Market Engagement Manager, Papua New Guinea & the Pacific (AgriTech)

Department: Mobile for Development

Department detail: AgriTech Programme

Location: Singapore or Manila

Position type: Contractor – until December 2021

Reporting to: Mobile for Development Director – APAC

About the GSMA AgriTech Programme

• Globally, 500 million households depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Smallholder farmers are involved in the production of at least 70 per cent of the world’s food but remain financially excluded and increasingly vulnerable to changing climate patterns affecting their yields. Digital agriculture solutions can help to address the challenges faced by value chain actors such as farmers and commodity buyers.
• The GSMA AgriTech programme works to achieve equitable and sustainable food chains that empower farmers and strengthen local economies. To fulfil its vision, the programme brings together and supports the mobile industry, agricultural sector stakeholders, innovators and investors in AgriTech space to launch, improve and scale impactful and commercially viable digital solutions for farmers in the developing world.
• In 2018-19, GSMA, with funding from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), conducted a first feasibility assessment to identify new opportunities for digital agriculture in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
• The programme has recently secured follow-on funding from DFAT to support and implement digital agriculture solutions in the Indo-Pacific. At this stage of the two-year DFAT grant, the programme will support digital agriculture initiatives in PNG with a view to use economic identities to pilot financial services for farmers.
• In particular, GSMA will broker partnerships between agricultural sector stakeholders and financial service providers (FSPs) in PNG, aimed at supporting pathway to farmers’ financial inclusion.
• The identified partner consortia will pilot digital lending services for smallholder farmers. More specifically, the pilot will:

1. Evaluate FSPs’ needs for data to allow an accurate assessment of credit risk and credit scoring and establish best practices in data generation and collection;
2. Make use of farm and farmer data that digital tools in agriculture are already capturing to help develop visible and shareable economic identities for farmers; and
3. Understand need for credit, assess creditworthiness and use the credit scores to offer credit products to farmers.

What the hiring manager says

“This is an exciting new role leading the team to fundamentally diversify its focus into Pacific island nations, in particular Papua New Guinea, transforming rural regions in the country by enabling financial inclusion of farmers through digital data and tools. The successful candidate must be able to quickly develop substantially new skills, experiences and expertise to compliment those of an overachieving team and deliver even greater impact.”

About the Role

The GSMA AgriTech Programme seeks an accomplished Market Engagement Manager (MEM) knowledgeable in digital financial services, working with FSPs to extend services (credit, savings, insurance, etc.) via digital channels. The MEM will focus establishing farmers’ economic identities to improve access to finance. Prior experience in designing financial products based on findings from Human Centered Design (HCD) research and the ability to manage external contractors for the same is required. Experience in rural credit will be a distinct advantage. When required, the MEM may also support the delivery of the climate resilience workstream.

The MEM will build a consortium of partners to deliver on project objectives and support them with the development of farmer digital identities, sustainable data sharing and credit scoring models and digital lending products that provide a pathway to financial inclusion for smallholder farmers and commercial sustainability for each partner. The MEM will also manage stakeholder convenings to disseminate knowledge generated from the project in order to support its replication across PNG.

The MEM must possess a blend of business acumen, an understanding of the PNG market, a big-picture vision, and the drive to make that vision a reality.

The role will encompass:

• Project Consultancy Support (65%) – Provide actionable recommendations, based on analysis of consumer insights through HCD research, to the consortium partners to help develop a credit service for farmers and achieve key milestones and contracted KPIs. You will advise them on establishing farmer digital identities, data sharing processes, product design, credit scoring, development and implementation of their service strategy, robust business and operational plans, share lessons learned in other markets, and troubleshoot key challenges. You will ensure the agricultural financial service is designed and implemented based on evidence-based insights from HCD research to provide a high-quality of service and impact to farmers; and can be scalable and sustainable. You must develop and manage key stakeholder relationships critical for the programme’s success, including mobile network operators, potential agribusiness clients, FSPs/FinTechs, HCD research partner(s), value added service providers, agriculture institutes and the local DFAT office.
• Best practice and knowledge sharing (25%) – Extract key learnings and analytics from different Agritech projects and raise advocacy for mobile agricultural services more broadly within the industry, by ensuring that key industry developments, learnings and best practices are appropriately packaged and shared with stakeholders in PNG and the region. This could be in the form of writing case studies and online reports and conducting knowledge sharing sessions via working groups, webinars, workshops and industry events.
• Programme and project monitoring (10%) – Define project plans, milestones and success measures; prepare timely and comprehensive analysis of progress against metrics and milestones. Prepare progress reports, as required. Manage third party monitoring and evaluation services.

About You

You are passionate about developing and implementing digital solutions for the most pressing inequalities. You have previously developed and launched successful digital financial solutions for the underserved, especially in the rural context. You have prior experience in Human Centered Design. Your passion drives you to deliver in a remote/home worker environment with little supervision.

You have strong commercial knowledge of agricultural value chains in developing markets. This knowledge helps you to analyse business models from the perspective of each consortium member and leads to development of sustainable business models for the entire value chain.

Your excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills help you to build and sustain a consortium, share lessons at convenings, and keep the AgriTech team fully informed about progress and challenges in a timely manner. You are able to communicate effectively with a CEO, middle management and a small holder farmer.

You are an effective and disciplined project manager who keeps the consortium on track and foresees and manages risk.

What We Offer

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

We offer a working environment that reflects our organisational values. We also hire in line with our values and recruit candidates who demonstrate a strong affinity with these 7 principles:

• DREAM BIG - Demonstrate vision and insight to lead the industry forward
• BE BOLD - Have the courage to take risks and make tough decisions
• OWN IT - Take full accountability for your decisions and actions
• WORK AS A TEAM - Collaborate to deliver impactful results
• DO THE RIGHT THING - Conduct yourself with honesty and integrity at all times
• SHOW RESPECT - Treat others as you would expect to be treated
• LOVE WHAT YOU DO - Bring passion and pride to your work

Apply at: https://gsma-hr.secure.force.com/Recruit/fRecruit__ApplyJob?vacancyNo=VN2060