About US:

Business Lab Uganda (BLU) is a trade support program that aims to grow Ugandan agriculture enterprises in a sustainable and inclusive manner in order for them to create agricultural business opportunities for more people and especially women. The programme is financed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) and aims to link farmers and businesses to markets.

Job Summary:  Business Lab Uganda is looking for a Senior Strategic Manager who will support the development of cross-cutting strategies, frameworks and policies for the organisation but will also need to perform hands-on work related to developing trainings and organising events.

The strategic projects manager will be responsible to develop and manage a knowledge and learning vision and structure for the program to make sure all knowledge and experience that is created will be collected and shared with relevant stakeholders, including the Dutch embassy in Kampala. The strategic projects manager is also in charge of setting out and managing research projects and drafting and executing strategies for cross-cutting issues, including gender and organic agriculture. The strategic project manager is also expected to jump in on hands-on tasks related to developing training and organising international events.

In order to do this the strategic project manager must have a background in food and agriculture and experience with knowledge creation and project management. It is of importance that the strategic project manager has an understanding of both the Ugandan and Dutch context and market.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: 

Lead the creation of the Learning & Development vision and structure for BLU

• Develop and execute research plans
• Design a strategy on how to map and register the farmers BLU sources its produce from
• Create key learnings and knowledge collateral
• Carve out where and how BLU can be unique in its learning and sharing
• Define how BLU should share its learnings with stakeholders and develop a platform to do so
• Ensure the learning and sharing plan is effectively managed and rolled out, with key counterparts aware of BLU’s progress and learnings

Lead the development and roll out an organic space

• Perform a gap analysis and define what the bottlenecks are for organic agriculture and certification in Uganda.
• Strategize on what services BLU should have and offer to partners
• Define a strategy how BLU should work towards organic sourcing from all sourcing partners
• Create a BLU organic academy that is first of its kind in Uganda

(Co)-lead the development a gender strategy for BLU to implement

• Create a task force that will push the gender policies forward
• Design policy regulations that should be followed by BLU and its partners to empower women
• Define whether trainings on the gender policy should be provided and develop them when necessary

Drive the development of the BLU local brand

• Co-create the vision of a local innovative food brand within Uganda and East Africa to benefit Ugandan companies
• Ensure relevant market research is performed

Support any projects that need management assistance

• (Co)-lead the organisation of (international) events
• Lead the organisation of visits of the founders or investors from the Netherlands

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Have >5 years of experience in the field of agriculture.
• Have >3 years of experience in the area of knowledge creating, sharing and utilisation.
• Have a (research) master from a prestigious university in the field of food, agriculture or business development.
• Have experience with and understanding of programmes related to agriculture and food security of European Ministry bodies, such as Embassies.
• Have a strong network within Europe/Netherlands related to agricultural (business) development.
• Understanding of the market opportunities in the Netherlands and Europe.
• Understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation systems and the inclusion of learnings.
• Skilled in building relationships with different stakeholders and to make them work together in multi-stakeholder platforms.
• Must already be living in Uganda.
• Experience within Uganda in the field of agriculture.
• Intercultural communication skills.
• Fluent in English, Dutch and a local language in Uganda.
• Flexible, must be able to quickly switch between different thematic areas and tasks.
• Be a team player but also take on individual tasks.
• Gender position: women are encouraged to apply.

Please send your CV and motivation letter to

info@blu.ug.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.