Conduct Strategic Investment Study for Ethiopia Sustainable Coffee Landscapes Initiatives (TechnoServe Fellows)

About TechnoServe:

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart ofTechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a leading non-profit organization that supports enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and climate change solutions. TechnoServe has been ranked as the #1 non-profit in reducing poverty by ImpactMatters. TechnoServe works with over 400,000 beneficiaries in nearly 30 countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and India.

About the TechnoServe Fellows Program:

Technoserve is looking for Fellows to contribute business acumen and skills to in-country operational teams and global strategic initiative teams. This highly competitive fellowship allows professionals to experience the field of international development firsthand while building new skills and challenging themselves in a cross-cultural and entrepreneurial environment. 

Projects focus on supporting local entrepreneurs to develop regenerative agricultural value chains and scale businesses - particularly those addressing climate change. Within local teams, Fellows lead work on industry analysis, business plan development, financial modeling, operations, organizational development, marketing strategy, and stakeholder management. Project locations could be in any of our 29 TechnoServe field offices, including Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, India, and many more. Fellows have worked with development partners such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Mastercard Foundation. 

TechnoServe Fellows are critical members of the TechnoServe team, working in the field with our full-time staff to further our mission and increase our impact around the world. Fellows take part in projects ranging from 2 to 12 months in which they engage directly with entrepreneurs, industry experts, TechnoServe field staff, and other stakeholders.

Fellows form a global alumni community representing top-tier consulting, industry, and nonprofit organizations and graduate schools such as Bain, McKinsey, BCG, Harvard Business School, Wharton, Yale School of Management, and Kellogg.

Who are typical TechnoServe Fellows?

• An MBA student fulfilling a summer internship
• A seasoned executive looking for a way to give back
• A management consultant taking a secondment to do impact work
•  A business professional wanting to gain experience with an international NGO
• A early-career professional looking to gain experience leading a project

We encourage qualified, enthusiastic candidates – especially those with French, Spanish, or Portuguese fluency – to apply.

Read more about the program and view sample projects here: https://www.technoserve.org/get-involved/fellows-program

Featured Fellows Project: Ethiopia Coffee Forestry Fellow

Project Purpose

Climate change is an existential threat that has received considerable publicity in recent months with unprecedented fires in Canada, Australia and the Amazon, and record summer temperatures across many countries. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), over half of the tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed since the 1960s, and every second, more than one hectare of tropical forests is destroyed or drastically degraded. Not only does the loss of forests reduce carbon capture but the degradation and loss of forests threatens the survival of many species. 

Conservationists have recognized that a holistic approach that tackles the underlying causes of deforestation is necessary to save the world’s forests. Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes. FLR is not just about planting trees – it can include multiple activities like agroforestry, erosion control and natural forest regeneration. FLR also addresses the underlying drivers of forest loss. For example, it provides farming communities living in and around forests with knowledge on sustainable agricultural methods that do not rely on destroying forests. 

Coffee production has been one of the causes of deforestation in the tropics and expansion of coffee farms continues to be a threat to tropical forests in parts of south-east Asia and South America. Many coffee companies have committed not to purchase from farms on recently deforested land and have invested in monitoring and farm auditing to ensure their supply-chains are deforestation-free. 

Coffee’s positive contribution to the climate and role in protecting tropical forests is not well documented. Over 25 billion coffee trees and shade trees on coffee farms have a substantial carbon capture effect. Millions of coffee farms with mixed shade tree species preserve biodiversity that would have been lost if farms had grown mono food crops rather than coffee. For example, the semi-forest organic production system in Ethiopia that contributes more than half of Ethiopia’s coffee production has conserved over a million hectares of Afromontane tropical forest.

The adoption of climate-smart regenerative farming practices that boost farm productivity while creating a sustainable landscape can help millions of smallholder coffee farming families who are struggling due to declining farm size and falling farm productivity.

TechnoServe has trained over 400,000 smallholder coffee farmers on climate-smart farming practices over the past 10 years and has identified a number of practices that can conserve forests, increase carbon capture, regenerate soils, protect water resources and preserve biodiversity. These include planting of indigenous shade trees, adoption of soil protection measures and installation of ecological processing technologies.

The adoption of these practices significantly increases the income of smallholder coffee farmers enabling higher investments in education that enables the next generation to move off the land and into urban jobs.

