Delivery Officer – Policy Implementation

Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO) Sierra Leone

Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Job Reference: DO/SL/02/2026

AGRA and its Work to Transform Agriculture

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income aligned with the Kampala CAADP and national priorities.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets. In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.
5. Youth, Gender, and Inclusiveness – We enable women and youth to contribute to and benefit from agriculture for their economic empowerment.

Implementing Our New Strategy Through People

People are the heartbeat of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery, impact, and success.

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the African continent combined with an inclusive, diverse, and talented workforce from over 24 nationalities. nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems; transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive, and Increasingly Entrepreneurial, aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship, and Equity).

We are looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can accelerate Africa’s food system’s transformation, thereby improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

Background

The Government of Sierra Leone has launched the Feed Salone Strategy (2023–2028) to accelerate and ensure food systems transformation, food security, and inclusive economic growth, targeting an annual growth rate of 10% for the agriculture sector within the next five years. The strategy focuses on boosting productivity in high- impact value chains, leveraging the comparative advantages of targeted districts, and enhancing resilience through climate-smart practices. The Feed Salone Strategy focuses on six strategic pillars: mechanization and irrigation, seed and input systems, aggregation and marketing, agricultural finance, AgTech and climate-smart agriculture, and the empowerment of women and youth.

To drive its effective implementation, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS), in collaboration with AGRA and its partners, seeks to hire a qualified Country Program and Procurement Support who will support the Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO) in program management and administrative work under the guidance of the ATO Director.

The Position Overview

Delivery Officer – Policy Implementation– Sierra Leone Job Reference: DO/SL/02/2026

The Delivery Officer – Policy and Implementation will play a central role in identifying policy gaps and systemic constraints that affect the delivery of flagship programs under the Feed Salone Strategy related to value addition, agro-processing, logistics and storage systems, market access, enterprise development, digital ecosystems, and access to finance. He/she will collaborate closely with focal persons in ministries, agencies, and private-sector partners to identify and facilitate priority policy reforms and implementation. This role ensures that evidence-based diagnostic studies are employed to identify policy gaps and bottlenecks and provides recommendations to catalyze the delivery of the Feed Salone Strategy.

The ideal candidate will coordinate policy dialogue mechanisms on systemic policy issues, document key takeaways, and track implementations of agreed points to promote policy coherence and coordination that foster private-sector participation.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Review, validate, and document existing policies across agrifood system institutions, including investment policies.
• Identify and map policy gaps and constraints that affect private sector participation across value chains of priority projects within the Feed Salone Strategy.
• Conduct diagnostic studies on prioritized policy gaps and provide evidence-based recommendations.
• Design and rollout of policy coordination platform mechanisms to regularly discuss issues affecting implementation and foster collaboration and alignment among ministries, agencies, and private-sector actors involved in market, enterprise, and value chain programs.
• Coordinate and facilitate policy dialogue among stakeholders in collaboration with MAFS, the private sector, development partners, and other stakeholders.
• Work closely with focal people in ministries, implementing agencies, development partners, and private-sector actors to identify policy issues, facilitate coordination, timely implementation, and problem resolution.
• Design a policy coordination policy dialogue framework with clear accountability and routines.
• Prepare evidence-based policy documents and get reviewed and validated by relevant experts.
• Organize policy review and validation workshops with relevant stakeholders in collaboration with the Ministry and other stakeholders.
• Facilitate coordination meetings and joint review sessions, ensuring that agreed actions are tracked and followed through.
• Prepare policy papers/documents, policy briefs for the Ministry, highlighting the policy rationale and impacts, and submit for key decisions.
• Maintain accurate and timely data collection, validation, and reporting on indicators related to markets, value chains, and enterprise growth.
• Ensure follow-up and issue resolution through structured reviews, tracking of agreed actions, and communication with responsible institutions.
• Contribute to strengthening evidence-based decision-making by ensuring data and insights are translated into actionable recommendations.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy, Public Administration, Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Development Studies, or a related field from an accredited institution.
• A Master’s degree in a relevant discipline such as Agribusiness Management, Economics, Development Finance, or Public Policy will be an added advantage.
• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in policy development, agribusiness, value-chain coordination, or trade facilitation within government, development partners, or the private sector.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate multi-stakeholder coordination, including collaboration between ministries, private-sector partners, and financial institutions.
• Experience in results-based policy identification, diagnostics, and formulation in the agrifood system to foster market systems actors.
• Strong analytical, facilitation, and communication skills with the ability to synthesize data, identify bottlenecks, and develop actionable solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to apply market-systems approaches to identify policy gaps that affect agrifood systems transformation and private sector participation. Advocate to foster an enabling environment for investment to flourish across the priorities of the Feed Salone Strategy.
• Demonstrated experience in convening and managing multi-stakeholder dialogue platforms, ensuring active participation and accountability among government, private sector, and development partners.
• Must be able to anticipate risks and delivery challenges in value-chain programs, recommend adaptive measures, and ensure timely resolution for continued progress.

If you believe you are a fit for this position, please submit your application with a detailed CV (including your email and telephone contact information) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number DO/SL/02/2026 on the subject line of the application email.

Applications must be received on or before 20th February 2026. Due to the large volumes of applications we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer