OVERVIEW

The Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI) operates as a regional partnership across Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, promoting agroecology and food sovereignty by empowering smallholder farmers to reclaim control over their seed systems and production systems.

This 12-month project aims to build climate-resilient agroecology market systems and localised, circular food and seed economies to address the market gap. Through participatory pilot initiatives in Zambia and Zimbabwe, combined with regional learning and knowledge sharing across all four countries, the project will generate evidence on approaches that strengthen livelihoods while remaining rooted in the principles of agroecology and food sovereignty.

The Project Implementation Manager (PIM) will have the day-to-day management responsibility to lead the coordination, execution, and monitoring of all project activities. The PIM will ensure that deliverables are completed on time, within budget, and in strict alignment with agroecological principles and partner expectations.

Project Period: September 2026 – August 2027

Duration: 12 Months

Reporting To: SKI Director

Employment Type: Fixed-term contractor

Working Schedule: 3 days per week

Anticipated Start Date: 15th September 2026

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Execution:

• Manage the 12-month project timeline by developing an integrated project implementation and expenditure plan and tracker to ensure seamless delivery of project components.

Field Oversight:

• Direct the initial landscape mapping study, stakeholder engagement, pilot site selection, and the rollout of catalytic start-up funding for capital infrastructure (e.g., seed storage facilities).

Partner Coordination:

• Manage and coordinate with specialized technical partners (Africa Circular, Tandem Consulting, IFOAM) to ensure SKI partner and community buy-in and ownership.

Capacity & Business Development:

• Oversee training rollouts in financial literacy, savings groups, and circular economics; guide the development of investment-ready business plans for agroecology enterprises.

M&E and Learning:

• Implement a robust monitoring and evaluation framework and tools to ensure process traceability, capture key innovations, and package evidence for regional policy advocacy.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

• Capacity Building: Training in Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), Financial Literacy and savings groups, business training and circular economy principles and practice.
• Co-design, Test and Refine: Develop and refine practical training curricula, tools and support approaches that strengthen agroecology enterprises and market systems.
• Business Development: Develop investment-ready business plans for two piloted Agroecology enterprises in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Catalytic Funding: Provide catalytic start-up funding and implementation support for two pilot projects.
• Evidence and Learning: Generate regional evidence and learning to support future scaling and duplication.
• Institutional Strengthening: Strengthen SKI's capacity to coordinate, resource and scale agroecological market systems.

OPERATIONAL MODALITY & TRAVEL LOGISTICS

• Location / Hybrid Framework: The PIM will work via a split remote and in-country deployment. The Applicant should be based in one of the SKI partner countries, with preference given to an existing, established office near an International Airport to streamline ad-hoc travel to Zimbabwe and Zambia.
• On-Site Field Presence: Ad-hoc travel to rural pilot project sites in both Zimbabwe and Zambia will be required.
• Travel Credentials: A valid, up-to-date international passport and necessary regional travel documents/visas with at least 12 months validity remaining are strict prerequisites for appointment.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Degree in Project Management / Development Studies, or a related field such as Agribusiness, Agroecology, Environmental Science.
• Minimum of 5 years' experience managing multi-disciplinary rural empowerment and economic development projects in Southern Africa.
• Exceptional cross-cultural communication, report-writing, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrated experience developing agricultural business plans, community savings schemes, and rural enterprises.
• Direct field experience working within rural smallholder communities in Africa, including existing smallholder farmer and network links in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Malawi (beneficial).
• 5 years working experience with smallholder farmer development and deep understanding of rural smallholder farmer challenges, agroecology principles, food and seed sovereignty, circular economy, financial literacy and saving group development, and Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) (beneficial).
• Proven expertise in Participatory Action Research (PAR) and qualitative/quantitative M&EL (beneficial).
• Preference for candidates with existing networks and experience in all partner countries to facilitate dialogue and stakeholder management (beneficial).

HOW TO APPLY

Interested consultants or professionals should submit the following documents to:

Email: ruby@seedandknowledge.org

Subject Line: Application: SKI Project Implementation Manager

Applicants should submit:

• A comprehensive Curriculum Vitae (CV) highlighting relevant regional experience.
• A Cover Letter (maximum 2 pages) detailing their alignment with agroecological principles and readiness for immediate, cross-border field deployment.
• Contact details for three recent professional references familiar with their project management background.
• Confirmation of full availability for the project year.

Application Deadline: 28th August 2026

Planned Interview Date: 3rd September 2026