Technical Expertise Contractors - Agriculture Business Commercialization & Transformation

Technical Expertise - Agriculture Business Commercialization and Transformation

MEDA seeks Technical Experts available as contractors to support MEDA's Partnerships and New Business Development team in our exciting growth and acceleration of several large program and proposal concepts and partnerships across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

We believe that accelerating the adoption and pace of scaling transferable innovations for agricultural transformation and job creation at scale will create decent work, promote gender inclusion and support environmental and climate sustainability within the agricultural ecosystem.

Technical Experts work with new business, proposal and technical teams to provide content and advisory services that contribute to high quality, innovative and quality concepts for program design and delivery. This position may be based anywhere in the world where MEDA Canada or MEDA US is legally allowed to hire contractors.

Key Contractor Roles and Responsibilities

Technical Advisory Role

• Serves as content creator and technical advisor on proposals and concepts in areas including economic development, agribusiness management, environmental economics, commercialization, business value creation, impact investing governance, innovative finance, sustainability and inclusion and market systems.
• Provide and review designs for programs that pilot, evaluate and scale up projects that are aimed at asset specific scaling and commercialization strategies
• Conduct or access primary and secondary research, data analysis on agronomy, value chains, market structures for multiple crops and processed products related to new program designs
• Conduct or synthesize background studies, operational and financial estimates and impact model for the proposed interventions

• Collect data on in relevant sector or around relevant assets around sales/volumes etc.to analyze markets and market opportunities
• Be knowledgeable about existing and potential market conditions, competitive landscape, enabling environment and potential partners (financial and other)
• Include strategies and tools such as financial incentives, investment and capital, capacity building, convening, information sharing, advocacy and marketing to encourage uptake of specific asset
• Design concepts and implementation plans around technological innovations for monitoring and evaluation of the commercialization processes

Technical Component Proposal Writing

• Develops, creates and reviews key proposal drafts and concept note products, including annotated outlines, executive summaries, technical approach sections, and material to support oral presentations
• Serves in other proposal writing roles including weaving text from different writers, writing proposal sections (executive summary, management, strategic approaches, past performance, etc.)
• Participates in proposal strategy, design, writing, and review sessions with business development and technical teams throughout the life of the proposal
• Provides training and mentoring to support MEDA's technical expertise and capacity to grow to scale and align with systems level impact approaches
• Develops capability statements and other business development or marketing related documents drawing from existing materials around MEDA's value proposition and technical capacity

Terms of Reference

Detailed terms of reference will be shared per assignment

Compensation

Contractor rate varies, between $500-700/day based on assignment, candidate geographic location, candidate expertise and experience and scope/impact of proposal

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of the international development industry and donors, specifically USAID required
• Experience writing winning technical proposals in the field of international development, with preference given to one or more of the following: economic development, commercialization, business value creation, agriculture and food security, environment and climate change, innovative finance, research and evaluation, and resilience
• Strong writing, editing, and proofreading skills
• Ability to work autonomously and in team environment under critical deadline pressures
• High level of proficiency in MS Office applications

• Strong organizational skills that demonstrate a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
• Technical Degree in relevant technical area of expertise

Minimum Qualifications

• Technical Expert: Bachelor's Degree + Nine years of relevant experience, or Master's Degree + Seven years of relevant experience, or PhD + Four years of relevant experience
• Technical Expert Senior: Bachelor's Degree + Twelve years of relevant experience, or Master's Degree + Ten years of relevant experience, or PhD + Seven years of relevant experience

Organization Minimum Qualifications

• Appreciation, understanding and commitment to MEDA's mission, creating business solutions to poverty
• Demonstrate MEDA's Core Performance Values: Collaboration, Respect, Entrepreneurship and Accountability
• Willingness to adhere to MEDA's Code of Conduct