Consultant Agricultural Systems

Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) invites applications for aTechnical Consultant for Agricultural Systems to join our dedicated and talented team in our mission to create business solutions to poverty!

Job Status: Consultancy anticipate Twelve 12 months in duration

Start Date: 2 June 2025

Location(s): Flexible Remote

BACKGROUND

MEDA Mennonite Economic Development Associates is an international economic development organization that creates business solutions to poverty. For nearly 70 years MEDA has been creating business solutions to poverty that are sustainable scalable measurable and replicable.

Our goal is to provide decent work opportunities for a half million people by 2030. We do this by cocreating programs that support business growth and job creation along with wider economic social and environmental impact with local partners.
Smallholder farmers and agribusinesses are the backbone of rural economies. But the financial and agricultural markets in which they operate often do not function well enough to ensure that their businesses can grow and create decent job opportunities and address poverty. MEDA takes an inclusive market systems development approach to our work which means that we work in partnership to understand the markets in which our clients are currently operating and look to leverage the power of the market to drive change at scale. This is how MEDA creates business value.

Business Value Creation (BVC) is at the heart of MEDAs mission to create decent work for 500000 women 60 men and youth 30 by 2030 by transforming agri food systems and making them more productive more inclusive and more sustainable.

The objective of the Business Value Creation unit is to support the creation of decent jobs through business solutions that increase access to markets and finance in a way that is inclusive and sustainable. This support is delivered through two areas of expertise:

1. Inclusive Market Systems (IMS) which leverages market assessments copayment incentives BDS business training strategic partnerships and market linkages to address binding market constraints.
   
   
2. Impact Investment and Innovative Finance (II&IF): which leverages investment for social and economic growth investment readiness programs cocreation of financing solutions and uptake or advancement of technology to address access to finance challenges.

MEDA is seeking a consultant with a broadbased expertise in:

i. Climate smart agricultural practices including climate smart agriculture (CSA) and regenerative agriculture

ii. Agricultural economics covering the production distribution and consumption of agricultural goods and services
iii. Agribusiness development including technical support to support the growth of cooperatives and small and medium enterprises
iv. Agri finance including the design and provision of financial services and investment

The consulting assignment will be for a duration of twelve months.

The consultant will report to the Senior Director for Technical Areas based at the corporate headquarters in Waterloo Canada and will also have an indirect reporting line to the Interim Director Partnerships and Business Accelerator. The assignment is remote and will be for a duration of 12 months with an expected start date of June 2 2025.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
MEDA supports key actors in targeted agrifood systems with business solutions that helps:

1. increase quality of production enhance local food availability and access to markets (local and/or international) so that producers and agribusinesses can sell more of their goods earn more income grow or expand their business and eventually create and sustain decent jobs.
2. increase access to finance so that agribusinesses can invest in improved technologies or practices which will help them enhance their productivity grow or expand their businesses earn more income and eventually create or sustain jobs.

Our technical toolkit includes market systems assessments incentives business development services and investment readiness support among others. However as MEDA transitions to a regional model of delivery out toolkit needs to be adapted to support largescale market facilitation programs focused on agri business agri finance and technology and aligned with regional priorities.

In addition our business development efforts require expert inputs to help strengthen the design of new programs and to strengthen our donor engagement initiatives.

The consultant will be expected to contribute to these strategic goals by supporting technical delivery new project and proposal design as well as research and thought leadership.

SCOPE OF SERVICES
The services to be provided fall under the following areas: 1. Technical delivery; 2. Business development and partner engagement 3. Strategic research and thought leadership.

1. Technical Delivery: The objective is to strengthen MEDAs agriculture and market systems frameworks approaches and tools in alignment with international standards and donor guidelines to improve the effectiveness of our regional programs. This may include providing training to regional technical specialists in strategic growth areas (e.g. regenerative agriculture) and harmonizing existing tools and approaches.
   
   MEDA tends to focus on the following crops/value chains: rice maize soyabean aquaculture groundnuts coffee and cocoa. Experience in any of these crops/value chains would be a plus.
   
