Executive Director, Haiti Food Systems Alliance (HFSA)

Supervisor: HFSA board of directors  
Location: Haiti or USA  
Start Date: ASAP 
Contract: Employee 
Travel: Approximately 25% travel 

About the Haiti Food System Alliance:  
The Haiti Food Systems Alliance (HFSA) is a locally-led coalition that believes in and supports the power of local smallholder farmers to transform food systems in Haiti from the ground up. The HFSA was founded by proven local partners that have been working together for many years and in partnership with anchor-funding support from the WK Kellogg Foundation. More importantly, HFSA members work across agriculture, education, healthcare and community development and represent hundreds of Haitian staff and workers, tens of thousands of Haitian farmers, students, and patients, and thousands of affiliated Haitian community organizations. To date, the HFSA’s founding 14 members have provided over 75,000 children and vulnerable people with locally sourced feeding kits, meals and snacks, supported over 40,000 farmers with in-person and digital assistance, inputs, financing and market access, sustained over 1,200 rural food systems jobs, and launched over 75 partnerships with other food systems actors. Additionally, HFSA members have aggregated and sold over $2million in local farmer production to dozens of private sector buyers, feeding programs, and international organizations. 

To learn more about the work of the HFSA, please visit: hfsalliance.org  

About This Role:  
The Executive Director, working in close collaboration with all Alliance partners, will be responsible for oversight of all Alliance activities, including achieving project milestones, developing workplans, overseeing budget and reporting on execution and progress. The Executive Director will report to the HFSA board of directors and will have full programmatic and impact responsibility and lead the Alliance to impact tens of thousands of farming families in Haiti, while creating new opportunities and catalyzing new investment in rural communities throughout the country. 

Key Responsibilities: 
The duties listed below are intended as illustrations of the types of duties that may be performed. The omission of specific duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related or a logical assignment to this position. 

Overarching responsibilities: 

• Develop programing, support partners and increase coordination to cement, leverage, and strengthen partnerships among organizations working across diverse aspects of food system and value chain development including research, training, production, and feeding.  
• Develop programing, support partners and increase coordination to improve nutrition for thousands of children in schools, hospitals, and vulnerable rural communities through locally sourced production in strategic value chains.  

• Develop programing, support partners and increase coordination to improve the incomes of thousands of rural farming households and women through increased distribution and purchasing of local production in strategic value chains.  
• Develop programing, support partners and increase coordination to increase competitiveness, profitability, and sustainability of five or more agricultural value chains by using applied research, leveraging existing operations, and cementing market access.  

Specific responsibilities:  

• Oversee development of Alliance website and communications strategy.  
• Develop, share and promote Alliance case studies, research and training materials and tools.  
• Develop sustainability and fundraising plan for Alliance and its members.  
• Develop Alliance gender strategy to maximize inclusiveness and equity at all levels of Alliance activities from smallholder and food systems workers to governance.  
• Develop and engage an Alliance advisory board consisting of diverse Haitian experts and thought leaders, with focus on incorporating women as well as community organization leaders.  
• Develop community and farmer engagement strategy for Alliance to ensure maximum participation of all voices.  
• Develop and oversee Alliance data, impact and reporting strategy and execution.  
• Recruit additional Alliance production, service and feeding partners.  

Additional responsibilities: 

• Develop new programs, including budgets, operational plans and projected output and outcome estimates. 
• Draft presentations, concept notes and full project proposals. 
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with community stakeholders, including funders, relevant government departments, private sector companies and business associations. 
• Maintain project work plans and ensure timely project implementation. 
• Ensure project activities are implemented with sound managerial, technical, human resource and overall programmatic practices. 
• Conduct visits with field managers to expand operations, lead and motivate staff, manage farmer training and induction programs and resolve challenges. 
• Manage and monitor project budget variances to ensure spending rates are on target and realign as required. 
• Produce and share project performance metrics, including dashboards, Program Status Reports (PSRs) and impact data. 
• Proactively identify successful strategies and tactics, or bottlenecks to effective execution of Alliance objectives. 
• Represent programs and the Alliance at internal and external functions. 
• Interface with program funders and engage them around the Alliance and other projects. 
• Understand, respect and promote the Alliance’s mission, vision and strategy in implementation of assigned duties. 

Qualifications: 

• Entrepreneurial spirit and ambition for growth. 
• Has an ‘it can be done’ mind set and prepared to go the extra mile to do what it take to support the Alliance’s partners and beneficiaries.  
• Good analytical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills. 
• Passionate about poverty alleviation and improving farmer livelihoods and adopting new solutions to solve poverty.  
• Ability to conceive and implement new opportunities to drive impact. 
• Experience engaging successfully with economic development funders and a broad understanding of the development sector in Haiti. 
• Ability and desire to travel to remote locations in Haiti and deal directly with farmer groups, intermediaries, processors and buyers. 
• Proven effective leadership skills and ability to mentor and manage groups of managers, staff and farmers. 
• Strong project management and budgeting skills, and experience leading multi-year, multi-million program budgets. 
• Experience working with several Alliance members. 
• A Master’s degree or major course work in business, international development agriculture or economics, or a related field. 
• Ten years minimum experience managing development programs in Haiti. 
• Advanced user of MS Office Suite applications (experience with accounting and operations software a strong plus). 
• Oral and written fluency in Creole, French and English. 

Application Instructions: 
To apply, please upload your CV/resume and cover letter in the form below. In order to be considered, we ask that you submit your application materials in English. 

For more information about Acceso and careers with us, please visit Acceso.org/careers. 

Acceso is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.