Associate Program Officer – Technical Field Monitoring

Description

• 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:
• Policy and state capability - We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation
• 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
• Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation
• 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

Why Join Us?

• People are the heartbeat of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery, impact, and success. We have cultivated a workplace that fuels Depth in Collaboration, Excellence in Execution, Constructive Engagements, and a spirit of being Increasingly Entrepreneurial; all underpinned by our cherished I-RISE Values (Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity)
• We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the African continent combined with an inclusive, diverse, and talented workforce from over 25 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers
• We are looking for people who are passionate about being part of a mission-driven team that is making a real difference on the continent; love to work on cutting edge Ag technologies; and able to grow their skills, expertise, and experience career growth, while enjoying very competitive compensation and benefits The role will deepen field-level monitoring, strengthen grantee performance, and accelerate youth-in-work (YiW) outcomes in Mozambique
• S/he will be responsible for supporting the implementation of Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) program and coordinating field operations across Mozambique’s YEFFA partners. The role harmonizes partner workplans, ensures timely reporting, and facilitates cross-partner alignment for improved delivery. It synthesizes field intelligence, identifies risks early, and escalates issues to the Country Programs Lead (CPL) and Project Management Unit (PMU). The Associate Program Officer enhances YEFFA partners' collaboration, strengthens communication with AGRA technical teams, and supports adaptive management. Overall, this role ensures that field implementation remains coherent, data-driven, and aligned with YEFFA’s performance and results expectations

Duties

• Conduct routine and ad-hoc field monitoring visits across all YEFFA partners to assess delivery quality
• Verify beneficiaries, results and reported outcomes through spot-checks, interviews, focus groups, and triangulation of data
• Monitor partner adherence to youth-intentional and gender-responsive implementation standards
• Track expenditure-linked activities at field level and highlight risks affecting disbursement or progress
• Provide accurate field intelligence to CPL, PO, and PMU to support decision-making
• Review grantee tools, attendance lists, evidence documents and escalating inconsistencies
• Identify systemic bottlenecks affecting YiW pace and recommend course-corrective actions
• Support financial report quality and expense verifications on a monthly basis
• Support CPL, POs and SPO in coordinating multiple partners to align workplans
• Ensure partners level (including consortium) reporting is harmonized and submitted on time
• Track cross-partner dependencies and help resolve misaligned field activities
• Facilitate joint planning and quarterly reflection sessions
• Maintain regular communication channels among implementing partners, ensuring timely information flow
• Facilitate joint field learning sessions, exchange visits, and problem-solving clinics
• Strengthen relationships with LGAs and local ecosystem actors (youth offices, wards, cooperatives) to unlock institutional support
• Enable AGRA business lines (Sustainable farming, Seeds, MEL, Markets, Inclusive Finance, PSC) to provide targeted backstopping
• Coordinate high-level field visits involving donors, PMO, and AGRA leadership
• Promote inclusion (youth and gender) and safeguarding compliance by sensitizing partners and reporting breaches
• Support youth and women groups to navigate opportunities and link with service providers
• Explore and link emerging MSMEs to financial service providers and monitor growth progress
• Produce consolidated monthly field monitoring reports integrating insights across all consortia
• Track partner progress against milestones, grant budgets, work opportunity indicators, and Schedule C commitments
• Support MEL teams during outcome surveys, verification missions, and dashboard updates
• Ensure accuracy of data uploaded into MEL systems and shared knowledge repositories
• Maintain an issues log, escalate critical delivery risks, and follow through corrective actions
• Support CPL with inputs for quarterly synthesis notes, donor reports, and Annual Report sections
• Coordinate data and insights required for Pause & Reflect sessions, impact pathway reviews, and adaptive planning

Requisites

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Development Studies, Economics, or related field
• Monitoring & Evaluation and Learning, project management, or data collection certification preferred
• Experience working with youth programs, agribusinesses, SMEs, cooperatives, or value chain actors preferred
• Practical experience collecting, verifying, and reporting field data
• Knowledge of Mozambique’s agricultural sector and youth employment landscape
• Ability to design practical, context-appropriate technical assistance for implementing partners
• Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking siloes, sharing information celebrating joint successes
• Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and increasing accountability to deliver impact at scale
• Ability to be sincerely constructive in interactions with others by demonstrating trust, sincerity, and care, in recognition of our joint purpose
• Ability be increasingly entrepreneurial by breaking hierarchies, embracing learning and innovation to unlock the potential of diversity and ideas

Notes

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted
• Indicate the source of this job post: emprego.co.mz
• Due to the large volumes of applications we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted
• For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org