About this role
As part of SHONA’s Sustainable Food Systems work, we convene The East Africa Agroecology Entrepreneurship Community of Practice (AEE CoP), a membership-based collective of funders, investors,
business development service (BDS) providers, network organisations, and others committed to building
shared knowledge, insights, materials, and tools on agroecology entrepreneurship in East Africa.
Our aim is to amplify and accelerate learning by bringing resources and expertise together under one
umbrella—supporting the growth of Agroecology Enterprises (AEEs) and accelerating the region’s transition to agroecology.

We work through two thematic Working Groups:

• Growing AEEs (GrowCoP) – Co-facilitated by SHONA and Rootical focused on enterprise development and scaling support for AEEs in East Africa.
• Investing in AEEs (FinCoP) – Co-facilitated by Biovision Foundation and Transformational Investing in Food Systems (TIFS) and focused on increasing the availability of appropriate finance for AEEs.

We are looking to hire the FinCop Project Manager to support the implementation of the FinCoP’s activities and ensure that the community delivers tangible value for its members.

About the FinCoP
The Finance Community of Practice (FinCoP) convenes finance providers and financial practitioners to
explore and address the financing needs of AEEs. Rather than a traditional knowledge-sharing network, the FinCoP is designed to be action-oriented — working with motivated members to co-design and test practical solutions to shared financing challenges.
The FinCoP currently works through two core workstreams:

•  Transition Finance — Understanding and addressing the financing needs of smallholder farmers and
  agri-SMEs as they transition to agroecological practices, including the design of tailored instruments
  such as blended finance structures, guarantee funds, and income-stabilization mechanisms.
• Landscape Finance — Exploring how diverse actors — public institutions, philanthropies, private
  investors, and community-based organisations — can coordinate capital at a landscape or territorial
  level to support agroecological food system transformation.

Cross-cutting priorities include expanding the pipeline of investable AEEs, strengthening member
engagement and knowledge exchange, and building the evidence base needed to attract and align capital for agroecological transitions.y

Your Mission

The FinCoP Project Manager plays a central role in maintaining momentum for the FinCoP’s activities and
ensuring that the community delivers tangible value for its members. Working closely with the
co-facilitators at Biovision Foundation and TIFS, the Project Manager supports the implementation of
FinCoP’s 2026 strategy, manages member engagement, and ensures that the community’s learning and
action agenda progresses effectively.

This is a substantive coordination and content role. The ideal candidate brings both an understanding of
innovative finance in the agri-food sector and the organisational and communication skills to keep a
diverse, dispersed membership engaged and productive.
This role will be an initial 6-month contract – 1 July, 2026 – 31 December, 2026, with the possibility of
extension into a longer-term contract based on the evolution of the FinCoP.

Key Responsibilities
Learning, Co-design and Testing of Solutions

• Conduct and analyse research – desktop and field research to support the FinCoP’s conversations on the two key topics – Transition Finance and Landscape Finance.
• Support the co-design of appropriate solutions based on the research and FinCoP member conversations, including organising working sessions and drafting concept notes.
• Test appropriate solutions with FinCoP members and other key stakeholders.
• Support the development of knowledge products — such as learning briefs, case studies, and
  financing tools — that translate FinCoP research and discussions into actionable outputs for members and the broader sector.
• Coordinate the sharing of resources, data, and insights across work streams, ensuring that learning in one area informs the others.

FinCoP Administration

• Keep weekly running notes and action points while improving their structure.
• Ensure functional information sharing with AEE CoP secretary and the Growing AEEs working group
  focal person as necessary.
• Update and management of the membership database.
• Reaching out to potential members and keeping track of information about FinCoP and the
  membership registration process.
• Maintain a progress tracking system for the 2026 work plan, monitoring key milestones and flagging risks or delays to the co-facilitators.

Member Engagement and Support

• Support co-facilitators in designing engagement approaches based on FinCoP strategy that deliver
  genuine value to members — moving beyond information-sharing toward collaborative
  problem-solving.
• Support members of the Kenya coordination and referral subgroup (work closely with lead FinCoP
  members and Biovision’s long term consultant in Kenya), incl. assisting in profiling FinCoP members
  and their agri-SME investees to support matchmaking and connections to relevant financing
  opportunities.
• Manage follow-up from all member interactions, ensuring commitments are tracked and acted upon.

Webinar and Event Planning

• Plan and manage the FinCoP’s webinar programme, including communicating with presenters, preparing agendas and facilitation guides, and ensuring sessions are well-designed and engaging.
• Coordinate an annual in-person member meeting, including agenda development, invitations, venue logistics, and on-site facilitation support.
• Prepare clear, accessible summaries of all webinars and meetings, and manage follow-up actions to maintain momentum between sessions.

Any other tasks assigned by the FinCoP co-facilitators

Qualifications
Essential

• Solid understanding of financing mechanisms relevant to agri-SMEs and agroecological transitions in East Africa, including familiarity with blended finance, impact investing, and/or donor-funded
  initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality written content for diverse audiences, including meeting summaries, learning briefs, and communications materials.
• Proven experience in planning and delivering webinars and multi-stakeholder events, from content
  design through to post-event follow-up.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams
  simultaneously and identify and keep track of formal and informal commitments across a dispersed
  network.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage credibly and build relationships with a range of actors including investors, donors, development organisations, and agri-SMEs.
• Strong documentation skills

Desirable

• Familiarity with agroecology, regenerative agriculture, or related sustainable food systems
  approaches in the East African context.
• Experience supporting communities of practice, learning networks, or similar multi-stakeholder
  platforms.
• Experience with landscape finance, transition finance, or market systems development in the
  agri-food sector.
• Existing networks among finance providers, impact investors, or development finance institutions
  active in East Africa.

Personal competencies

• Self-motivated and proactive working style
• Capacity to self-organise
• Attention to detail
• Listening and learning attitude
• Willingness to do the “legwork”

The deadline for applications is 31st May, 2026

CLICK HERE TO APPLY