Senior Associate, Nutritious Foods Financing - SYS-1072

Location Open to GAINâs country offices in London, Utrecht and Nairobi. Salary The starting salary for each office is listed in the job advertisement, depending on experience. Contract Type Fixed Term Duration 24 Months About the Role

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is seeking a Senior Associate, Nutritious Foods Financing to support with the day-to-day activities of the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F) Programme. This role will be on a 2 yearsâ fixed-term contract basis, subject to availability of funding. This position is open to GAINâs country offices in London, Utrecht and Nairobi.

Reporting to the Senior Lead, Innovative Finance, you will lead on the provision of technical assistance to SMEs across the food value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa for the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F). The Senior Associate will also co-lead and contribute to GAINâs work on innovative financing and coordinate activities under the Nourishing Food Pathways (NFP) work package focused on innovative finance for nutrition. You may be asked to contribute to other activities of GAINâs Nutrition Enterprise Unit as required.

Key Responsibilities include Identifying the key technical assessment needs of SMEs operating in the food value chain that are in the potential pipeline for the N3F Fund, working together with the investment officers at our partner asset investment management company Developing technical assistance support packages tailored to individual SMEs and group training according to common needs in the portfolio Overseeing the implementation of project workplans and ensuring that all assignments deliver maximum value for money Reviewing and refining procedures, monitoring mechanisms, and feedback forms for the provision of Technical Assistance to SMEs Working closely with GAINâs Knowledge Leadership and our partnerâ MEL groups to ensure monitoring, evaluation and learning take place Managing the NFP activities focused on innovative finance and nutrition investing, including consultancy collaborations, exploring the nexus between nutrition and gender, and mapping of the nutrition investment landscape Representing GAIN at national and regional technical meetings and workshops and assisting in the coordinating and organisation of national and international events, technical meetings, and workshops Maintaining up-to-date market knowledge/intelligence, geographic and sector mappings on the food and agriculture financing and (social) (impact) investing landscape and sharing the same within the GAIN team and more broadly, including identifying key partners to influence and support in communication pieces (blogs, reports, articles)

About You

The ideal candidate will have professional experience directly or indirectly related to food supply chains, SMEs, technical assistance and experience in a technical assistance facility / accelerator / incubator preferably within the sub-Sahara region. Candidatesâ with experience relating to impact investment, development finance will be a key asset.

The postholder will have demonstrated expertise in the provision of technical assistance (TA) to SMEs and a deep understanding of what makes an SME scale their operations, grow, and succeed.

You will have excellent communication skills and be willing to work in multicultural and multi-lingual environments as well as demonstrated excellence in report writing, research and analytical ability. Also, you will be highly flexible and be willing to travel in challenging environments.

In addition to this, you will possess fluent written and spoken English, candidates' with proficiency in French or Portuguese will be an additional advantage.

A Mastersâ degree in finance, business, food value chain, economics or related field is preferable. You will have excellent project coordination, management, negotiation, and advocacy skills and able to operate within the private and public sectors to effectively liaise with food enterprises and development agencies at senior level.

About our Offer

The starting salary for each office is as follows, depending on experience:

United Kingdom: From GBP 42,468 â GBP 45,508 (gross) per annum The Netherlands: From EUR 52,896 â EUR 56,664 (gross) per annum Kenya: From KES 3,019,680 â KES 3,454,680 (gross) per annum

GAIN has a fair and competitive salary structure that allows for annual progression subject to good performance. In addition, GAIN offers a total of 37 days holiday per year (including annual leave, public holidays and additional office closure days), an attractive pension scheme and competitive insurance cover including health, travel and life assurance.

We are committed to the health of our staff, especially in these challenging times, and have developed a programme of wellbeing that includes flexible working, additional leave allowances, wellbeing days, mindfulness coaching and access to independent and confidential counselling.

GAIN also has a strong commitment to professional development. We will support you to grow in your career through both formal and informal training, and are committed to providing opportunities through internal recruitment, secondments and promotion. All of this is delivered in a supportive and collaborative environment.

About GAIN

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Due to COVID19, conflict in Ukraine and climate change, malnutrition and hunger have worsened significantly since 2019, reversing a decade of progress. There is growing recognition that our food systems need to change if we are to reverse these trends.

GAINâs Strategy aims to transform food systems to make healthier diets from sustainable food systems accessible to all people and especially those whose are most vulnerable to shocks. By 2027, we aim to improve the access of 1.5 billion people to nutritionally enhanced staple foods, improve the access of 25 million people to healthier diets, and support positive food system change in 10 countries. This is bold and complex, and the only way to achieve this is to work together with partners including governments, businesses, and civil society at the country and global level. These goals, and the ways of achieving them, build on our twenty-year legacy of transforming peopleâs lives with improved nutrition through concerted action and effective policy change.

Our Working Culture and Environment

We provide a flexible working environment that includes a combination of home and office working opportunities through our global hybrid working policy. This encourages our staff to have a healthy work-life balance and increases staff motivation, enriches employee wellbeing, and improves performance and productivity.

All of our positions are based in one or more of GAINâs designated offices as stated on our job advertisements. Successful candidates will be based in one of GAINâs country offices and must have the existing right to live and work within a reasonably commutable distance of the relevant city / cities in which the role is advertised. Please note, that GAIN does not sponsor working visas and relocations. 

GAIN reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment for candidates who are considered to ineligible under the above conditions during or after the recruitment process.