Access to Finance (A2F) and Catalytic Fund Director

Job Description

POSITION TITLE: Access to Finance (A2F) and Catalytic Fund Director

LOCATION: Dakar, Senegal

GROUP: Agriculture, Resilience and Water

REPORTS TO: Chief of Party

Winrock International works with people around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment. Winrock is seeking a Access to Finance (A2F) and Catalytic Fund Director to serve as a Team Leader for a multi-country program that will facilitate the growth of a competitive market system for raw cashew processing that optimizes revenues across all segments of the processing chain and fosters equitable and sustainable employment opportunities for young women and men. Working with processors and empowered service-driven producer organizations and networks, the program will facilitate investment in production, processing, market access and supporting services needed for the sector to capitalize on the market push created by favorable global market trends and improvements to local systems over the last 15 years. Focus countries are Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau.

POSITION SUMMARY:

A2F/Catalytic Fund Director will lead WEECAP’s efforts to expand and improve access to finance for women and youth engaged in the cashew value chain. This includes designing and executing strategies that unlock capital through catalytic funding, blended finance, financial product innovation, and partnerships with financial institutions. The role focuses on addressing systemic barriers to financial inclusion and facilitating scalable investment models that strengthen enterprise viability and resilience.

The Director will work with entrepreneurs, producer groups, processors, financial institutions and investors to expand access to financial services required to optimize cashew sector productivity, growth, and catalyze employment for young women and men. The A2F/Catalytic Fund Director will be responsible for building diverse pipeline of micro, small, medium and large cashew producer groups and processing enterprises with bankable business models that are positioned for scaling and growth, attractive to financial institutions and investors, and that are owned by, employ, or serve women and youth in the sector. The A2F/Catalytic Fund Director will deploy Catalytic Fund resources to support business innovations, improve financial inclusion of women and youth, enhance investment readiness of MSMEs, and raise capital for growth-oriented entrepreneurs and businesses.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Leadership & Financial Innovation

• Lead the development and implementation of the project’s access to finance strategy, ensuring alignment with WEECAP’s overall goals and synergies with other pillars.
• Design financial mechanisms, through the Catalyst Fund, that de-risk investment in women- and youth-led cashew enterprises (e.g., credit guarantees, catalytic matching grants, results-based financing).
• Identify and advocate for innovative financial instruments that align market incentives with inclusive business models.

Partnership Development & Engagement

• Collaborate with the Competitiveness team to identify high potential opportunities offered by end markets and the private sector buyers in the West Africa cashew sector.  
• Collaborate with the Competitiveness team to develop a network of lead/anchor firms and micro, small, and medium enterprises (SMEs) and a strategic plan for engaging them. 
• Establish and manage partnerships with commercial banks, MFIs, social impact investors, and development finance institutions (DFIs) to increase the availability of affordable and appropriate financial products.
• Collaborate with the Competitiveness team to design and implement integrated interventions that leverage the interconnections between producer groups and processors providing tailored Catalytic Fund resources (grants, results based financing, acceleration) to incentivize business innovations and new local sourcing arrangements.
• Coordinate blended finance approaches that leverage WEECAP resources to crowd in private capital for supply chain actors.
• Build linkages between processors and financial service providers to support co-investment in inclusive sourcing models.

Financial Inclusion for Women and Youth

• Analyze and enable relationships among actors that translate into shared benefits to incentivize new investment in the cashew sector. Provide incentives to de-risk and strengthen financial institutions capacity to increase the flow of credit to cashew sector entrepreneurs and businesses.
• Oversee the provision of transaction advisory services to a range of cashew sector businesses that demonstrate growth potential, and work through financial intermediaries and with investors to bring new firm and project financing deals to a successful close.
• Facilitate financial literacy, business planning, and investment readiness training in coordination with other pillars.
• Work closely with the Competitiveness and Supply Chains teams to ensure that collective action platforms (e.g., cooperatives, groups) are used as channels for financial service delivery.

Learning, Monitoring, and Adaptive Management

• Analyze performance of Catalytic Fund financing mechanisms and recommend adjustments based on real-time evidence and feedback.
• Contribute to impact documentation, learning products, and investment cases to influence investors, processors, and policymakers.
• Coordinate with the Operations team to provide technical and management oversight over for distribution of funds to recipients. 
• Collaborate with the Policies and Social Safeguarding team regarding private sector policy requirements in the West Africa cashew sector.  
• Collaborate with Gender Integration team to ensure integration of GESI considerations.  

QUALIFICATIONS AND BACKGROUND:

Education: Degree in finance, business administration, or related field required.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years experience as a Team Leader managing multi-national cross country teams;
• Minimum 10 years experience managing complex finance, entrepreneurship, or agriculture market systems programs, with demonstrated results in expanding access to finance;
• Experience working within the private sector on cashew nut production and marketing, including trade, production and business linkages;
• Experience applying a market systems development approach to strengthen the inclusivity—with a particular focus on young women and men—in cashew production and marketing systems;
• Technical experience working in West Africa with strong business relationships with West African cashew industry stakeholders and international buyer;
• Experience managing large grant funds, catalytic funds, or impact funds

Skills/Knowledge:

• Familiarity with market systems development framework, including tools, strategies, and approaches;
• Ability to build coalitions and networks with private sector actors that can provide synergies and sustainable solutions;
• Ability to supervise, challenge, and build capacity of staff and coordinate activities with partners from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.
• Strong training design, training delivery, and facilitation skills;
• Strong personnel management skills;
• Excellent written and oral communication skill in French and English required.

Winrock is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and recruits, employs, trains, promotes and compensates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.

At Winrock we have a clear mission: Empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources through unwavering dedication to accountability, equity, innovation, integrity and transformation.

About the Organization

Winrock International works with people around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment. Winrock is seeking a Access to Finance (A2F) and Catalytic Fund Director to serve as a Team Leader for a multi-country program that will facilitate the growth of a competitive market system for raw cashew processing that optimizes revenues across all segments of the processing chain and fosters equitable and sustainable employment opportunities for young women and men. Working with processors and empowered service-driven producer organizations and networks, the program will facilitate investment in production, processing, market access and supporting services needed for the sector to capitalize on the market push created by favorable global market trends and improvements to local systems over the last 15 years. Focus countries are Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau.