Collaborate with country team, and HQ regional grants officers in implementing systems, policies, and procedures related to grants administration in Ethiopia..

AGRA/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).

To find more about AGRA, visit our Website at www.agra.org.   

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at https://www.ilri.org/ 

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting and/or Finance or related field.
• Relevant professional certification

• Six years' experience in a grant making environment
• Experience managing donor related financial operations
• Experience reviewing financial support documentation and assessing compliance with donor and organizational requirements.

• Demonstrated donor compliance
• Demonstrated experience in financial management
• Ability to train grantees on grants & compliance
• Analytical skills in basic tools including Microsoft Excel
• Team player with strong leadership skills.
• Solid operational management and general business skills.
• Strong document verification and analytical review skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a motivation to improve policies and procedures systematically.
• Excellent organizational skills, commitment to accuracy and to maintaining a timely and efficient workflow, and extremely detail-oriented with the ability to work under pressure.
• Excellent interpersonal skills: courtesy, tact and patience.
• Ability to multi-task and to prioritize work.
• Strategic mindset and problem-solving skills.
• Analytical mindset, but also creativity to seek, encourage and find non-traditional approaches to solving problems

More ILRI jobs 

Subscribe by email to ILRI jobs alert