Ethiopia: Senior Director, Analytics - Ethiopia

TERMS OF REFERENCE

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position: Senior Director, Analytics

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (with field travel where required for project work)

Term of Employment: Project- One Year with a possibility of extension

Required Number: One

Salary & Benefits: Competitive

Application Deadline: June 12, 2016

BACKGROUND ON THE ORGANIZATION

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) was established by the Government of Ethiopia in 2011 with the primary aim of promoting transformation of the agriculture sector to help the country reach middle-income status by 2025. Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the organization currently has over 300 staff in five offices across the country. ATA reports to the Transformation Council which is chaired by the Prime Minister and has representatives from a wide range of federal and regional government bodies across agriculture, trade, industry and other closely related sectors.

ATA works closely with these government partners, local and international private sector firms, and development partners, to address systemic challenges in agriculture. The Agency comprises more than 35 teams with diverse programmatic focus, from increasing agricultural productivity to catalyzing rural finance industries to growing agribusiness and agricultural markets to building institutional capacity. Major activities across the organization include: policy enhancement, strategic and analytical problem-solving, testing and scale-up of innovative solutions, implementation support, and coordination and capacity building of stakeholders.

ABOUT THE TEAM

As ATA’s strategic advisory and consulting function, the Analytics Team works with other Senior Directors and Directors within the organization, as well as senior leadership at key government, development and private sector partners, to execute high-impact, analytically challenging projects. The team applies an approach similar to top strategy consulting firms and government strategy units in a number of countries, to support these partners to more effectively bring together the strategic, analytical, technical and operational capabilities required to support the Agricultural Transformation Agenda and specific deliverables underneath this. Projects span from developing national strategies to incubating innovative programs until they are ready for scale-up, and typically fall into one of five areas:

Client project areas & Examples of types of questions addressed by projects

Strategy Development & Strategic Planning

• What overall strategy should the country adopt for a specific agricultural sub-sector or commodity value chain?


• How can an effective 5-year roadmap to significantly increase use of irrigation be developed?

Policy & regulatory analysis

• Should an import tariff or export ban be removed or relaxed to better drive industry growth?


• What enhancement to a policy framework are required to rapidly improve intuitional arrangements and industry stricture, and spur new greenfield and brownfield investments?

Institutional & organizational enhancement

• How should a new government agency for food aid be mandated, structured and staffed?


• What is the optimal design of the sourcing, storage and distribution network for a major commodity trading and distribution operation?

Business Model& business case development

• Which supply chain, wholesaling and retailing business models can be used by cooperatives to better market the output of farmers?


• What is the business case for investing in a specific agro- processing venture?

Design & incubation of innovative pilot programs

• What is the optimal design and funding model for a national school feeding program?


• How can rapid growth of private providers of mechanized service be achieved through a financial and technical support program?

In addition, the team also works extensively on capacity building through managing training and professional development programs for ATA staff and designing and delivering programs for partners.

The Analytics Team reports directly to the CEO and consists of a Senior Director, Senior Associates / Senior International Consultants, Associates / International Consultants, and Senior Analysts and Analysts, totaling ~40 staff. Project teams typically comprise an Associate and two to four Senior Analysts and Analysts. International staff are recruited into Analytics at the Senior Associate and Associate levels to support the build out of the team’s full structure, and work very closely with junior local staff to accelerate their development and progression into more senior roles. Through this innovative capacity-building model, fully local staffing is targeted within three to five years.

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Senior Director of the Analytics Team is responsible for ensuring the continued growth, development and effective functioning of the team as a provider of best-in-class strategic advisory and consulting service to senior internal and external clients. He or she oversees planning a diverse portfolio of strategic and analytically-focused high impact projects and internal and external client relationships, ensuring effective planning and execution of projects, partnership with stakeholders, and rapid staff development. The role also involves further building out and refining the team’s operating model, management structure, support systems and processes, as well as working closely with other members of the senior management team on strategic initiatives and senior stakeholder engagement.

Significant experience leading and delivering high-impact, challenging projects for senior clients across government, private-sector, and development organizations, and building and managing high-performance teams, are therefore important prerequisites for this role. Specific experience in agribusiness and industrial development initiatives in developing countries and Africa in particular is desirable, as is a strong passion for transforming agriculture and improving the lives of smallholder farmers.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Oversee planning and execution of diverse, strategic and analytically-focused high impact projects, including effective partnership with internal and external clients and stakeholders


• Develop and manage overall team work plans based on project planning and prioritization with ATA senior management, and ensure the timeliness, analytical rigor, practicality and quality of outputs


• Provide day to day guidance, coaching, mentoring and quality control support to senior associates / senior international consultants overseeing multiple projects, as well as associates / international consultants directly leading individual projects


• Support project teams in internal and external steering committees and workshops, and lead engagement with more senior stakeholders


• Design and put in place project management, budgeting and financial management, recruiting, staffing, performance management, training and professional development, knowledge management, and other critical systems, processes and programs


• Ensure rapid staff development and progress towards fully local staffing within three to five years


• Lead ATA’s efforts to provide analytical and other capacity-building internally and to key partners


• Manage and quality control policy analysis, analytical studies and consulting projects commissioned to external services providers


• Work closely with and provide strategic advisory and thought partnership to other members of the senior management team on diverse topics

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum MBA, MPA or Master’s Degree in a relevant field


• At least ten years of experience with six or more years of combined experience in a top-tier global strategy consulting firm and other organizations in strategy/analysis focused roles, including experience managing across multiple projects and client relationships at the same time


• Significant experience in leading, structuring and managing projects in a range of client or senior management engagements on diverse industry and functional topics


• Strong understanding of public and development sector issues, and ability to effectively liaise with senior decision-makers across government, non-governmental and private sector organizations


• Exceptional ability to communicate clearly and effectively in a complex, cross-cultural environment (fluency in English is essential)


• Highly collaborative leadership style and demonstrated success in leading, managing and developing high-performance teams


• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service