TechnoServe Fellow’s Role

The Fellow’s study on the impact of coffee on forests and the climate aims to demonstrate and quantify the impact of sustainable coffee initiatives on forest conservation, carbon sequestration, soil regeneration, water protection and biodiversity preservation. The study aims to guide strategic investments by donors and private sector to deliver impact on climate and forests through sustainable coffee initiatives. The study is expected to catalyze investments in TechnoServe’s coffee programs by enabling collaboration with conservationists, donor agencies and private sector companies who are prioritizing climate investments.

TechnoServe will use a combination of desk research, expert interviews, business analytics and stakeholder engagement throughout the study to achieve the objectives. We will bring to bear our expertise on coffee farm-level practices and resulting impacts, while building on the industry’s available environmental research and tools. Our analytical approach is to bridge between the complex methodologies developed by scientists, and the environmental and business metrics that donors and private sector relate to. To do this we will collaborate with external experts, academics and conservation partners to identify and leverage the most relevant existing environmental frameworks, protocols and models, and incorporate both TechnoServe project data (e.g., farmer adoption of various regenerative agriculture practices, yield and quality improvements, price premiums) and publicly available data (e.g., forest cover, soil quality, water supply, biodiversity and climate indicators) as relevant. This approach will enable TechnoServe to quantify the environmental benefits from sustainable coffee production and estimate their value in economic terms while staying focused on our area of expertise, without engaging in deep scientific research or highly complex modelling, which may be more appropriate for external partners.

Additional details will be offered to potential candidates.

Deliverables

• External publication: Investment strategy blueprint for sustainable coffee landscapes initiatives
• At least two specific strategies for selected coffee landscapes (e.g., Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) that can attract and leverage investments from public sector, corporate partners and coffee farmer organizations in collaboration with conservation partners and academic institutions
• A detailed proposal to materialize funding for a sustainable coffee landscape project

Skills & Requirements

•  Demonstrated ability to effectively service clients/partners in the private sector
•  Professional experience in developing countries
•  Proven analytical and modeling skills
•  Demonstrated leadership skills, teamwork and relationship building
•  Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
•  Strong computer skills, including MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel
•  Able to work independently, flexibly and responsively
•  Able to adapt to changing working conditions
•  Professional level of spoken and written English

Is this project not your fit? 

We are also offering the following projects:

• Mexico Madre Tierra Case Study - requires Spanish fluency or professional level
• CIV Cocoa Cooperative- requires French fluency or professional level
• Nigeria Sorghum Value Chain Analysis

We have many new projects frequently becoming available. Apply to our general application and someone will reach out to you if we see a project that matches well with your interests and experience. Questions about project scopes of work? Please contact [email removed - click apply for more details]. 

How to apply for the TechnoServe Fellows Program

*Please note that we only accept applications submitted through our website.

You can find our application here. 

Applications are evaluated and accepted on a rolling basis. We accept candidates based on their fit for the program overall, however it does not guarantee that there will be a project for you. Once you apply and are accepted, you will enter our candidate pool. If there is a project that matches your interests and experience, the Senior Manager will get in touch with you. 

If you have any questions, please contact [email removed - click apply for more details]. 

Fellows Program Fees and Expenses

TechnoServe will cover work-related costs of international travel, including airfare, in-country accommodation, local transportation and a daily per diem for meals. These expenses are agreed upon in advance in a volunteer contract. Please note that this is a pro bono position and TechnoServe cannot provide fees for services rendered.

Fellows Program Qualifications

The process for becoming a Fellow is highly selective. In assessing a candidate’s fit with this opening, we will consider the following:

• Minimum of an undergraduate degree
• Minimum of two years of full-time work experience
• Demonstrated problem-solving and analytical skills, typically through experience with a management consulting firm
• Superior communication skills
• Proven ability to develop an industry or client strategy (including familiarity with developing issue trees, prioritization matrices, etc., to guide one’s approach)
• Ability to structure and manage complex tasks
• Ability to develop clear storylines and presentations
• Ability to work independently
• Evidence of creativity, flexibility and resourcefulness
• Enthusiasm for contributing to TechnoServe’s mission

Learn More about the Fellows Program

Review our detailedsample project descriptions to understand the skills and capabilities most often required, and view a list of TechnoServe’s current and past partnersto learn more about the organizations that support our programs. View our FellowsFAQ pagefor more information.

Check out ourFacebookpage for pictures and information on past and ongoing Fellows projects. Be sure to “like” the page and share with your friends and colleagues.

What are alumni are saying about the TechnoServe Fellows Program?

Videos

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Blogs

Meet the TechnoServe Fellow Who’s Inspiring Farmers in Mozambique: Q&A with Progress Chisenga

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Fighting Malnutrition in Zambia: A TechnoServe Fellow’s Story