POSITION TITLE: Chief of Party (COP)

LOCATION: Lilongwe, Malawi

GROUP: Agriculture, Resilience, and Water

REPORTS TO: Director, Agriculture, Resilience and Water

Winrock International (Winrock) is a leading non-profit organization that works around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment. Winrock strengthens the capacity of women, children, youth, civil society organizations, and businesses to actively participate in sustainable development and to positively impact society.

The Agriculture, Resilience and Water (ARW) group partners with rural communities, businesses, and local leaders to develop market-oriented, climate-smart solutions at scale that increase food production and profitability, expand market access, secure natural resources, and build resilient livelihoods. Using a systems lens, we apply local and global expertise to advance inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economic growth for all, especially the historically marginalized.

The ARW group is a global team that works collaboratively and aspires to best utilize the diverse skills and experiences of all members to better serve communities across the world. ARW leadership strives for transparent management and maintains an open-door policy. The ARW team aims to cultivate a culture of inclusion, growth, and learning.

Project Description

The Market Transitions to Enable New Growth Opportunities (MTENGO) project is a five-year, United States Department of Agriculture funded project implemented by Winrock in the Northern and Central regions of Malawi. MTENGO uses a farmer-first approach grounded in market incentives to increase resource-efficient, reliable production from Malawian agriculture in the face of climate unpredictability.

MTENGO’s approach will enable farmers to:

Diversify and achieve stable returns from their farming portfolio through climate smart farming by responding to market demands with diversified production;

Increase access to water for productive purposes through improved water management practices;

Make ecosystem services work for farmers by improving farmer access to, and collective management of, water, soil, and forest products; and Increase access to markets and finance so farmers can make climate smart investments.

Description of Role

The Chief of Party will be responsible for overall project management, administration, and implementation of the project. They will maintain systems for project operations;

ensure that all award deadlines are met, and targets are achieved; oversee project staff; and coordinate and maintain working relationships with project stakeholders, including government ministries, private sector firms and industry groups, subgrantees and/or subcontractors, other development projects, short-term technical assistance providers, and local institutions.

They will lead collaborative initiatives to ensure all approaches are sustainable, inclusive, cross-sectoral, and evidence-based.

Essential Responsibilities: Coordination Work in close partnership with donor to ensure alignment of project with donor’s strategic goals and objectives for agricultural trade, and application of program-wide learning and collaboration.

Coordinate and collaborate with host government programs and other donor projects to leverage resources and maximize results.

Technical Design and lead a technical approach that supports increased use of sustainable and scalable CSA practices and technologies in diversified crop production, including expanding tree crop and drought tolerant crop production, and improved water and natural resource management based on end market opportunities.

Monitor project performance through indicators and evaluate program effectiveness and results.

Apply adaptive management and learning approach to iteratively evaluate program results and impact. Institute adjustments to replicate and scale successful activities and course correct activities that are not yielding desired results.

Administration and Leadership

Provide administrative direction and technical input on climate smart agricultural practices to project staff, consultants, and partners, including identifying and responding to training and mentorship needs.

Ensures staff compliance with all USDA administrative and operational procedures and policies, as well as applicable donor regulations. Maintain close communication with Winrock home office and USDA to provide ongoing, informal, updates or project progress.

Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS AND BACKGROUND:

Education: Academic degree in international development, business, finance, management, or other relevant fields. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience: Minimum 10 years of experience managing value chain development and/or complex economic growth programs/leading private sector sourcing, or trade functions required.

Senior level management experience on donor-funded programs is required. Previous COP experience on USG funded aquaculture, agribusiness, or market development projects or equivalent private sector management experience is preferred.

Experience designing, implementing, and coaching project staff and partners on systems-based interventions required. Experience operationalizing the collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) framework in project implementation. Experience integrating nutrition, gender, and youth into agriculture value chains.

Experience integrating social and behavioral change communications into the design of training and capacity building programs. Experience developing partnerships with private sector actors aligned around shared value.

Skills/Knowledge: Ability to diplomatically supervise staff and coordinate activities with partners from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.

Ability to build coalitions and networks with public and private sector actors that can provide synergies and sustainable solutions. Must be comfortable in high-level representational role as well as interacting with project participants. Demonstrated understanding of USG M&E frameworks and reporting systems.

Skills in knowledge management, qualitative and quantitative analytical methods, data analysis, collaboration, learning and adaptation (CLA) approach preferred.

Excellent management, communication, and organizational skills are required. Excellent computer skills (word-processing, spreadsheets, and databases) are required.

Other: Fluency in English is required. Professional experience in Malawi is highly desired. Diversity Guided by our belief that organizations do their best work when individuals with different backgrounds and perspectives are fully engaged, Winrock International is dedicated to building an inclusive workplace that respects the dignity of each individual. We are committed to fostering a culture that embraces diverse perspectives and believe that a diverse workforce broadens our understanding of the communities we serve and enhances and enriches our work.

Winrock is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and value diversity and inclusiveness. Winrock recruits, employs, trains, promotes and compensates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. At Winrock we have a clear mission: Empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources through unwavering dedication to accountability, equity, innovation, integrity and transformation