Director – REAP Consortium

View Jobs in Agriculture / Agro-Allied

/

View Jobs at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Posted: Oct 26, 2026

Deadline: Nov 25, 2026

• Save

• Email

Never pay for any notarisation, certificate or assessment as part of any recruitment process. When in doubt, contact us

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for better and more sustainable use of livestock. ILRI is a CGIAR research centre - part of a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

About the position:

REAP is a five-year multi-country initiative intended to advance education and relieve poverty by enabling 1,000,000 financially disadvantaged young women and men, aged 18 to 35 years, to access new work opportunities in sustainable feed and livestock value chains across the seven countries. The Program will equipment young people with technical, entrepreneurial, financial; digital and workplace capabilities linked to real economic opportunities and enable financially disadvantaged young people to access work, finance, productive assets, markets and income-generating opportunities that improve household resilience and wellbeing. Among its participants, the Program shall target 70% young women and at least 5% youth with disabilities and 20,000 refugees and displaced young people.

The programme will support youth-led and youth-inclusive enterprises to enter, stabilise and grow in feed and livestock markets; strengthen market systems, services, and commercial relationships; and improve policy, finance, innovation, extension, and other enabling systems required for youth-led enterprises to succeed and generate additional employment opportunities. Across these areas, it applies gender-transformative and inclusive approaches to address restrictive gender and social norms, reduce barriers to young women’s participation, and strengthen their agency, voice, leadership and access to resources and opportunities. Safeguarding measures are embedded throughout the programme to protect young people from harm and support their safe participation.

Led by ILRI, the consortium includes ICARDA, IITA, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and icipe, working with downstream delivery partners, enterprise-support organisations, financial institutions, government and private sector actors. The Director draws on partners’ expertise in feed and livestock systems, enterprise development, market systems, inclusive finance, digital innovation, policy, and gender and social inclusion to guide country delivery and achieve measurable youth work outcomes, adapting implementation in response to evidence.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic leadership and program delivery

• Lead REAP as an integrated program across countries and partners, accountable for delivery against its approved theory of change, results framework, targets, budgets, timelines and partnership commitments.

• Oversee annual and multi-year workplans, ensuring that country plans are realistic, sequenced and adequately resourced, and that milestones and partner commitments are actively managed.

• Ensure that country coordination, staffing and delivery arrangements are fit for program scale, and resolve significant implementation constraints.

• Results, Learning and Adaptive Management

• Hold overall accountability for credible program results and provide the authority and institutional support needed to implement the approved MEL Plan, ensuring robust measurement systems, data quality assurance, evaluation and learning processes.

• Ensure credible measurement of youth in work, progression towards dignified and fulfilling work, enterprise performance, market development, inclusion and systems-level outcomes.

• Use country, partner and workstream evidence to guide strategic reviews, cross-country learning and timely changes to delivery models, staffing, partner roles, intervention packages and resource use, including identifying ineffective approaches early and adapting, replacing or discontinuing them.

• Implement adjustments within delegated authority and obtain the required governance or donor approvals before making changes beyond that authority. Ensure all changes remain aligned with approved program objectives and commitments.

• Adaptive management and programme evolution

• Ensure that implementation evidence is used to actively guide REAP’s delivery model, staffing arrangements, partner structures and intervention packages.

• Lead timely adaptation where evidence shows that country delivery arrangements, partner roles, workstream structures, intervention packages or resource allocations need to change.

• Distinguish between adaptations that can be made within approved programme parameters and changes requiring donor or governance approval.

• Ensure that adaptation strengthens delivery while maintaining alignment with REAP’s strategic objectives, results framework and donor commitments.

• Donor engagement, governance and representation

• Serve as the senior day-to-day program contact with Mastercard Foundation in coordination with ILRI senior leadership while maintaining transparent communication and delivering credible reports on time.

• Lead programme reviews, management and governance discussions, presenting progress, risks, learning and decisions clearly, and ensuring effective accountability and escalation.

• Represent REAP and strengthen collaboration with related programs and projects, governments, private sector actors, financial institutions, youth and producer organizations, and other stakeholders in line with ILRI’s institutional representation arrangements.

• Consortium and people leadership

• Coordinate consortium partners, country leads, workstream leads and downstream delivery organisations around shared priorities, with clear responsibilities, decision rights and direct or matrix accountability.

• Ensure effective communication and decision-making across the PMU and partner teams and that reporting relationships function effectively.

• Lead the recruitment, onboarding, performance management and professional development of senior programme staff, promoting collaboration, inclusion and timely problem-solving while upholding ILRI values.

• Set clear performance expectations and promote accountability, learning and high standards of professional conduct to build a high-performing senior team.

• Manage institutional differences and resolve partner performance issues through influence, negotiation and escalation, balancing partner mandates with program commitments and country needs.

• Technical integration and enterprises outcomes

• Draw on workstream, ILRI and partner expertise to connect climate-smart feed and livestock innovations with enterprise creation and growth, market access and youth work outcomes.

• Integrate production, processing and supply systems with animal-source food markets, enterprise support, aggregation and offtake, inclusive finance, digital innovation, policy and extension.

• Ensure technically sound, commercially viable and scalable approaches that fit country conditions and support gender equality, disability inclusion, poverty reduction and progression towards dignified and fulfilling work.

• Financial operation and risk oversight

• Oversee program budgeting, forecasting and expenditure to align resources with delivery priorities and value for money; follow agreed consortium and governance procedures for changes to partner allocations.

• Work with finance, procurement, human resources, grants, legal and operations teams to ensure that systems, partnership agreements, sub-grants and contracts support effective delivery and comply with applicable ILRI and donor requirements.

• Oversee mitigation and escalation of fiduciary, safeguarding, delivery, reputational, political, partnership and compliance risks.

• Results, evidence, learning and adaptation

• Hold overall accountability for the credibility of REAP’s results and use of evidence in programme management.

• Supervise the programme MEL function and ensure that the MEL Lead has the authority and institutional support required to implement the approved MEL Plan.

• Ensure credible measurement of youth in work, progression toward dignified and fulfilling work, enterprise performance, market development, inclusion and relevant systems-level outcomes.

• Use evidence on partner performance, youth uptake, enterprise performance, market response, access to finance and country operating conditions to inform programme adaptation.

• Maintain clear accountability between the Director’s responsibility for programme performance and adaptive management and the MEL lead’s technical responsibility for measurement systems, data qu