Senior EFFORT Advisor (Empowerment for Farmers' Organizations through Rural Transformation)

Title: Senior EFFORT Advisor (Empowerment for Farmer’s Organization through Rural Transformation) GROWTH Project.
Grade: 8
Location: Jinja, Uganda
Reporting/Supervisor: Project Director

About TechnoServe:
Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.
The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets, unpredictable political dynamics and, increasingly, the effects of climate change. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing...when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they are able to access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Program Overview:
Building on the successes of TechnoServe’s Horticulture Market Acceleration Program (HortiMAP; 2020-2025), the follow up program ‘Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Wealth Through Horticulture’ (GROWTH) will deepen farmer ownership and drive lasting transformation in Uganda’s horticulture sector.
GROWTH is a five year (Dec 2025 – Dec 2030) horticulture sector development programme, supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) through its Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Kampala, Uganda. The programme is implemented by a consortium consisting of TechnoServe (lead), Wageningen University & Research and Agriterra.
Over five years, GROWTH will support 100,000 smallholder farmers to engage in profitable and resilient horticulture markets. The program will increase and stabilize farmer incomes, reduce post-harvest losses, enhance food security, and create thousands of new jobs across value chains. At a systems level, it will expand access to affordable finance, strengthen compliance with food safety standards, and improve market linkages across domestic and regional trade. GROWTH is rooted in a farmer-led approach that leverages participatory planning, so that farmers and their organizations will define their priorities, shaping interventions that reflect local needs.
GROWTH aligns with the Dutch Embassy’s Multi-Annual Country Strategy 2023–2026, contributing to food and nutrition security, sustainable land use, private sector growth, and climate adaptation. It also supports the Netherlands’ broader ambition to connect aid and trade, facilitating partnerships between Dutch and Ugandan enterprises in areas such as irrigation, seed systems, and cold chain solutions. GROWTH will be a EUR 13 million investment over five years.
TechnoServe is the lead agency for GROWTH, and collaborates closely with its key partners Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Agriterra in management and implementation.

Job Summary:
The Senior EFFORT Advisor will be contracted through TechnoServe Uganda, and will become part of the GROWTH programme team, supporting the daily implementation of EFFORT related activities, and providing additional project support where required.
Under the guidance of both the WUR EFFORT Expert and WUR Project Manager (both based in the Netherlands), the Senior EFFORT Advisor will support the design and delivery of the EFFORT Training of Trainers (ToT) for GROWTH project staff; provide on-the-ground, day-to-day coordination, supervision, and backstopping to the teams implementing and rolling out EFFORT; ensure effective and high-quality implementation of EFFORT; and maintains alignment and coordination with other GROWTH outcome areas and activities in all project areas, while also overseeing monitoring and reporting on EFFORT. The Senior EFFORT Advisor will maintain regular contact and consult with the WUR EFFORT Expert and WUR Project Manager. In Uganda, the Senior EFFORT Advisor will report to the GROWTH Project Director and work closely with the Agriterra Project Manager, as part of the supervision structure in place within Agriterra.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

• Tasks and responsibilities may be adjusted to some extent depending on the background and technical expertise of the applicant, but will at least include:
• Manage the integration of EFFORT in GROWTH: act as the central focal person for EFFORT in the GROWTH project in-country, linking WUR advisors in the Netherlands with staff/partners working on the ground in Uganda; Co-organise relevant events, workshops, trainings, or related activities, including those in which WUR is involved.
• Facilitate capacity strengthening and backstopping: provide technical support on the EFFORT approach to implementing staff (and cooperatives) in close collaboration with WUR; coach staff, organize and facilitate training and review/reflection meetings, promote the sharing and uptake of good EFFORT practices, so that GROWTH staff and partners are able to effectively work with FOs to integrate EFFORT.
• Maintain internal coherence and alignment: promote internal coherence and alignment between the EFFORT approach, the PIP approach and other methodologies and interventions, to ensure EFFORT is well embedded in the project; this includes contributing to the annual planning and budgeting processes.
• Advocating for quality improvement of the participatory approach: based on core principles of participatory approaches, advocate within the project team at all layers to create the right conditions for a good participatory approach; liaise closely with WUR on this, and contribute to the further development of the EFFORT approach that is led by WUR in close collaboration with the FORT project.
• Overseeing and synthesizing the documentation of EFFORT: supporting the documentation of the use of EFFORT across the project team; collaborate with MEL staff to ensure EFFORT is embedded in GROWTH’s monitoring, evaluation and learning; write and share regular updates on EFFORT progress.
• Representation: represent GROWTH on the EFFORT approach in exchanges with other (EKN-supported) projects; make presentations to the donor and to other projects in collaboration with WUR.
  

Basic Qualifications

• BSc degree in relevant field e.g., Horticulture, Rural Development Studies, Agricultural Extension, Ethics and Human Rights, Gender Studies, Entrepreneurship, Agricultural or Applied Economics, or any equivalent and 5 years professional working experience in fields relevant and related to the scope of work described; Alternatively a MSc degree and 3 years of experience.
• Experience with one or more specific participatory approaches, such as Gender Action Learning System (GALS), Participatory Action Learning System (PALS), Training for Transformation (TFT), Participatory Integrated Planning (PIP), Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) or any other relevant approaches;
• Experience in working with farmer communities, agricultural cooperatives, farmer organizations, and facilitating workshops;
• Experience within the horticulture sector, with public and private sector engagement, and facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes with different stakeholder groups;
• A good networker with the ability to engage in the dynamic environment of business, government, civil society, and academic worlds;
• Experience in project management, implementation, and reporting in projects funded by international donors, with a proven ability to produce high-quality reports.
• Willingness to travel regularly to the project implementation region;
• Proven digital skills and abilities to use tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.
  

Required Languages:
Excellent oral, written, and interpersonal skills, including fluency in English. Understanding of Luganda, Swahili, and other native languages is an advantage.
Travel: Travel up to 40 %
Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Proven ability to serve as a trusted advisor, providing business leaders with professional, accurate, and timely support; able to diagnose complex matters and develop relevant and balanced solutions
• Open mindset, enthusiastic, strong and empowering leadership style, pro-active work approach, able to work independently with minimal supervision, result and impact focused with attention to details, able to adapt to shifting demands and deadlines;
• Result oriented and self-motivated team player, with strong interpersonal and team building skills, good communication and facilitation skills, and ability and flexibility to work in multi-disciplinary, international teams, and with the ability to work across disciplines and stakeholders;
• Flexible approach to take on additional responsibilities or tasks as assigned / delegated;
• Great cultural and emotional intelligence.
  

Supervisory Responsibilities: none
We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.
With our commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.
We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff, partners, and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.
If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact the Human Resources at recruitment@tns.org or call +1 202 785 4515.
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