   Activities to be undertaken under this area of work include but are not limited to the following:
   Review of MEDA approaches tools and assets and relevant local partner reports and tools
   Recommendations on how to strengthen relevant MEDA frameworks approaches and tools and identify where possible opportunities to leverage technology or digital solutions for efficiency and accuracy
   Refinement and harmonization/standardization of existing tools including local partner tools where relevant
   Creation of new tools where necessary
   Development of training materials and provision of training as required by project teams
   
   Main deliverables:
   Updated agricultural systems toolkit with updates to at least 3 major approaches or tools and creation of at least 1 major approach framework or tool
   A simplified yet comprehensive digital market systems/agricultural systems database or dashboard leveraging both internal and external sources
   
   
2. Business Development:The objective is to contribute to the Partnership and Business Accelerators (PBA) efforts to design new projects and raise new funding for MEDA in its main regions namely East and Southern Africa (ESA) West and Central Africa (WCA) Latin America Caribbean and Asia Pacific (LACAP).
   
   Activities to be undertaken under this area of work include but are not limited to the following:
   Support business development efforts through the design (with a team) of new proposals and project concepts with a strong focus on agriculture agribusiness and Agri finance and demonstrating how technical interventions will lead to the creation of jobs access to finance gender equality and social inclusion as well as environmental sustainability.
   Enhance the capabilities of the PBA team in key agriculture concepts through research training and the development of assets
   Participating in and contributing to donor engagement and partner engagement meetings and events by showcasing MEDAs internal expertise in agriculture agribusiness and Agri finance.
   
   Main deliverables:
   Contribute to the design of at least 3 PBA proposals or concepts
   Develop at least 3 technical assets and complete 1 donor landscape mapping aimed at informing PBA business development efforts
   Conduct at least 1 comprehensive training course with the PBA team
   
   
3. Thought Leadership:The objective is to showcase MEDAs expertise to both internal and external stakeholders in agriculture (especially climatesmart agricultural practices) in agribusiness (with a focus on cooperatives small and medium enterprises) and in Agri finance (with a focus on digital finance and impact investment).
   
   Internal stakeholders include MEDA regional teams responsible for project delivery and MEDAs regional technical specialists supporting project delivery.
   
   External stakeholders include donors such as Global Affairs Canada USAID MasterCard Foundation as well as strategic local implementation partners private sector actors and the public. This will be done in collaboration with MEDAs regional technical leads impact and knowledge management specialists communications team and strategic partners.
   
   The outputs are expected to be short technical pieces 10 pages max) as opposed to long research papers. Activities to be undertaken under this area of work include but are not limited to the following:
   a. Leveraging existing project materials to draw out technical insights innovations lessons learned and/or regional applications that would be of interest to both internal and/or external audiences
   b. Supplement existing material with secondary research
   c. Draft short documents (max 10 pages) blog articles or social media posts (as directed by the Communications team)
   d. Draft interactive presentations (max. 20 slides) for internal and external presentations to showcase new insights
   
   Main deliverables:
   Produce at least 6 original thought leadership pieces
   Showcase MEDAs expertise as a speaker or panelist in at least 3 major external events such as conferences and launch events (virtual or inperson)

KEY QUALIFICATIONS
The consultant must have strong capacity knowledge of and experience in issues relating to agriculture and agribusiness in general. Preference will be given to candidates with additional relevant experience in agri finance agricultural economics agri business and/or agricultural technology.

Specific knowledge about agricultural trends and issues in the following areas should be demonstrated.

• MEDA regions (SubSaharan Africa East Asia and the Pacific Latin America and the Caribbean)
• Value chains of interest (rice maize soyabean aquaculture ground nuts coffee cocoa) and;
• System changes methodologies (e.g. MSD) should also be demonstrated.

The consultant should have the following minimum qualification criteria:

• Advanced University degree in agricultural sciences economics finance international development or business administration.
• Minimum of seven 7 years of professional experience three 3 of which must be in a business consulting or international development setting focused on agriculture agribusiness agri economics agri finance or agri tech.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in agri food systems value chain and market systems development concepts.
• Demonstrated understanding of sustainable agricultural practices such as Climatesmart agriculture (CSA) regenerative agriculture circular economy models etc. Familiarity with gendered approaches to agri food systems will be appreciated.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing market systems assessments.
• Strong analytical and reportwriting skills in English. Proficiency in French and/or Spanish preferred.

APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested candidates are asked to apply through MEDAs website (Careers page) by midnight on May 15 2025. Applications must include a CV or resume (max 3 pages) and may include a brief cover letter (max. 1 page). Examples of previous work (e.g. thought leadership pieces or toolkits developed) would be welcome. Please combine it with your cover letter when uploading.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Early application is advantageous as we evaluate candidates on a rolling basis until the position is filled and only successful candidates will be invited for interviews.

MEDA welcomes and encourages applications from all genders backgrounds religions cultures nationalities and abilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates with disabilities taking part in the selection process.

Required Experience:

Senior IC