Delivery Officer – Rice Clusters Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO) Sierra Leone

Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Job Reference: DRC/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 estimated 33 million small-farming households to transform their subsistent agriculture into profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we, in collaboration with our partners, aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more incomes 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 heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent, combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 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 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 Delivery Officer – Rice Clusters who will coordinate and support evidence-based policy reforms and implementation.

The Position Overview

The Delivery Officer – Rice Clusters will support the Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO) in driving the effective implementation of priority rice cluster investments under the Feed Salone Strategy. The role focuses on strengthening delivery across rice clusters by tracking milestones, improving coordination and governance, identifying and escalating bottlenecks, and generating actionable delivery insights that improve implementation and readiness for commercialization.

The role holder will support the design and operationalization of rice cluster delivery plans, governance and coordination structures, and milestone trackers, with particular attention to major irrigation works and enabling infrastructure. The Delivery Officer will ensure timely and accurate delivery reporting, contribute to diagnostics across the rice value chain, and provide practical recommendations to improve performance and operational readiness.

The ideal candidate will also provide hands-on delivery support to ATO and MAFS teams, coordinating and following through with implementing partners to strengthen execution and resolve delivery bottlenecks.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support effective implementation of priority rice cluster investments under the Feed Salone Strategy, improving delivery performance and operational readiness toward future commercialization.
• Generate actionable delivery insights across the rice value chain to inform sequencing, coordination, and decision-making by MAFS leadership and delivery leads.
• Contribute to embedding disciplined delivery practices across ATO and MAFS teams through structured planning, tracking, and follow-through.
• Support continuous learning by documenting delivery challenges, lessons, and good practices emerging from rice cluster implementation.
• Support coordination among GoSL/MAFS teams, implementing partners, contractors, and private sector actors involved in rice cluster delivery.
• Work closely with Market Systems Lead to ensure delivery realities inform operational readiness and future commercialization planning.
• Collaborate with the Data Analytics team and M&E Officer to ensure delivery data is accurate, timely, and actionable.
• Facilitate follow-up on agreed actions with implementing partners and escalate unresolved issues to relevant ATO leads.
• Develop and maintain rice cluster delivery plans, governance arrangements, and milestone trackers, including for major irrigation works and enabling infrastructure.
• Track progress against agreed milestones, identify delivery risks and bottlenecks, and propose corrective actions.
• Produce regular delivery updates and analytical inputs for dashboards, stock takes, and management reviews.
• Prepare operational readiness inputs to support future private sector participation or PPP arrangements, in coordination with relevant ATO leads and MAFS staff.
• Conduct delivery diagnostics across the rice value chain (production, irrigation, aggregation, processing, logistics) to identify cross-cutting constraints and coordination gaps.
• Provide targeted delivery analysis and light-touch implementation support to other priority value chains (e.g., cassava, livestock) as required, focusing on delivery systems, routines, and disbursement effectiveness.
• Support ATO and MAFS teams to set delivery priorities, design workplans and information flows, and ensure follow-through on agreed actions, feeding into ATO performance and implementation status reports.

Skills, Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in resource management, Business Administration, Public Policy, Economics, Management, Agriculture, or related field.
• Excellent command of written and spoken English; proficiency in Krio is a strong advantage.
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in program delivery, implementation support, or project management within agriculture or economic transformation programs.
• Strong knowledge of the rice value chain, including production systems, irrigation, and market linkages.
• Demonstrated experience supporting delivery mechanisms in public institutions, including work plan, milestone tracking, performance monitoring, and problem-solving in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Hands-on experience applying delivery methodologies (to improve execution and resolve bottlenecks.
• Experience supporting large infrastructure or value-chain programs is highly desirable.
• Ability to analyze delivery data and generate actionable insights to inform decision-making and corrective action.
• Ability to develop workplans, milestone trackers, and delivery schedules for complex program and infrastructure-related interventions.
• Experience producing analytical inputs for management reviews and stock takes.
• Ability to support the definition and functioning of new governance structures, including roles, routines, and escalation pathways.
• Capability to identify, document, and escalate delivery risks and constraints, with practical recommendations for resolution.
• Understanding of key agricultural value chains, especially rice, including irrigation, aggregation, processing, and logistics.
• Comfort working with spreadsheets, dashboards, and data tools to support monitoring, analysis, and follow-through.

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 DRS/SL/03/2026 on the subject line of the application email.

Applications must be received on or before 18 th March 2026. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer