Job Title: Agricultural Production & Trade Specialist
Location: Hoima District (with extensive field travel)
Reports to: Portfolio Coordinator Agricultural Food Systems

Application Deadline: 8th March 2026

Program Background

The Agrifood System Transformation for Youth Employment (ASTYE) Uganda program

ASTYE is a 5-year transformative initiative designed to enable dignified and fulfilling work opportunities primarily for financially disadvantaged young women, refugees, and vulnerable groups by addressing structural barriers in Uganda’s Agrifood system. Aligned with Uganda’s Vision 2040, the National Development Plan and Government of Uganda Agriculture Value Chain Development Strategy, the program will contribute to national efforts toward poverty alleviation, economic growth, as well food and nutrition security. Additionally, ASTYE is part of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy in Uganda, which aims to empower 4.3 million young Ugandans, particularly young women, by addressing structural barriers to employment and providing them with the skills and resources to succeed.

Specifically, GOAL will implement component one to reach 500,000 financially disadvantaged young people, with 456,000 transiting into work and 336,000 securing dignified and fulfilling work. As the program is young women-centric, 80% of the total outreach target will be young women within Uganda’s agrifood ecosystem. Furthermore, 5% of the total youth in work target will be refugees, and another 5% will be people with disabilities.

Job summary

The Agricultural Production and Trade Specialist will lead the design, coordination, and implementation of inclusive, climate-smart agricultural production, aggregation, and market linkage interventions for financially disadvantaged young women, refugees, and vulnerable groups under the ASTYE Program. The role focuses on improving productivity, quality, market access, and income generation across priority agrifood value chains.

To be successful in this role, you will need:

Essential

• Post Graduate Diploma in Agriculture & Rural innovations, Agri-business, Agricultural Extension & Rural Innovation.
• At least 5 years’ experience in Agricultural production, value chain development, or market systems development.
• Strong experience working with youth, women, refugees, and vulnerable groups.
• Demonstrated experience in collective marketing, farmer aggregation and private sector engagement.

Desirable

• Knowledge of CSA, GAP, post-harvest handling, and quality standards.
• Strong facilitation, coordination, and reporting skills.
• Ability to work extensively in rural field settings.

The key responsibilities of the role will be:

Youth Engagement in Agricultural Production

• Support facilitation of access to land for young women through block farming, tripartite land use arrangements, and partnerships with landowners, institutions, parents, and cultural leaders.
• Participate in dialogue meetings at district and community levels to agree on land access and land use arrangements.
• Promote sustainable land management practices including soil and water conservation, agroforestry, integrated pest management (IPM), and climate-smart agriculture (CSA).
• Coordinate training of young women groups on Good Agronomic Practices (GAP), CSA technologies, and sustainable production systems.
• Establish and support on-farm demonstration plots to drive adoption of improved practices.

Strengthening Farmer Groups and Collective Action

• Support profiling, formation, and strengthening of young women farmer groups and secondary-level associations.
• Support group-based bulk input procurement, collective marketing, and demand aggregation models.

Improving Access to Quality Inputs and Extension Services

• Support partnerships with private sector input suppliers to co-design inclusive last-mile input delivery models.
• Coordinate training on safe agrochemical use, handling, and storage for young women, agents, and PSA staff.

• Support certification and strengthening of village-based input agents and extension agents.
• Work with public and private actors to scale advisory and extension services, including nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Post-Harvest Handling, Value Addition and Quality Assurance

• Facilitate access to post-harvest handling (PHH) technologies, on-farm storage solutions, and best practices.
• Coordinate trainings on drying, storage, handling, processing, and value addition.
• Support establishment of aggregation points, quality testing, grading, and standardization systems.
• Support compliance with quality standards, traceability, and record-keeping requirements across value chains.

Market Access, Trade and Agribusiness Development

• Support development of local market agents (VBAs) and strengthen linkages with off-takers, processors, and traders.
• Facilitate collective marketing, contract farming arrangements, warehouse receipt systems, and commodity exchange linkages.
• Support partnerships with agro-processors to increase off-take from young women producers.
• Support women groups and cooperatives to develop packaging, branding, and simple marketing strategies.

Documentation, Strategy Development, and Knowledge Management

• Lead documentation of program activities, lessons learned, case studies, and success stories across value chains.
• Develop and regularly update the sector implementation strategy in alignment with the ASTYE program objectives and district priorities.
• Support evidence-based planning through data analysis, learning reviews, and stakeholder feedback.
• Ensure proper record-keeping, reporting, and sharing knowledge with internal teams and external stakeholders.

Supervision, Coordination, Monitoring, and Reporting

• Provide technical guidance and supervision to Program Officers to ensure quality and timely implementation of agricultural production and trade interventions.
• Develop clear work plans and performance targets for supervised staff and conduct regular review meetings.
• Work closely with PSA partners, district local governments, and private sector actors.
• Conduct regular field monitoring visits to ensure quality implementation.
• Contribute to activity planning, reporting, documentation of lessons learned, and success stories.

General Terms and Conditions

At GOAL we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please just contact our Recruitment Team at recruitment@ug.goal.ie

GOAL Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
GOAL is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive environment for all employees. We foster an inclusive culture where all voices are heard and valued. We know that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

All employees share in the responsibility for fulfilling GOAL’s commitment to equal employment opportunity and equal treatment. GOAL does not discriminate against any employee on the basis of sex, race, color, ethnic background, tribe, birth, creed or religion or social or economic standing, political opinion, disability.

Code of Conduct and Accountability within GOAL

GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has values and behaviours framework which defines our code of conduct. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability.

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a GOAL staff or partner.

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

GOAL 

Established in 1977, GOAL is an international humanitarian agency and works with the most vulnerable communities to help them respond to and overcome humanitarian crises, and to assist those facing poverty and exclusion achieve greater resilience and well-being. GOAL envisions a world beyond humanitarian crises where poverty no longer exists, where vulnerable communities exposed to shocks and stresses are resilient, where barriers to well-being are removed and where everyone has equal rights and opportunities.

General Description of the Country Programme 

First operational in Uganda in 1979, the current GOAL Uganda country programme focuses on Health, (including WASH, Health Accountability and Nutrition); and a market-based systems approach to improving agricultural livelihoods and WASH. GOAL Uganda mainstreams gender, child protection, social behavior changes and resilience strategies across all programming. GOAL uses a mixture of direct implementation and partnerships with national and international civil society organizations, local government, the private sector and communities to give effect to our mission.

GOAL Uganda has a skilled team of over 110 personnel and has a head office in Kampala and field offices in 7 locations across Northern, Southwestern and Eastern regions of Uganda.  GOAL Uganda’s donors include the Mastercard Foundation, charity: water, Irish Aid, The Kingdom of Netherland Embassy in Uganda (EKN) and other private donors.

Interested applicants who meet the requirements should apply through the link with at least 3 reference contacts