POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT – INTERNAL/EXTERNAL

COUNTRY GRANTS OFFICER

CGO/AGRA/04/2026

AGRA seeks to recruit a Country Grant Officer who will be member of AGRA Ethiopia located at the International Livestock Research institute, Addis Ababa Campus.

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.

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.

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

Overall purpose of the role:

• Responsible for working flexibly and collegially in offering support to the Country Director, grants and programs staff as well as in processing grants, providing guidance to grantees and maintaining a grants database.
• Oversees the grants monitoring and evaluation processes in Ethiopia and efficiently manages the flow of grants as per donor rules and regulations and in compliance with AGRA’s internal policies and processes and uses technology to achieve the set turnaround times.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Project and Grants Management

• Manage day-to-day project and grants management of grantees within their portfolio.

• Ensure adherence to donor compliance requirements by grantees during the life of the grant post-grant issuance.

Grant Tracking and Monitoring

• Create and maintain a grant tracking database through AMIS and other tools to monitor the flow of project proposals from the time full grant documentation is received in the grants unit to the time a grant award is issued, and the first payment is made.

Pre-Award Assessment

• Conduct pre-award due diligence for potential grantees, including organization capacity assessments.

Grants Compliance and Performance Management

• Offer guidance to country leadership on grants compliance requirements to ensure adherence to regulations.
• Prepare and present grants portfolio performance reports to country leadership, recommending corrective actions on budget uptake, disbursement, burn-rate, closures, and implementation of audit recommendations.
• Work with country leadership and HQ regional grants officers to implement systems, policies, and procedures related to grants administration in the designated country.
• Facilitate data and information pipeline to monitor programs across themes - contributing to dashboard development, program standardization, and quality control in collaboration with pertinent Programme Officers.

Grants Management and Coordination

• Serve as secretary to the Grants Charter Committee, facilitating meetings and documentation.

• Partner with program staff to analyze, revise, and formalize necessary modifications and/or amendments to grants and contracts.
• Engage and follow up with program staff to ensure timely closure of grants.

Capacity Building and Advocacy

• Enhance the capacity of AGRA grantees in Ethiopia by providing training and technical support on monitoring, learning and evaluation (MLE) systems and tools as needed.
• Promote compliance with donor and AGRA-specific regulations for grant-making, including applicable delegation of authority policies related to signatory powers and thresholds.
• Document and synthesise learnings and transferable experiences in grant management and use such knowledge products to inform capacity building sessions.
• Represent the Country Office in major internal and external meetings and learning platforms on the grant delivery model.

Grants Tracking and Compliance

• Track Grant-Making Pipeline: Monitor the grant-making pipeline, including the processing of Requests for Change Notices (RFCNs) and Grant Award Letters (GAL) issuance.
• Ensure Expenditure Documentation Compliance: Verify that complete and accurate expenditure support documentation is uploaded by grantees and AGRA to AMIS in compliance with the Mastercard Foundation and other donors as appropriate.
• Review grant portfolio to ensure grantees are implementing programs in accordance with the contractual agreement.
• Organize Grants Charter Reviews: Coordinate grants charter reviews and compile grant materials for the Grants Committee (GC) review.

Technical Assistance and Training

• Identify grantees requiring technical assistance and provide relevant training on AGRA grants compliance and reporting requirements.

Training and Capacity Building

• Deliver Training to Grantees: Provide training to grantees and other in-country users on grants tools and e-platforms, such as AMIS, while maintaining a log of issues to contribute to continuous database enhancement.
• Conduct Grantee Monitoring: Perform grantee monitoring and portfolio performance health checks to ensure compliance and effectiveness.

Grants Management and Reporting

• Prepare Start-Up Orientation Workshops: Organize and conduct start-up orientation workshops for new awards and coordinate monthly/quarterly meetings with project staff to ensure compliance with grant contract clauses and project-related requirements.
• Assess Grant Documentation: Ensure that all grant and contract documentation assembled by program staff is complete, accurate, and complies with AGRA and donor policies and procedures.
• Organize Reporting Requirements: Schedule reporting requirements and payments for all new grants to ensure timely compliance.
• Accurate Data Entry in AMIS: Ensure accurate data entry and filing of AGRA’s annual grant-making budget in AMIS to maintain up-to-date financial records

Academic and professional qualifications:

Education:

• Master’s degree or Bachelor’s degree in a commercial domain.

Experience:

• Master’s degree with seven years relevant experience or bachelor’s degree with ten years of relevant experience.

Skills:

• Working knowledge of key donor agencies including the Mastercard Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Gates Foundation.
• Hands-on knowledge of grants management in development organisations.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively and ethically with multicultural teams.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with different partners and colleagues and build strong professional relationships and networks.
• A good understanding of the role of grants programmes in supporting inclusive agricultural transformation.
• Strong oral and written communication skills with proficiency in Microsoft Office software (e.g., Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Grade: HG 17

Minimum Base Salary: Birr 150,522 per month

Terms of appointment: This is a National Staff (NS) position, initial appointment is for three years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and the availability of funding. The ILRI remuneration package for nationally recruited staff in Ethiopia includes a very competitive salary and benefits such as life and medical insurance, offshore pension plan, etc.

Applications: Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. The position and reference number CGO/AGRA/04/2026 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 16 March 2026.

AGRA/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).

To find more about AGRA, visit our Website at www.agra.org.

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at https://www.ilri.org/

Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.

More ILRI jobs

Subscribe by email to ILRI jobs alert