Long-Term International Technical Assistant “Financing The Rural And Agricultural World” (M/F) At Expertise France

NB: This job description is published as part of Expertise France’s response to a request for the provision of intellectual services.

The mobilization of the position and the related tasks as described in this sheet will only be effective on condition that Expertise France is mandated for the TA mission and that the job description has been validated by the national stakeholders. The description of the tasks may therefore be subject to change.

I/ Mission description

Expertise France is looking for a full-time Long-Term International Technical Assistant for Financing the Rural and Agricultural World (ATI LT Fin) based in Brazzaville within the Kopekoba Program Management Unit within the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

As part of its partnership with the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), the Sustainable Land Use Program Investment Program (PI-PUDT or Kopekoba in Lingala) is the second component of the PUDT supported by the Government of the Republic of Congo. Kopekoba complements the PUDT, with the ambition of implementing on the ground the major national land use planning guidelines defined by the PUDT.

The general objective of Kopekoba is to diversify the national economy and fight against poverty through agricultural and forestry development following a low-carbon trajectory guaranteeing the integrity of the country’s landscapes and natural resources.

The ATI LT Financing of the rural and agricultural world will be responsible for activities related to investments made by actors in the value chains targeted by Kopekoba for the development of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Zero-Deforestation Agriculture (ZD). Under its leadership, the program will facilitate the development of a subsidy system for small producers and agro-industrial SMEs to finance investments and projects whose compatibility with CSA and ZD will have been calibrated and verified beforehand.

Under the hierarchical responsibility of the International Long-Term Technical Assistant Program Management (ATI LT Prog), he/she will work in functional liaison with the project manager at EF headquarters and in close collaboration with Congolese partners within the Program Coordination Unit and the Program Management Units. He/she will notably ensure the following tasks:

• Technical support for the Program

In close collaboration with the partners involved in the program and supervising a pool of short-term experts recruited for part of these missions, ATI LT Fin will ensure the implementation of the activities entrusted to Expertise France, in particular with regard to:

– Co-facilitate, guide and monitor the work of local partners in the implementation of activities within the framework of financing the rural and agricultural world in relation to the ATI LT sustainable agriculture;

– Design a mapping of rural and agricultural finance service offers available to project leaders made available by pre-identified structures in the pilot territories of the Program;

– Support the development of an administrative and financial procedures manual for the shared-cost grant fund and the payment for environmental services (PES) scheme;

– Support the identification of the organizational and institutional needs of the “Catalyst” in charge of the intervention principle of the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) mechanism;

– Support the identification of organizational and institutional needs of “Incubators”, the objective of which is to support project leaders in the formalization of their AIC and AZD projects;

– Support capacity building for bank/microfinance institution officials responsible for agricultural credit management/risk analysis;

– Provide expertise on the structuring of financing files for AIC and AZD project leaders and refinancing files for Incubators;

– Support the definition of eligibility and admissibility criteria for project leaders;

– Support the definition of an intervention facility in order to assist project leaders in setting up and monitoring their projects: from the development of the business plan to the monitoring and evaluation of the actual implementation of the project;

– Support the preparation of subsidies (definition of consultation regulations, etc.);

– Support risk measurement, in particular by implementing assessment tools and carrying out studies to determine risk/profitability relationships in support of ATI CT Monitoring Evaluation Accountability.

• Support to the AT team in the operational and administrative management of the program

In close collaboration with the partners involved in the program and at ATI LT Prog, ATI LT Fin will support the Expertise France AT team, particularly with regard to:

– Contribute to the definition of technical and budgetary planning of activities (PTBA) of technical assistance and the Program relating to the financing of the rural and agricultural world;

– Contribute to the identification of expertise needs for technical assistance relating to financing the rural and agricultural world;

– Contribute to the supervision of experts and operators recruited within the framework of financing the rural and agricultural world;

– Contribute in its field of activity to the quarterly Technical Monitoring Committees and Annual Steering Committee of Kopekoba and to the technical and budgetary execution reporting (RETB) of the PMUs within the Program in accordance with the requirements of the financial partners (AFD/EU/CAFI);

– Contribute to Expertise France’s internal reporting (management of activities, mobilization forecast, etc.);

– Any task that the ATI LT Program management deems appropriate for the proper progress of the AT mission.

This job description is not exhaustive; in general, the ATI LT Fin is responsible for the activities necessary for the proper execution of the Program, particularly within the framework of Result 2.

II/ Description of the project and context

1. General presentation of the Program

As part of its partnership with the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), the Sustainable Land Use Program Investment Program (PI-PUDT or Kopekoba in Lingala) is the second component of the PUDT supported by the Government of the Republic of Congo. Kopekoba complements the PUDT, with the ambition of implementing on the ground the major national land use planning guidelines defined by the PUDT.

The general objective of Kopekoba is to diversify the national economy and combat poverty through agricultural and forestry development following a low-carbon trajectory that guarantees the integrity of the country’s landscapes and natural resources. In particular, it aims to:

• Select pilot territories in which territorial management and development plans will be implemented;

• Support the structuring of resilient agricultural value chains, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Zero Deforestation Agriculture (ZDA) in savannah and forest areas;

• Support research and development, as well as the dissemination of good agricultural practices, by supporting local administration through the rehabilitation of its service offering and the development of new offerings, through sustainable agriculture innovation centers, technical centers and a network of relay farms and/or Priority Agricultural Zones (ZAP);

• Make innovative investments in the sustainable agriculture sector;

• Strengthen the capacities of state and non-state actors, particularly in monitoring and evaluation of projects supported under the Programme.

The program will intervene more precisely according to 4 major results:

• Result 1. Sustainable agriculture is intensified in accordance with national land use strategies;

• Result 2. Investments made by players in the AIC and AZD value chains are supported;

• Result 3. The master plans for sustainable wood energy supply in the cities of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire are implemented;

• Result 4. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms make it possible to monitor the results of projects financed by PUDT/Kopekoba and to guide the future development of AIC and AZD towards the most effective practices.

The Program benefits from the financial support of CAFI, the European Union (EU) and AFD (executing agency chosen by the Government and CAFI), and is implemented over a period of five (05) years from 2024 to 2029 and benefits from a maximum budget of $41M.

2. Program Governance

Operationally, the main project management of the program will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Regional Planning, Infrastructure and Road Maintenance (MATIER), in line with the PUDT, through the Program Coordination Unit (UCP MATIER). The UCP MATIER will be strengthened to also ensure the accountability of Kopekoba and to align the strategic orientations of regional planning with the investments made in Kopekoba.

The Management Units established at the PUDT level by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (UGP MAEP) and the Ministry of Forest Economy (UGP MEF) will ensure project management for activities falling within their remit.

Technical partners (CIRAD, CIFOR, WCS, WWF, WRI, VCV Network) will support the PMUs in the deployment in the field of certain operational activities and investments of the program, in their areas and geographical zones of competence.

3. Technical assistance to project management

Among the partners supporting the UGPs, Expertise France is mandated by MATIER to mobilize a technical assistance (TA) team with the MAEP and MEF UGPs in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the implementation of the program’s activities and therefore contribute to achieving its results in the short, medium and long terms. More specifically, the TA team will intervene according to 2 areas of intervention:

• Intervention axis No. 1: support for the management of the program cycle with the MAEP and MEF UGPs – in a transversal manner, with the rigor of the technical, administrative and financial execution of the program – in order to enable them to ensure an increasing and progressively autonomous role in the management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project.

• Intervention axis No. 2: responsibility in the direct implementation of activities. In the form of mobilization of expertise (resident and perlée) and the use of service provision contracts, Expertise France will aim to provide all the expertise necessary for the proper direct implementation of certain activities of Results 1 to 4 and the achievement of their objectives.

