Agriculture, Market Systems and Climate Finance Senior Advisor

Role Overview

This senior advisory seat sits at the crossroads of agricultural lending, market systems development, and climate finance inside a global microfinance network. Day to day, the postholder shapes how the organisation designs and delivers credit products for farming communities, steers a nine-country pilot in Africa and Central America under the THRIVE 2030 programme, and represents the network in donor and technical spaces. The work matters because it determines whether smallholder farmers and agri-value chain actors can access finance that builds climate resilience — and whether the organisation can win the institutional funding needed to scale that impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the network's technical authority on agricultural, market systems, and climate finance — advising microfinance institutions and operations teams on best practice, product design, and strategic positioning, and serving as the internal and external focal point for these three connected areas.
• Lead the CrediEnterprise pilot across nine countries in Africa and Central America as part of THRIVE 2030 — driving delivery against programme targets, resolving operational, institutional, and market bottlenecks, and coordinating closely with MFI country managers, World Vision field offices, and regional directors.
• Shape strategy and external positioning by co-leading the internal climate financing working group, contributing to market-facing strategy and product direction, and representing the organisation in technical forums such as Environmental and Climate Action groups within the World Vision partnership.
• Build capacity of national staff — supervise rollout of CrediEnterprise training, coach credit managers, support recruitment of agricultural and business development officers, and ensure teams can use e-THRIVE and other digital platforms for decision-making.
• Design and run monitoring, evaluation, and learning with the Global Impact team — track portfolio metrics including PAR, GLP, and client numbers disaggregated by programme group versus impact line, gather field data and client feedback, and maintain accurate reflection of CrediEnterprise figures in core banking and impact tracking systems.
• Drive resource development — pre-position with agricultural, climate, and market systems donors, write and review grant applications, supply technical content for proposals, join donor calls and visits, and establish a mechanism to track climate-finance opportunities and engagements.
• Safeguard partnership quality and product integration — ensure MFI partnerships with equipment suppliers, offtakers, and other actors meet minimum quality standards in the network credit policy, integrate CrediEnterprise with insurance and savings offerings, and keep savings group linkage distinct from the credit product.
• Own programme reporting and knowledge management — produce quarterly THRIVE 2030 narrative and DME reports, review country-level market systems reports to spot scaling opportunities, gather commodity profiles for the agrocalculator, and develop case studies, implementation briefs, and learning products for the community of practice.

Requirements & Qualifications

• At least 10 years working in agriculture, climate, and market systems finance, with a strong preference for experience in Africa.
• Post-graduate degree in agricultural economics or a related agricultural discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven track record in market systems and agricultural lending — fluency in farmer value chains, production cycles, and cashflow patterns.
• Demonstrated experience designing or delivering programmes with a climate change component, and the ability to explain market systems and climate resilience fundamentals clearly to varied audiences.
• Strong project implementation skills: action-oriented, able to follow through, assess progress, and agree corrective actions with partners.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including experience with grant applications, donor reporting, and other technical writing.
• Experience working across multiple countries is a plus, as is direct experience in value chain or market systems financing, or lending to agricultural cooperatives.
• Preferred: prior work with NGOs, agricultural partners, and market actors; delivery of training in value chain and market systems development; formal certificates or courses in agricultural finance or market systems; digital tools experience.
• Fluent English required; Spanish or French spoken is an advantage.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 35% of the time.