PRISMA - Agribusiness Mentor (Consultant)

PRISMA - Agribusiness Mentor (Consultant)

Project Overview and Role:

Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Promoting Rural Incomes through Support for Markets in Agriculture (PRISMA) is a multi-year development program working to accelerate poverty reduction through inclusive economic growth. PRISMA adopts a market systems development approach by partnering with key stakeholders to improve agriculture market efficiency and sustainably benefit the poor. The program aims to increase income for 1,000,000 smallholder farming households by 2024. It operates in the provinces of Central Java, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), and Tanah Papua region.

1.1.Intervention Background
Over half of Tanah Papuas vegetable supply is sourced from Java and Sulawesi, primarily due to low local farmer productivity, inadequate market information, and linkage between off-takers and farmers. PRISMAs initiative aims to enhance off-takers capacity in management and trading volume to increase the uptake of vegetables produced by indigenous farmers in West Papua as a pilot cluster. By leveraging this partnership, farmers will have access to essential support such as access to the end market, market information and post-harvest handling assistance, enabling them to produce competitive vegetables that can compete with imports. This initiative complements and strengthens the existing intervention with the seed company in tapping into the indigenous market. Additionally, this intervention is in line with PRISMA’s exit strategy, which is to improve inter-province and intra-province trading by strengthening the market linkage between farmers and end customers.

The Agribusiness Mentor will provide training and mentorship to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of Anggi Mart, an indigenous-owned greengrocer located in Manokwari, West Papua. Anggi Mart sources fresh produce from indigenous farmers, mainly in Manokwari and Pegunungan Arfak. Their main customers are households, with recent additions from hotels and industries. Anggi Mart aims to double their revenue by 2024, which marks four years since the business was founded. Despite the ardent spirit, they are hindered by traditional business management, weak supply chains, and passive business development.

After this mentorship, PRISMA expects Anggi Mart to operate more efficiently with improved financial management, better post-harvest handling practices, a more diverse consumer base, and more reliable supply networks.

The training curriculum will span over four months, this consists of bi-weekly online mentoring sessions and one field visit. The online mentoring sessions will further develop Anggi Mart’s improvements since the fundamental mentoring in 2023. During the field visit, the mentor is expected to review Anggi Mart’s improvements and deliver agribusiness training(s) to a selected audience of young indigenous entrepreneurs from Tanah Papua. The objective is to inspire young entrepreneurs in Tanah Papua to replicate Anggi Mart’s business model in their own hometowns.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

The Agribusiness Mentor will be responsible for:

• Providing entrepreneurial coaching for Anggi Mart owner, using Smart Business Model (SBM) framework. To name a few the topics include:
  
  • Business acumen for agribusiness (cashflow management, financial literacy, human capital management, assets management, operations, branding, product marketing)
  • Business Development (product diversification, pitching to Horeca and industry clients, customer relationships)
  • Supply management (creating and maintaining partnerships with smallholder farmers, harvest scheduling, collection point set-up and management)
• Evaluating and advising optimum Post-Harvest Handling (PHH) practice for Anggi Mart, which considers the local context of Tanah Papua. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Providing the necessary training for Anggi Mart to implement the practice.
  • Advising Anggi Mart to source the necessary tools for the PHH practice.
• Giving agrobusiness training(s) for PRISMA’s “Tanah Papua Youthpreneur Summit” event scheduled for April 2024 in Manokwari. The training will focus on agribusiness and entrepreneurship topics.

Required Qualifications:

The consultant must have the following:

• Proven track record in managing a similar size and scaling up a vegetable trading business., mainly for highland vegetable varieties.
• Established PHH process, ready for modern retail greengrocers and/or long-distance shipment.
• Experience in assisting smallholder farmers in providing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), PHH, and setting up a reliable vegetable supply network.
• Experience in pitching and supplying fresh produce to modern retail greengrocers, Horeca, and/or large industries.
• Experience in developing new product lines for the household market segment (e.g. ready-to-cook products).
• Experience in providing training for agribusinesses.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience in supply chains that involve smallholder farmers in distant locations.
• Experience in shipping fresh vegetables across provinces.
• Familiarity with the local context in Tanah Papua.
• Available and willing to travel to Tanah Papua.
• A well-connected network with caterers affiliated with prominent industries operating within Tanah Papua.

The consultant will work with PRISMA’s vegetable sector team and Anggi Mart in developing the training plan as well as the coaching/mentoring progress.

The consultant’s work will be a maximum of 7 (seven) days over four months, with the workday allocation.

Deliverables:

• Mentoring and monitoring sessions (online, bi-weekly) – March, May, June 2024
• On-site training for Anggi Mart and PRISMA’s “Tanah Papua Youthpreneur Summit” – April 2024

Company Overview:

About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the worlds most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, peoples lives.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Application closed on 5 March 2024

Women and people with disability are encouraged to apply.