The EF team will be composed of Long-Term (LT) and Short-Term (CT) International Technical Assistants (ITA), a field support team and a “Backstopping” support team at the Expertise France headquarters.

4. Job-specific context

The development of investments for the deployment of agriculture in the Congo in the broad sense, in particular for AIC and AZD, comes up against numerous constraints including weak technical capacities of project leaders (small producers, cooperatives, companies) and the difficulty of accessing financing for their projects from financial institutions, which are weakly developed and diversified in the Congo.

Thus, in Result 2, two Products are identified aimed at:

• Complete the offer of agricultural technical services provided by the Technical Centers and the decentralized structures of the State (Cf. Results 1 and 4) by developing the financial component via the strengthening of mechanisms for stimulating and supporting investment projects (Product 2.1);

• Establish subsidies for small producers who have not yet formalized to finance investments and projects whose compatibility with the AIC and the AZD will have been calibrated and verified in advance via the PUDT (Product 2.2).

The program will be able to rely on 17 “Incubator” partners who must be able to organize training for project leaders as part of the Fund’s incentive and support systems. The “Catalyst” chosen by the Program will then be able to set up a complete technical assistance system for the identified “incubators” and provide them with technical support for their mandate. This “Catalyst” (a specialized structure that remains to be defined) will be able to define the main axes of the agricultural sector support strategy and will support the definition of the eligibility and admissibility criteria for project leaders. Ultimately, the “Incubators” must be able to select project leaders and be able to support project leaders in the field for the formalization of their projects and the development of their business plan. At the same time, projects with AIC and AZD and wood energy impacts will be selected within the pilot territories according to updated eligibility principles and criteria in order to benefit from subsidies.

III/ Desired profile

1. Qualifications

– Master’s degree (bac +5) in agricultural economics, business administration, economics, finance or in a related or other relevant field;

– In-depth knowledge of financial actors, institutions and regulatory frameworks favorable to the financial inclusion of rural populations in Sub-Saharan Africa;

– In-depth knowledge of inclusive finance mechanisms in rural areas, ideally in the AIC and AZD sector and/or agri-food (microfinance, financial products for small producers, financing and investment in favor of agricultural and agro-industrial MSMEs);

– Excellent interpersonal skills;

– Ability to conduct dialogue with public and private partners;

– Ability to diagnose needs and capacities, strengthen and design action plans adapted to implementing partner structures;

– Strong capacity for work and autonomy, flexibility and organization, responsiveness;

– Strong writing skills and mastery of office tools;

– Excellent command of French, both written and spoken.

2. Professional experience

– At least 7 years of professional experience in the management of inclusive finance activities in the agricultural and agro-industrial sector aimed at MSMEs and/or small producers;

– At least one experience working with international donors and/or an international cooperation agency in the context of international cooperation projects/programs;

– At least one significant work experience in managing the delivery of successful capacity building activities to financial institutions, such as conducting needs assessments and analyzing results, developing training and coaching plans, developing training programs and materials, organizing trainings;

– Experience working in technical assistance with public institutions (ministries, decentralized services, technical institutes or equivalent) would be an asset;

– Experience working with Expertise France would be an asset;

– Experience in the geographical area (Republic of Congo, Central Africa) would be an asset.

IV/ Additional information

1. Conditions

– Desired start date: 1st quarter 2025;

– Type of contract: French private law employment contract;

– Attractive remuneration established according to the Expertise France remuneration policy including:

o Fixed basic salary based on profession, responsibilities, expertise and experience;

o Bonuses linked to the quality of life and cost of living on site;

o Family package bonus if applicable;

o Installation allowance bonus;

o Reimbursed expenses such as accommodation and caretaking costs, school fees for children accompanying the expert in the country of the mission, moving costs, transport costs;

o Social protection and insurance;

o Individual tax support.