Burundi Country Director

at One Acre Fund - Global

Muramvya and Bujumbura, Burundi

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies 1 million smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms vastly more productive. Our 8,000+ team is drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. With operations across six core countries in Africa, we make farmers more prosperous by providing quality farm supplies on credit, delivered within walking distance of farmers’ homes, and agricultural training to improve harvests. On average, the farmers we serve harvest 50 percent more food after working with One Acre Fund. 

To learn more about our work, take a look at our Why Work Here blog for more information.

About the Role

One Acre Fund Burundi is one of the highest performing country programs in One Acre Fund.  The Burundi program leads the way regarding repayment performance, retention of member farmers, and member farmer satisfaction.  Importantly, the Burundi program also ranks among the top concerning impact per farmer - $110 of additional profit per farmer in 2021.  

The Burundi program also has massive growth potential.  With a current budget of around $5 million in annual spending and a working capital budget of over $10 million, the Burundi program already employs over 950 full-time staff and serves over 210,000 farming households.  With massive farmer demand and a brand that farmers rely on, the Burundi program has a realistic plan to serve over 700,000 households across Burundi by 2030.  Realizing that growth plan will require a CD who is eager to meet the associated challenges head on.  

Some of these challenges will include:

• Maintaining excellence in execution as scale continues to increase
  
• Finish the transition from paper and cash operations to digital and mobile money operations
• Maintaining positive relationships with Government partners
• Advocating internally for resources
• Finding and act on opportunities for external resources
• Nurturing talent in important positions 
• Adding on and expanding new program services as country strategy evolves
• Setting and adjusting program strategy
• Maintaining resilience in the face of unexpected challenges

Responsibilities

(Percentages are indicative)

• Strategy setting / Team management / Execution oversight and problem solving - 40% 
  
• With leadership team participation, will set multi-year strategy and annual Objectives and Key Results around goals for:
  
• - Farmer impact
• - Scale
• - Financial Efficiency
• - Staff development and satisfaction
• - External relations
• Will build and present to the wider team budgets, multi-year models, memos, and presentations to create vision alignment and give program / strategy updates
• In addition to the high-level vision and long-term strategy, will be responsible for managing day to day operations ensuring that all departments are operating efficiently, effectively and collaboratively. This requires fostering a performance culture that reflects the core values and expectations of the organization in addition to cultivating an iterative learning environment where we constantly strive to improve
  • Will motivate direct reports and the wider team to achieve strategic goals 
  • Will integrate strategic goals into bi-annual performance evaluations for direct reports, hold them accountable, and set them up for success
  • Will provide feedback and guidance to team members to keep execution on track towards goals
  • Will support team members to remove obstacles to execution by being a thought partner, removing blockers, and maintaining team harmony
  • Will step in directly to solve a problem or provide support

External relations 20%

• Will maintain positive relationships with important actors in government, the NGO community, and the donor community
  
• Will maintain a strong partnership with the Burundi government
• Will seek out and develop new partnerships for furthering goals and the mission of supporting smallholder farmers
• Will maintain One Acre Fund Burundi’s reputation and profile in the Agriculture and NGO sectors in Burundi

Team development - 15% 

• Will establish and cultivate strong relationships with your staff to ensure that all staff on your teams can maximize their career performance and job satisfaction as part of the One Acre Fund team.
  
• Will ensure that everyone—from your direct reports to the newest Field Officer in our program—is continually mentored, challenged, and supported by our organization. This can include, but is not limited to, regular performance reviews and career conversations, active development/promotion plans and weekly check-ins providing actionable and constructive feedback.  
• Will take responsibility to ensure equity among all staff, inclusion in decision-making at all levels, and diversity of identity (nationality, race, gender, religion, etc) at all levels of the organization.  
• Will work with the leadership team to build One Acre Fund into the employer of choice for top Burundian talent. 
• Will be responsible for retention of senior leaders and succession planning to ensure we have the leadership support to implement all plans. 
• Will be the leader on team structure and strategy, responsible for critically evaluating our staffing structure in the light of country priorities so that we always solve for the most important challenges and opportunities facing the Burundi program.

Liaising with global team 10%

• Will liaise between the country team and global teams to find solutions to country-level problems and facilitate global-level initiatives
  
• Will represent the country program in forums with global leadership
• Will be a gatekeeper for certain global initiatives and find ways to balance global requests with country team bandwidth
• Will build and present budgets, multi-year models, memos, and presentations to advocate for resources to meet country-level objectives
• Will participate in collaboration forums to share best practices among country programs

Fundraising 15%

• Will support the Business Development team in maintaining relationships with existing donors through hosting donor visits, phone calls, and presentations
  
• Will work with team to provide appropriate data to the Business Development for reports
• Will seek out and develop new prospects through networking

Career Growth and Development

We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:

Required conditions and qualifications:

• 8+ years of dynamic professional experience
  
• 6+ years experience managing staff
• 4+ years working in a development or humanitarian setting
• 3+ years of creating and management of a multi-million dollar budget
• Experience launching new investments, building successful partnerships, or bringing existing services to scale
• Experience managing and developing other leaders
• Experience in communicating to executives, peers, teams, and beneficiaries or clients
• Capacity to drive toward results in dynamic and fluid work context
• Capacity to identify risks and develop thoughtful mitigation strategies
• Fluency in using data to make decisions
• Capacity to both develop high-level strategies and work with others to develop detailed operational plans
• University-level degree 
• Advanced proficiency in English; Intermediate proficiency in French

Preferred qualities

• Graduate-level degree in relevant fields (Public administration, Nonprofit / NGO / International organization management, Business administration, International development / Humanitarian work, Development economics)
• Experience leading an organization
• Experience in Fundraising

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Muramvya, Burundi (Primary); Bujumbura, Burundi (Secondary).

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role. However, nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.

Application Deadline

25th May 2023

One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here (globalhotline@oneacrefund.org), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization’s mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.