RECRUITMENT NOTICE

Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) is a non-profit organization aiming at creating value for smallholders in Asia, Africa and Latin America by promoting sustainable agriculture technologies and activation of value chains that help farmers to increase food production, improve access to markets, and mitigate risks. SFSA, with its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland focuses on scalable innovations and act as a catalyst and incubator. Syngenta Foundation’s presence in Bangladesh since 2011 and has been implementing several edge cutting agricultural development projects for improving the income and livelihood opportunities of smallholders in Bangladesh.

SFSA Bangladesh is implementing a project titled ‘Boosting Agriculture Risk Mitigation in Bangladesh through Climate Insurance for Small-holders’ envisions that enhance the resilience of small farmer through climate insurance.  The overall project objective is designing a customer centric Agriculture Climate Risk Insurance (ACRI) solution for various crops (rice, potatoes, vegetable, maize and flood that is needs based and adequately designed/tailored with regards to the risks faced by smallholder farmers in Bangladesh. This will be backed with development of an innovative end to end Agri-InsurTech cloud platform to facilitate efficient policy administration, contract monitoring and claims management. It is a 2-years long project co-funded by the Insuresilience Solutions Fund (ISF) managed by the Frankfurt School, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA).

SFSA Bangladesh is looking for a suitable candidate to fill up the position of Project Manager

Department or Function : SFSA Agriculture Insurance Solutions
Contract Type                    : Full-time and Regular Position of the Project
Reports to                          : SFSA Head of Global Insurance Solutions & SFSA Bangladesh Country Director
Location                              : Dhaka, Bangladesh

Role Profile:

The position is the focal contact point for the ISF funded project and the responsibilities are;

  • Successfully managing the ISF project, its strategy, planning, implementation, financial management, monitoring and reporting;
  • Leading the assessment of opportunities for agricultural insurance in Bangladesh;
  • Coordinating and managing relationships with local and international stakeholders, clients and implementing partners and donors;
  • Co-designing & implementing innovative products to mitigate climate risks for smallholder farmers;
  • Project End-to-End management, including impact assessment to foster improvements & sustain product implementation.

Accountability:

1. Strategy:

  • Help SFSA Agriculture Insurance Solutions (AIS) team to shape their mission, vision, and short/long term goals in Bangladesh
  • Implement SFSA Agriculture Insurance strategy in Bangladesh

2. Organization:

  • Create and strengthen business systems, standard operating processes and partnership management
  • Provide general oversight of the ISF project activities, manage the day-to-day operations and ensure a smoothly functioning, and efficient implementation of the project.

3. Commercial Operations:

  • Oversee development and implementation of further innovative agricultural micro-insurance products
  • Build sustainable relationships with insurers, reinsurance, Agri-sector partners, regulators, donors and investors
  • Ensure program/service quality and organization stability through implementation of standards and controls, systems and procedures and regular evaluation.

4. Financial Performance:

  • Ensure effective systems to track scaling progress, regularly evaluate product portfolio to assess success and take corrective action where needed

5. Financial & Back Office Management:

  • Financial management of the overall project budget  
  • Manage compliance and internal communications
  • Reporting as per donor - requirements

6. Governance:

  • Communicate to the internal AIS team and projects, funders, and other constituents on project performance
  • Lead the project team in Bangladesh
  • Motivate and build the capacity of the project team to attain goals

7. Stakeholder Engagement & Influencing:

  • Primary focus to support the development of agricultural insurance in conjunction with local partners in Bangladesh
  • Interface with and coordinate diverse national and international stakeholders as needed to enact meaningful country impact in agricultural insurance led by SFSA. Stakeholders and partners include:
  • Public sector (development banks, donors, governments, NGOs);
  • Private sector (input and output companies, investors, MFIs, banks, agribusinesses, reinsurers, insurers);
  • Financial sponsors; and
  • Partners with technical expertise and field teams

Key Skills and Competencies:

1. Strategy Execution:

  • Proven ability to shape and implement a clear business strategy
  • Track record of delivering bottom line performance against plans
  • Entrepreneurial mind-set and experience in setting up greenfield or start-up operations; self-starter

2. Leadership:

  • Provide inspiration, passion and enthusiasm
  • Prior experience in managing and motivating a diverse group of employees
  • Lead others towards high level of performance
    3. Understanding of Social Business, Government & Industry Processes:
    • Deep commitment to social change through innovative/impact business
    • Demonstrate understanding of agriculture industry, financial industry including insurance and the role of government and regulators

    4. Communication Skills:

    • Good communication skills, including writing and presentation ability, are essential
    • Good listener with an ability to understand new customers’ concerns and an ability to translate this into new products/product modifications or support services

    Required Technical, Professional and Personal Skills:

    1. Relevant Experience:

    • Minimum 5 years of senior executive management position in a commercial business or development organization
    • Experience of working in businesses serving low income customers and/or beneficiaries in Bangladesh is strongly preferred
    • Experience of leading start-ups through to stable growth phase is strongly preferred
    • Experience within the financial services (including Insurance) industry is strongly preferred
    • Experience in Agri-business will be a significant added advantage

    2. Skills & Abilities:

    • Strong sales and marketing background with negotiation ability
    • Excellent communication skills (verbal and written)
    • Excellent interpersonal and relationship building and management skills
    • Good financial governance and planning skills
    • Interest/ability to recognize client needs and drive product definition and development

    3. Knowledge:

    • Advanced degree, ideally an MBA or masters in economics other high level business or financial qualification
    • Good understanding of social enterprises and their operating environment

    Must be a Bangladeshi national with strong understanding of agricultural sector and prepared to work with smallholders in Bangladesh.  

    An attractive salary package and other fringe benefits including provident fund, gratuity, two festival bonus, group life & hospitalization insurance will be offered according to the organization policy.

    Application Instruction:

    Only those who meet the above requirements are requested toemail CV along with one-page motivational letter and a recent passport size photograph to the hr.sfsabangladesh@gmail.com mentioning the position applied on the subject line by 25 October 2020. 

    Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interview. Women are encouraged to apply.
    SFSA Bangladesh is an equal opportunity employer.

    All applications will be treated according to the merit and with strict confidentiality.