IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities. Our mission is to leverage the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
IFC’s Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services (MAS) department covers sectors which cater to basic human needs such as food, shelter, and jobs. These sectors play a critical role in providing consumer goods and services, creating jobs, contributing to government revenue, and growth through SMEs.
The MAS department also offers advisory services to help clients improve sustainability and productivity in agricultural supply chains. The development of the agriculture sector is critical to addressing widespread poverty and advancing living in poverty in developing countries, agriculture investments are required to improve on-farm productivity, post-harvest practices, and agriculture investments are required to improve on-farm productivity, post-harvest practices, trade and marketing of agricultural commodities. Productivity on women’s farms is often significantly lower per hectare compared to men. Even though women make up a large share of farmers in the region, for example, they tend to lack access to land ownership, training and coaching, credit, technology and productive farm inputs like fertilizers, pesticides and farming tools, support from extension services, and access to markets and other factors essential to their productivity.
IFC works with agribusinesses, SMEs and producers across various agricultural subsectors. The agribusinesses are input companies, off-takers, food processors and exporters. The SMEs include last mile retailers of agri-inputs and other consumer goods, as well as producer organizations and cooperatives. The producers range in size from smallholders to large farms.
IFC has been successfully deploying its Women in Agricultural Value Chains Program globally since 2012, with successful interventions in coffee, cocoa, sustainable livestock, grains and many others. MAS Gender is responding by exploring, adapting or expanding new tools such as Gender Mappings and Solutions for Agribusiness companies, Rapid Corporate Gender Assessments for Agribusiness clients, Gender Equality and Returns (GEAR) for Agribusiness Clients, Gender for Employability, and others.
IFC is expanding initiatives to better address the nexus of gender and food security, as well as climate change. This role will leverage existing partner mechanisms such as FOLUR to improve thought leadership and implementation of gender programming in these areas. The team is also looking to leverage new innovative financing solutions including Blended Finance (Women’s Entrepreneurship Financing Initiative), Sustainability Linked Loans, and others.
MAS Gender has designed programs to support to clients who seek gender-smart solutions in the workplace by providing MAS clients with preliminary employment assessments and support to strengthen their gender policies and practices, drawing on the extensive experience base in IFC and good practice elsewhere.
The program provides further customized advisory and support to obtain internal gender certifications. In doing so, the program will generate additional empirical evidence for the business case for women’s employment which will also be compiled and disseminated as part of the program’s operations. New gender solutions for MAS investment clients, including those focused on climate change, digital access, economic inclusion and gender-based violence, are priority for the department going forward.
MAS is seeking an experienced Extended Term Consultant in Africa to expand and scale its work on gender inclusion and women’s economic empowerment in MAS sectors through agricultural value chains, entrepreneurship, corporate inclusion advisory and client service delivery. The scope of the role includes research and thought leadership; delivery of high-quality gender advisory delivery to private sector agribusiness clients; developing innovative new client solutions; project management; partnerships including reporting and fundraising; and knowledge management and communications.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Project Management and Coordination
• Ensure projects move smoothly through the project cycle, including compliance with WBG internal systems, AS project governance, reporting systems (iPortal, IBIS) and Legal documentation, and compliance with all procurement processes and financial reporting.
• Conduct Gender Flagging of new investment and adivosry projects, and support the IFC project cycle by reviewing project documentation such as Concept Notes, Implementation Plans, reviews and publications and providing input to Anticipated Impact Measurement and Monitoring (AIMM) and other corporate documents as needed.
• Provide timely progress and donor reports as required by IFC, clients, donors, and development partners, according to IFC standards and guidelines
• Support gender implementation and project management of agribusiness value chain projects, including support with project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, communications and dissemination.
• Contribute to strengthening an inclusive approach including focusing on intersectionality.
• Coordinate MAS Gender Advisory for Africa and support coordination of global gender team on agribusiness.
Client Advisory Delivery:
• Provide quality women’s economic empowerment advisory to IFC clients for successful implementation of projects.
• Build and articulate the business case for gender inclusion in agribusiness for client interventions and capture development impact of gender advisory to individual clients, in partnership with the Results Measurement and project teams.
• Conduct business development efforts in partnership with MAS Agribusiness Advisory team.
• Help revise the IFC gender mapping process and baseline data collection, develop and deploy new tools, mainstream gender across MAS Advisory Platforms (Food Safety/Loss, Sustainable Protein, Smallholder Supply Chain, and Sustainable Crop Production).
• Deliver implementation of Creating Inclusive Workplaces Advisory in Africa, as needed, across MAS sectors.
• Support the design and execution of global and regional flagship gender initiatives such as in agribusiness (She Leads Agribusiness, WeSAP).
• Deliver corporate gender assessments, training and programs for gender in agribusiness, including GEAR for Agribusiness, and help develop new initiatives for gender and nutrition, and gender and climate change.
• Leverage existing financing mechanisms such as Women’s Entrepreneurship Financing (WE-FI), GROW, FOLUR, GAFSP, Biocarbon, GROW, Food Security Resilience, and others, and support on donor reports and Concept Note preparation related to gender initiatives.
• Examine access to and design of agricultural technologies – as an enabler or limit to gender equality (for example mobile phones, drip irrigation, other).
• Assist in the design and delivery of gender training and capacity building for project partners and stakeholders.
• Provide quality technical support to MAS projects and IFC clients for successful implementation of projects in the Africa.
• Recommend interventions that will improve the livelihoods of women-owned or managed farms and SMEs through increased productivity, crop quality and business management.
• Identify and recommend potential interventions that IFC can develop and implement to empower women within the supply chain of private sector companies.
• Facilitate client meetings, planning sessions, and workshops.
Knowledge and Communications
• Develop knowledge and communications products to showcase the work through blogs, business case studies, op-eds, events and webinars, social media campaigns, videos, and other formats.
• Contribute to the upkeep and maintenance of relevant gender content on the MAS Gender and IFC internet and intranet pages.
Selection Criteria
• Master’s degree in Agricultural Studies/ Agronomy, Gender, Business Administration, International Development or related field.
• Minimum 15 years of work experience delivering gender-smart solutions and mainstreaming gender in agribusiness value chains in emerging markets is required.
• Minimum 15 years of experience conducting primary data collection and field work. Experience in livelihood development and gender inclusion in rural areas would be an asset.
• Demonstrated experience working with organizations working in gender and capacity building, specifically with the private sector or on agribusiness value chains.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English required; proficiency in another language strongly preferred.
• Strong project management skills with proven ability to support execution of projects, management of resources and delivery against timelines.
• Ability to work effectively under time pressure with high capacity to produce quality work.
• Familiarity with WBG and IFC processes, systems, and initiatives is preferred.
• Ability to travel and work across time zones required.
• Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated ability to lead, expert capacity to leverage internal and external relationships to foster innovation, problem solve and work effectively across boundaries in a fast-paced multicultural and virtual environment.
• Excellent strategic vision, ability to think long term, and with a focus on business case and developmental impact.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET appointment of three years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.
