The Associate Program Officer - Market Systems & Post Harvest Management will work closely with Uganda's in-country partners to identify appropriate methods for linking smallholder farmers, SMEs, youth and women to market and trade opportunities. In addition to enhancing access to market and trade, the role will also contribute to creating awareness and promoting adoption of food loss reduction solutions.

The role focuses on strengthening business practices of cooperatives, aggregators, processors, and other value chain actors, enhancing post-harvest handling, storage, and processing; promoting access to markets; and facilitating innovation and partnerships. The officer will work closely with local teams, private-sector actors, and development partners to ensure high-quality delivery, learning, and documentation of results.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Contributes to the development of analytical tools and methodologies related to market-led development.
• Innovates to create, implement, and scale value chain approaches that enhance the participation of smallholder farmers, particularly women and youth, in local, regional, and global markets.
• Leads the design and implementation of grant-making activities that address constraints to farmer knowledge, practices, and behavior changes, applying new ideas to improve market access and post-harvest management.
• Facilitate market and trade linkages between off-takers and smallholder farmers at both local and national levels.
• Provides leadership in country SME development in alignment with the M&T strategic direction.
• Identifies and reports key trade and market trends and barriers that inform national trade and market policies and initiatives. Strengthen Quality and Standards: Enhance Traceability, quality, and standards of commodities in priority value chains.
• Leads/support the development of innovative project concepts and proposals for resource mobilization to support future M&T work in the country.
• Identify financial services opportunities for SME development in view of enhancing growth and creation of work opportunities for youth.
• Support the Country Director in messaging and engaging with relevant government ministries, departments, development partners, and agencies on inclusive Markets and Trade to foster agricultural development and growth.
• Support the markets and trade policy and regulatory influencing agenda by gathering evidence, leading stakeholder engagements, and producing knowledge products or collateral.
• Conduct in-depth market research and analysis to identify opportunities for expanding inclusive Markets and Trade.
• Support the Food Trade Coalition’s work and other strategic initiatives of the Inclusive Markets Task Force (IMTF) at the country level.
• Build and support multi-disciplinary networks of individuals and organizations that promote linking smallholder farmers to markets.
• Responsible for optimizing annual program budgets and managing program performance to ensure value for money and demonstrate programmatic impact.
• Oversee project grants in compliance with AGRA, grant, and audit requirements.
• Assist in collecting and sharing data with the center of technical expertise for the program’s Food Security Monitor and other knowledge management products.
• Support country teams in developing grant proposals focused on market shaping, policy, and trade resilience.
• Provide technical assistance to grantees and monitor the progress of the Inclusive Markets & Trade program in the country.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• Bachelors degree in Agricultural Economics, Business or in a relevant discipline, a master degree will be an added advantage.
• Experience in agricultural development, inclusive markets, trade, finance and economic policy.
• Fluency in English is required, ability to communicate in French will be considered an advantage.
• A desire to keep ahead of news and evolving discourse around policies in agriculture as well as food trade and market trends. Ability to develop sound project reports that can be understood by a wider stakeholder audience.
• Sound skills in proposal development and projects management, including consultancy services.

Behavioral Competencies

• Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking silos, sharing information celebrating joint successes.
• Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and incr

• Contributes to the development of analytical tools and methodologies related to market-led development.
• Innovates to create, implement, and scale value chain approaches that enhance the participation of smallholder farmers, particularly women and youth, in local, regional, and global markets.
• Leads the design and implementation of grant-making activities that address constraints to farmer knowledge, practices, and behavior changes, applying new ideas to improve market access and post-harvest management.
• Facilitate market and trade linkages between off-takers and smallholder farmers at both local and national levels.
• Provides leadership in country SME development in alignment with the M&T strategic direction.
• Identifies and reports key trade and market trends and barriers that inform national trade and market policies and initiatives. Strengthen Quality and Standards: Enhance Traceability, quality, and standards of commodities in priority value chains.
• Leads/support the development of innovative project concepts and proposals for resource mobilization to support future M&T work in the country.
• Identify financial services opportunities for SME development in view of enhancing growth and creation of work opportunities for youth.
• Support the Country Director in messaging and engaging with relevant government ministries, departments, development partners, and agencies on inclusive Markets and Trade to foster agricultural development and growth.
• Support the markets and trade policy and regulatory influencing agenda by gathering evidence, leading stakeholder engagements, and producing knowledge products or collateral.
• Conduct in-depth market research and analysis to identify opportunities for expanding inclusive Markets and Trade.
• Support the Food Trade Coalition’s work and other strategic initiatives of the Inclusive Markets Task Force (IMTF) at the country level.
• Build and support multi-disciplinary networks of individuals and organizations that promote linking smallholder farmers to markets.
• Responsible for optimizing annual program budgets and managing program performance to ensure value for money and demonstrate programmatic impact.
• Oversee project grants in compliance with AGRA, grant, and audit requirements.
• Assist in collecting and sharing data with the center of technical expertise for the program’s Food Security Monitor and other knowledge management products.
• Support country teams in developing grant proposals focused on market shaping, policy, and trade resilience.
• Provide technical assistance to grantees and monitor the progress of the Inclusive Markets & Trade program in the country.

• Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking silos, sharing information celebrating joint successes.
• Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and incr

• Bachelors degree in Agricultural Economics, Business or in a relevant discipline, a master degree will be an added advantage.
• Experience in agricultural development, inclusive markets, trade, finance and economic policy.
• Fluency in English is required, ability to communicate in French will be considered an advantage.
• A desire to keep ahead of news and evolving discourse around policies in agriculture as well as food trade and market trends. Ability to develop sound project reports that can be understood by a wider stakeholder audience.
• Sound skills in proposal development and projects management, including consultancy services.