Deputy Chief of Party - PSSD2 Project

About IFDC

IFDC is a public international organization active in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, and America. IFDC uniquely approaches the global issues of food security and poverty by bridging the gap between research and impact, combining science-based innovations, holistic market systems development, an enabling policy environment, and strategic partnerships to assist farmers and countries to identify and scale sustainable agricultural solutions, including improved nutrient use efficiency. These approaches are needed to boost soil health and crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer use. IFDC translates research into action by using locally driven, environmentally sound, and impact-oriented solutions. With our partners, we seek to close the yield gap, eradicate global hunger, safeguard the soil on which our lives depend, and generate economic resilience for farming households and the countries in which they live.     

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support the Chief of Party (COP) in leading day-to-day operational execution of the project, ensuring the smooth implementation of activities across all sectors. Coordinate the delivery of project outputs, keeping in line with timelines, resource allocation, and overall project objectives;
• Work closely with the financial and administrative teams to monitor the project's financial health, ensuring adherence to budget limits and effective use of resources. Lead financial planning, projections, and budgetary compliance to meet both internal and donor requirements;
• Oversee the field operations and implementation teams, ensuring they are adequately supported and guided in their efforts. Provide direct supervision to field leads, ensuring alignment with project goals and facilitating cross-functional collaboration between technical, administrative, and monitoring teams;
• Cultivate strong working relationships with external stakeholders, including government entities, community groups, private - sector partners and local organizations. Serve as a point of contact for project partners, ensuring engagement and collaboration for impactful project execution;
• Ensure compliance with all donor policies, local regulations, and internal operational guidelines. Assist the COP in the identification and mitigation of potential project risks, implementing frameworks that ensure continuous risk management and adherence to project goals;
• Work with the MEL Officer to ensure data-driven decision-making. Co-lead in the collection and reporting of key performance indicators, ensuring that project results and lessons learned are properly documented and communicated to stakeholders;
• Lead the drafting and submission of internal reports, ensuring that project achievements, challenges, and upcoming plans are communicated effectively to both the donor and internal leadership. Contribute to external communications by providing insights into the project’s technical and operational progress;
• Collaborate with the COP to refine and implement market systems approaches that promote sustainability and resilience within the seed sector. Assist in strategizing and adapting the project’s approach to ensure alignment with long-term sectoral goals;
• Support capacity-building initiatives targeted at local partners, ensuring that technical skills, knowledge and expertise are transferred for future sustainability. Coordinate and facilitate training sessions, workshops, and field support programs to strengthen the capacities of project stakeholders;
• Ensure that gender and youth strategies are integrated across all project interventions, promoting inclusivity and ensuring that project activities are aligned with the empowerment goals for these groups. Lead discussions and coordinate activities that specifically target the advancement of women and youth in the project areas. 

Requirements:

• Master’s degree (or bachelor’s degree with more than 7 years of additional relevant experience) in agriculture, agribusiness, seed systems development, value chain development, private - sector development, international development, development studies, rural development, or a related field;
• At least Five (5) years of progressively responsible work experience leading capacity-building activities aimed at facilitating sustainable input supply systems for smallholder farmers, cooperatives, and input dealers;
• Proven experience working with both public and private seed market actors at various levels, including but not limited to seed producers, agro-dealers, seed distributors, seed importers, and regulators;
• In-depth knowledge and experience with the Burundian seed supply system or similar systems within the East African region;
• Considerable knowledge of laws, regulations, procedures, and quality standards related to seed business in Burundi and regional bodies (EAC, COMESA) that Burundi is part of;
• Demonstrated experience working with complex donor-funded projects related to agricultural finance, value chain development, private sector investment management, and/or access to finance;
• Technical experience with NGOs and familiarity with their procedures and project management cycles;
• Strong ability to interact and effectively communicate with a wide range of stakeholders, both verbally and in writing;
• Demonstrated collaborative skills with a willingness to innovate and an ability to think systematically;
• Proficiency in English and French, with local language skills (Kirundi) is required. 

Reporting and Work Relationships. 

This position reports to the Chief of Party (CoP) of the PSSD 2 project. 

Location 

This is a national recruitment with a duty station at the IFDC office based in Bujumbura, Burundi. 

Benefits  

IFDC's benefits include annual and sick leave, health and group life insurance coverage, a 13th-month salary, social security and pension contribution in compliance with local laws and end-of-contract benefits.  

Salary Clause 

The salary grade for this position is BG 10 with a salary range of BIF 4,587,126.00 - 5,025,565.00 per month.

The determination of new employee salaries takes into account various factors. These include the salary range linked to the assigned job grade, the candidate's qualifications in relation to the job's responsibilities and prerequisites, internal fairness, the competitive state of the job market, as well as potential organizational and budgetary considerations.

Diversity Clause 

IFDC is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, and offers equal employment opportunities based on ability, performance, and potential. Equal opportunity is integral to the recruitment and selection practices at IFDC. IFDC recognizes the value in recruiting employees with different backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and beliefs. IFDC recognizes and values the contribution of people with a diverse background in capabilities, experience, and perspectives. Diversity encompasses gender, age, experience, education, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and cultural backgrounds as well as other dimensions such as lifestyle and family responsibilities.

About Program/Project 

The PSSD Project aims to double the productivity and income of 80,000 family farms. To achieve this goal, 213,200 family farms will see their productivity (and/or income) increase by ensuring access to inputs for 266,500 family farms. This impact and these results will be reflected in the four components described below: 

Component 1: Continuing the development of the seed sector by scaling up and industrializing seed businesses to produce and sell seeds of beans, corn, potatoes, and vegetables. In this area, the PSSD will:

• Increase seed volumes by developing technologies, infrastructure, and irrigation among major seed producers and seed companies;
• Expand geographical access to quality seeds by co-financing the production, sales, and distribution of seeds with seed companies through a network of agro-distributors;
• Strengthen collaboration between international and national seed companies to stimulate the transfer of technologies and capacities for seeds (hybrid potato seeds, hybrid corn, and vegetables) and suppliers of agricultural technologies and infrastructure in the East African Community and Burundian seed companies. 

Component 2: Strengthening the business enabling environment. The PSSD, in collaboration with public institutions such as the ONCCS and ISABU, will ensure a favorable business environment for companies by carrying out the following activities:

• Harmonizing the mechanisms, systems, and processes for coordinating advance orders;
• Ensuring the implementation of the National Seed Plan for the multiplication and availability of pre-basic, basic, and certified seeds;
• Training farmer-researchers to conduct research on participatory variety selection for cassava in PAGRIS areas, with ISABU, while introducing and testing new crop varieties (sunflower and sorghum);
• Ensuring the implementation of the updates to the regulations approved between 2019 and 2022;
• Strengthening the inspection capacity of the National Seed Trade Association (COPROSEBU), its financial viability, and the regulatory framework for seed pre-orders. 

Component 3: Improving the resilience of farming households. The PSSD will ensure the resilience of households by carrying out the following activities:

• PSSD partners will establish plots to demonstrate climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices and integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), alongside demonstration and promotion plots;
• Promoting high-yield and drought-tolerant varieties;
• Experimenting with post-harvest handling, aggregation, and marketing of agricultural products. 

Component 4: Leveraging collaboration with projects funded by the Netherlands. The PSSD will expand access to seeds, diversify seed varieties, and reach new beneficiaries by connecting seed companies with households located in the areas surrounding other projects funded by the Dutch Embassy.