CNFA-CI

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REGIONAL POLICY REFORM SPECIALIST

Description du poste

CNFA is currently seeking applications from qualified candidates for a Regional Policy Reform Specialist to support a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress (FFPr) project in West Africa region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Ghana) called USDA West Africa PRO-Cashew project. The project aims to improve agricultural production and expand trade of agricultural products.

About the Project
PRO-Cashew will work to boost the competitiveness of West African producers by improving efficiency and quality in production and trade, and by working to develop more coherent regional trade and investment policies. In doing so, the project will strengthen producer capacities as well as develop incentives to renovate and rehabilitate cashew farms, improve production and quality, and create a more competitive West African raw cashew nut for the international market.
Gaps in cashew value chain data limit the ability of governments to effectively target farmers with interventions, reduce private sector confidence in cashew sector investments, and exacerbate macroeconomic market inefficiencies that ultimately restrict profitability and competitiveness. PRO-Cashew Cashew-IN data regional system will help stakeholders to inform better policies.
The project will collaborate with the CICC, national policy makers, private sector, and technical/financial partners on a shared data management platform aligned with their common strategic pillars - to link evidence, strategy, policy, and practice. The best strategy is to operate at the pre-competitive stage, providing data needed to:
• Forecast national and regional production and market trends, including price information.
• Capture lessons learned to improve value chain policies and practices.
• Understand the cross-border implications for trade competitiveness policies.
• Promote business/entrepreneurial management of orchards and extension services.
• Gather and share R&D on production and agronomic best practices (inter-regionally and globally).
• Identify infrastructure needs to address distribution bottlenecks and quality loss in transport/storage.
• Incentivize quality improvements by having a price system based on quality.
• Disseminate technological advances to support data collection and traceability.
• Improve risk management for the financial sector, to bridge funding gaps.
• Understand and reduce smuggling incentives.

PRO-Cashew will focus on achieving the following objectives:
• To increase productivity and efficiency of actors in the cashew value chain through strengthening the capacities of cooperatives/producer organizations, nursery systems and input suppliers and strengthening data collection and dissemination systems.
• To improve and expand the trade of cashew and cashew products through improving crop quality; rehabilitating and renovating orchards; addressing gaps in data collection, analysis and dissemination; strengthening public-private partnerships; and encouraging harmonized regional policies to supply products that meet market demand.
PRO-Cashew will undertake a series of activities to achieve the ambitious targets captured in the Performance Management Plan. As a result of these activities, PRO-Cashew expects the following high-level outcomes results by the end of the program:
• 10% average increase in agricultural commodities among program participants.
• $103,700,000 value of sales of farms and firms receiving USDA assistance.
• 27,490 MT volume of commodities sold by farms and firms receiving USDA assistance.
• 73,383 number of individuals participating in USDA food security programs.

Position Summary:
The Regional Policy Reform Specialist will build the capacity of select policy makers and industry influencers, most notably the Consultative International Cashew Council (CICC) and the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), to use Cashew-IN to inform decisions. PRO-Cashew will engage these and other policy makers, organizations, and research institutes in the region to improve policy knowledge and cooperation, and contribute to the development of PRO-Cashew grower strategy documents and policies.

Collecting, aggregating, analyzing, and disseminating required data through PRO-Cashew will allow the Regional Policy Reform Specialist to facilitate evidence-based decision-making to improve the regional trade environment: building evidence on efficient, equitable trade environments to regulate market failures and remove barriers to market access while making market participation more efficient and beneficial for smallholders, public and private sector actors, and consumers.

The Regional Policy Reform Specialist will maintain PRO-Cashew organizational profile through global advocacy support to the cashew sector in West African producing countries. S/He will monitor research and information about rules, regulations and penal reform issues and the work of other national and international, and intergovernmental organizations. S/He will liaise with the Program Director and staff across the organization to contribute to PRO-Cashew’s research, policy and advocacy aims and activities. The RPR Specialist will provide input to PRO-Cashew’s regional program, as required; contribute to and oversee external communications; plan and report in the project areas of intervention.



The Regional Policy Reform Specialist has the mandate to initiate:

• 15 priority reforms for regional cashew sector analyzed with consultation of key stakeholders
• 26 institutions engaged in regional policy collaboration
• 100 policy makers regularly accessing information from Cashew-IN

Job Description:
• Work with the Governments and the project team to identify possible cashew sector-specific policy reform areas
• Work closely with the Program Director and Chief of Party, supporting the governments of implementing countries to move policy through all phases of development
• Coordinate with the governments of the implementing countries to establish MOUs and help identify counterparts for policy development and capacity development assistance
• Design and manage needs assessments and capacity assessments to inform the delivery of further assistance
• Provide or facilitate the delivery of training on economic policy and macroeconomic management
• Support the analysis, planning and delivery of special economic policy initiatives for the cashew sector
• Serve as the senior economic advisor to the project, providing economics inputs to project work and helping to ensure technical quality of reports and grants
• Facilitate dialogue within the government and with civil society; engage with research centers partnering with the project and supporting project dialogue activities, through, but not limited to: helping develop themes and discussion areas, supporting quality assurance and development of any content for dialogue activities, and supporting the events themselves
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders in governments and private stakeholders, including African Cashew Alliance, Committee of Cashew and Coffee, the Ministry of Agriculture, and others.

Profil du poste

Qualifications:

•Master’s degree or above in Economics, Public Policy, Agricultural Policy

•Minimum 10 years of work experience

•Strong experience in economic policy analysis, policy development, and econometrics

•Experience providing training or capacity building in economic or related analytical issues

•Previous work experience with diverse stakeholders including the private sector, public sector and international donors

•Strong communication, presentation, and report-writing skills

•Fluency in written and spoken English and French

•Previous work experience with a government ministry formulating policy

•Regional experience managing projects of increasing complexity with implementation and responsibilities in multiple West African countries, preferably Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and/or Nigeria

•Local candidates are strongly encouraged to apply

Dossiers de candidature

Veuillez visiter le site-web de la CNFA afin de postuler: https://cnfa.hua.hrsmart.com/hr/ats/Posting/view/148