Specialist Associate Program Officer (APO) – Field Monitoring and Consortia Coordination (YEFFA)

Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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.

AGRA is implementing Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) within its network and seeks to recruit a qualified Associate Program Officer – Field Monitoring and Consortia Coordination.

The Position Overview

The Associate Program Officer – Field Monitoring and Consortia Coordination is responsible for strengthening Tanzania’s delivery under YEFFA by providing reliable field monitoring and coordinated support across multiple implementing consortia. The role ensures closer visibility into implementation quality, validates Youth-in-Work and YDnF results, and helps reduce delays in grant execution and partner performance. It supports AGRA’s decentralization approach by giving real-time insight into field realities and enabling quicker corrective action. The APO contributes directly to YEFFA’s acceleration plan (2026–2029) by improving reporting consistency, supporting inclusion and safeguarding standards, and ensuring alignment with the Country Acceleration Plan.

The ideal candidate will act as both a field verification officer and a coordination link across Tanzania’s YEFFA consortia. The role harmonizes partner workplans, ensures timely reporting, and facilitates cross-partner alignment for improved delivery. It synthesizes field intelligence, identifies risks early, and escalates issues to the CPL, SPOs, and PMO. S/he will enhance consortium collaboration, strengthen communication with AGRA technical teams, and support adaptive management. Overall, this role ensures that field implementation remains coherent, data-driven, and aligned with YEFFA’s performance and results expectations.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Field Monitoring & Quality Assurance

• Conduct routine and ad-hoc field monitoring visits across all consortium partners to assess delivery quality.
• Verify beneficiaries, results and reported outcomes through spot-checks, interviews, focus groups, and triangulation of data.
• Monitor partner adherence to youth-intentional and gender-responsive implementation standards.
• Track expenditure-linked activities at field level and highlight risks affecting disbursement or progress.
• Provide accurate field intelligence to CPL, SPO, and PMO to support decision-making.
• Review grantee tools, attendance lists, evidence documents and escalate inconsistencies.
• Identify systemic bottlenecks affecting YiW pace and recommend course-corrective actions.

Consortia Coordination

• Support CPL and SPO in coordinating multiple partners to align workplans.
• Ensure consortium-level reporting is harmonized and submitted on time.
• Track cross-partner dependencies and help resolve misaligned field activities.
• Facilitate joint planning and quarterly reflection sessions.
• Maintain regular communication channels among consortium partners, ensuring timely information flow.
• Facilitate joint field learning sessions, exchange visits, and problem-solving clinics.
• Strengthen relationships with LGAs and local ecosystem actors (youth offices, wards, cooperatives) to unlock institutional support.
• Enable AGRA business lines (MEL, Markets, Inclusive Finance, PSC) to provide targeted backstopping.
• Coordinate high-level field visits involving donors, PMO, and AGRA leadership.
• Promote inclusion and safeguarding compliance by sensitizing partners and reporting breaches.
• Support youth and women groups to navigate opportunities and link with service providers.

Reporting

• Produce consolidated monthly field monitoring reports integrating insights across all consortia.
• Track partner progress against milestones, grant budgets, work opportunity indicators, and Schedule Commitments.
• Support MEL teams during outcome surveys, verification missions, and dashboard updates.
• Ensure accuracy of data uploaded into MEL systems and shared knowledge repositories.
• Maintain an issues log, escalate critical delivery risks, and follow through with corrective actions.
• Support CPL with inputs for quarterly synthesis notes, donor reports, and Annual Report sections.
• Coordinate data and insights required for Pause & Reflect sessions, impact pathway reviews, and adaptive planning.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Development Studies, Economics, or related field.
• MEL, project management, or data collection certification preferred.
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in field monitoring, community-level program implementation, or partner coordination.
• Experience working with youth programs, agribusinesses, SMEs, cooperatives, or value chain actors preferred.
• Practical experience collecting, verifying, and reporting field data.
• Knowledge of Tanzania’s agricultural sector and youth employment landscape.
• Strong understanding of structured monitoring and evidence validation.
• Ability to harmonize multiple organizations’ workplans.
• Must be able to maintain accuracy in results tracking tools and MEL systems
• Ability to apply YEFFA monitoring protocols, dashboards, and verification standards.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, please submit your application through the link below:

https://ekjd.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX/jobs.

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

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer