Senior Program Officer, Agricultural Development at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Your Role

This Senior Officer position is an addition to the existing Agriculture Senior Officer role in Nigeria. It has been created to reflect the increased scope and scale of work required to implement the Nigeria Inclusive Agricultural Transformation (IAT) roadmap. The Senior Program Officer, will support the effective implementation of the Nigeria IAT roadmap, coordinate the consolidation of our investments across the various teams, strategically manage country relationships (government, donors, private sector) as well as fully support and succinctly communicate the country strategy.

The Senior Program Officer will report to the Deputy Director, AgDev Enabling Country Systems Africa and will work closely and collaboratively with the current Nigeria Senior Officer for Agricultural Development to jointly deliver on the country strategy.

What You’ll Do (Responsibilities)

• Providing technical guidance on strategy and investments in Nigeria to improve the policy-enabling environment, fostering evidence-based policy formulation and implementation.
• Be the focal technical person for AgDev investments that directly drive IAT in Nigeria
• Take co-ownership of and be accountable for achieving agreed-upon Agricultural Development (AgDev) targets at the national level.
• Co-lead the formulation and execution of comprehensive plans to meet headline goals in the agricultural sector.
• Working closely with the strategy and management team to establish robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in the country dashboards to track progress toward AgDev targets and headline goals
• Improving alignment and coordination of core intervention areas, using crops, livestock, and digital farmer services as transferable assets
• Leveraging resources and technical capacity of government, private sector, and development partners to drive adoption of innovation by SSPs in Nigeria
• Building and expanding partner networks by working with current partners such as government agencies, AGRA, CGIAR centers in the country and how they partner with NAREs; engaging extensively with new proximate partners and establishing new networks for the foundation; interacting and communicating clearly and consistently with grantees and partners in the field, within Nigeria.
• Provide advice and support to key foundation partners, including participation in strategic meetings and committees and representation of the foundation in related forums.
• Support foundation’s work and IAT roadmap in other countries and regions in SSA by sharing learnings from Nigeria.
• Attend meetings to represent the foundation and shape country agendas in line with foundation priorities in IAT and climate adaptation.
• Analyze data nationally and locally to prioritize states, value chains, and intervention areas for evidence-based AgDev strategies.
• Coordinate closely with the existing Nigeria Senior Officer, Agriculture to ensure complementary approaches, shared learning, and alignment across workplans.

Your Experience & Qualifications.

• An advanced degree or equivalent work experience relevant to agriculture such as agribusiness, agricultural economics, rural development, or a closely related field
• 10+ years of experience, including a minimum of 5+ years working in SSA Africa /with SSA-based partners within the agricultural sectors ideally including experience with private sector organizations in commercial roles.
• Familiarity with the Nigerian agricultural sector.
• Master of Business Administration (MBA) is preferred.

Technical/Functional

• Broad ag systems knowledge (NARES, input/output markets and private sector)
• Entrepreneurial e.g., suggesting new value chains, and partnerships, based on country realities, with a vision that aligns with core IAT goals in the country.
• Proven ability to engage in policy dialogue and discussions involving high-level government officials, donors, and other in-country stakeholders.

Analytical

• Outstanding analytical capabilities and problem-solving.
• Ability to efficiently drive changes at the system level.
• interpretation and use of policy prioritization models
• Gap analysis of the country’s capacity to formulate and implement policy

Local context

• Deep understanding of the agricultural policy environment in Nigeria
• Extensive background in working with proximate partner organizations.
• Robust understanding of IAT strategy and approach
• Building, growing, and sustaining strategic partnerships aligned with IAT.
• Representing AgDev in key country forums
• Collaborating with BOW teams and leading the implementation of IAT roadmaps
• Support and advise the Country director on Ag development matters.

Other Attributes

• Ability to travel 40% of the time.
• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Application Dealine 5 May, 2025