Manager (Nutritious Food Financing Facility)

Job Description

Overall purpose

The Manager, Nutritious Foods Financing (N3F) will:

• Lead on the effective pipeline development by GAIN team, for the identification of SMEs that fit the N3F Fund financial and nutrition criteria across Sub-Saharan Africa, leveraging internal GAIN programmes as well as external networks;
• Develop the implementation of GAIN’s N3F TA offerings, by overseeing and assessing the technical assistance needs of SMEs, matching them with service providers, and implementing activities to ensure the quality of services provided;
• Contribute to the financing engagement work of N3F, to improve awareness, capacity, commitment among investors of nutrition as an investment theme.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Establish and ensure effective SME pipeline development from GAIN country teams and programmes (including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Nigeria) with a nutrition lens
• Lead on the identification of additional potential investee SMEs operating in the food value chains, in close collaboration with the fund manager, Incofin IM,
• Represent GAIN at national and regional technical meetings, tradeshows and workshops and scope SMEs that fit the N3F criteria across Anglophone and Francophone Africa
• Develop and maintain SMEs pipeline database and prepare quarterly overviews of the pipeline
• Identify technical assessment needs of SMEs operating in the food value chain that are potential pipeline for the N3F Fund, working together with the investment officers at our partner asset manager Incofin Investment Management
• Oversee and design technical assistance support packages tailored to individual SMEs and group training according to common needs in the portfolio in Francophone Africa
• Lead on matchmaking activities between TA requirements and service providers, manage engagements between GAIN, service providers, and beneficiaries.
• Identify the most relevant events to influence and raise awareness of Nutritious Foods Financing outside of the food systems community
• Convene and facilitate learnings on approaches for investing in nutrition, generate data to spark attention and commitments from investors and funds
• Oversee the implementation of project workplans and ensure that all assignments deliver maximum value for money.
• Collaborate closely with GAIN’s Knowledge Leadership and our partner’ MEL groups to ensure monitoring, evaluation and learning take place
• Take responsibility for the creation of the donor reporting on the N3F Finance Engagement and the N3F TA reporting in collaboration with the N3F Programme Lead

Key organisational relationships

• The Manager will report directly to the N3F Programme Lead, working closely with other project colleagues and implementing partners as required for the agreed upon activities.
• The Manager will work closely with GAIN Country Offices to support the implementation of activities
• Contribute to research and development of TA best practices within the GAIN SME support framework
• Participate in TA taskforces and initiatives led by the NEU Cluster Lead

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Experience

• Substantive experience directly or indirectly related to food supply chains and working with SMEs.
• Advanced expertise, directly or indirectly related to impact investing, development finance and/or grantmaking and TA support to SMEs
• Proven experience in the agribusiness sector in emerging economies especially in Africa.
• Ideally experience in a technical assistance facility / accelerator / incubator.
• Demonstrated excellence in written/verbal communications, research, writing/reporting, and analytical ability.
• Experience working with international partners including governments, international organizations, and NGOs both at the global and country level

Competencies / Skills / Attributes:

• Technical understanding of emerging market finance, impact investment and / or development finance across Anglophone and Francophone Africa
• A deep understanding of what makes an SME scale their operations, grow, and succeed and a demonstrated expertise in the assessment of needs and provision of technical assistance (TA) to SMEs, and more specifically to nutrition focused SMEs
• Strong people management skills with a proven ability to influence internal and external stakeholders at all levels
• Proven ability to use initiative, prioritise, multi-task, and work well under pressure to meet deadlines.
• Clear and systematic thinking that demonstrates good judgment, decision making, problem solving, and creativity.
• Excellent project coordination, management, negotiation, and advocacy skills.
• Effective communication and reporting skills in multi-cultural, multi-lingual environments (written and verbal).
• Flexible, with a willingness and ability to travel in challenging environments.
• IT literate with excellent MS Office skills. Advanced excel skills
• Ability to operate within the private and public sectors to effectively liaise with food enterprises, development agencies at senior level.
• A strong commitment to GAIN’s mission and to catalysing change through public-private collaboration.

Education

• Masters degree in a relevant field such as business administration, economics, agribusiness, agricultural economics, or Bachelor’s degree with requisite years of experience in any other relevant field.

Other requirements

• Professional proficiency in English and French is required.
• Professional proficiency in Portuguese is desirable but not essential
• Willingness to travel when required

The deadline of applications is on July 15, 2022.

About the Organization

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an alliance driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. GAIN mobilizes public-private partnerships and provides financial and technical support to deliver healthier foods and supplements to those people most at risk of malnutrition. Our innovative partnership projects in more than 25 countries are improving the lives of nearly 200 million people. Our project portfolio is growing and our goal is to reach one billion people. GAIN provides an exciting and dynamic working environment for innovative team players who are dedicated to fighting malnutrition. About GAIN We build partnerships between the public and private sector. We enable innovative solutions to improve nutrition at a large scale by providing financial and technical support. We measure progress to demonstrate the return on investment, improve our program and communicate success. And we advocate for better nutrition worldwide as a cost-effective way to make people and economies stronger, healthier and more productive. Mission GAIN’s mission is to reduce malnutrition through the use of food fortification and other strategies aimed at improving the health and nutrition of populations at risk. Reaching 1 billion people GAIN has set itself the target of reaching 1 billion people of whom 500 million are in target groups most vulnerable to malnutrition. Building partnerships GAIN builds alliances between public and private partners around common objectives, and provides financial support and technical expertise. Involving business A distinctive and essential feature of GAIN’s approach is its work with the private sector, to use their know-how in product development, marketing and distribution. Enabling innovation GAIN develops and tests innovative business models to make markets work sustainably for the benefit of those suffering from malnutrition, and provides grants and know-how to make them work. Measuring performance GAIN places a critical emphasis on performance management to ensure that the programs it delivers are making a measurable impact on target populations.