The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Youth Enterprise Development and Inclusive Finance Specialist to provide technical leadership for youth enterprise development and inclusive finance across Rural Employment through Animal Feed Production (REAP) in Senegal.

ILRI is an international organisation working for better lives and better planet through livestock. ILRI’s mission emphasises the interconnections between people, animals, and the environment, aiming to improve the lives of more than 300 million people in low- and middle-income countries through livestock science that supports equitable and resilient livestock systems, ultimately contributing to food systems transformation with climate and environmental benefits. This mission is delivered through two core strategic objectives: co-designing and deploying sustainable, science-based livestock solutions, and leveraging science to inform and influence policy and investment decisions.

ILRI is a member of the CGIAR, a global research alliance that works to transform food, land and water systems in a climate crisis and is the only CGIAR centre dedicated to addressing multiple development challenges through sustainable livestock solutions.

About the program: REAP is a five-year multi-country initiative intended to advance education and relieve poverty by enabling 1,000,000 financially disadvantaged young women and men, aged 18 to 35 years, to access new work opportunities in sustainable feed and livestock value chains across the seven countries. The Program will equip young people with technical, entrepreneurial, financial; digital and workplace capabilities linked to real economic opportunities and enable financially disadvantaged young people to access work, finance, productive assets, markets and income-generating opportunities that improve household resilience and wellbeing. Among its participants, the Program shall target 70% young women and at least 5% youth with disabilities and 20,000 refugees and displaced young people.

The programme will support youth-led and youth-inclusive enterprises to enter, stabilise and grow in feed and livestock markets; strengthen market systems, services, and commercial relationships; and improve policy, finance, innovation, extension, and other enabling systems required for youth-led enterprises to succeed and generate additional employment opportunities. Across these areas, it applies gender-transformative and inclusive approaches to address restrictive gender and social norms, reduce barriers to young women’s participation, and strengthen their agency, voice, leadership and access to resources and opportunities. Safeguarding measures are embedded throughout the programme to protect young people from harm and support their safe participation. The Specialist will translate REAP’s enterprise development and inclusive finance approach into practical support across the Senegal consortium, ensuring that progress is measured through viable businesses, appropriate financing, sustained work and improved livelihoods.

Working through downstream partners and across the consortium, the postholder will guide incubation and business development services, strengthen financial capability and investment readiness, and develop partnerships with financial service providers to facilitate suitable financing for youth enterprises, in line with REAP’s overall access-to-finance approach. The Specialist will focus on enterprise capability, suitable financing and partner performance.

Key Responsibilities:

The Specialist will develop partnerships with financial services providers (FSPs), investors and business-development providers to facilitate appropriate financing and support services for youth-led and youth-employing enterprises. Working with market systems, technical, gender and inclusion, digital and MEL colleagues, the postholder will connect enterprise support to credible demand, address financing barriers and use performance evidence to improve business sustainability and employment outcomes.

Strategic leadership and country delivery

  • Lead costed country plans for entrepreneurship, incubation and inclusive finance, aligning partner responsibilities and support packages with programme guidance and youth work outcomes.
  • Use market and technical evidence to prioritise viable enterprise models and differentiated support pathways; coordinate consortium inputs and advise the Country Lead on delivery bottlenecks and adaptations

Youth entrepreneurship and incubation

  • Guide enterprise profiling and pathway matching based on skills, assets, maturity, constraints and growth potential, aligned with approved financing windows. Refer participants to other work pathways where entrepreneurship is unsuitable.
  • Design and oversee partner-delivered incubation, business development services, mentoring and coaching for start-ups, existing businesses, groups and cooperatives.
  • Ensure support builds practical business capability in costing, pricing, cash flow, records, governance, operations and formalisation, and assess whether enterprises are progressing towards viability beyond programme support.

Financial capability and investment readiness

  • Embed savings, financial literacy, cash-flow planning and responsible borrowing in enterprise support; distinguish genuine financing gaps from weaknesses in business capability or commercial prospects.
  • Assess financing needs against enterprise maturity, seasonality, repayment capacity and risk; guide business plans, financial projections and financing applications through delivery partners.
  • Maintain a pipeline of enterprises with assessed financing needs and readiness, and work with the regional A2F Coordinator and financial service providers to match them to suitable products and support.

Access to finance and financial partnerships

  • Establish clear and transparent criteria for the identification, assessment, due diligence and selection of Financial Service Providers (FSP) and specialist A2F partner
  • Map and assess existing and potential partnerships, programs, financing initiatives, financial instruments, and country financial ecosystems, in coordination with the REAP A2F Lead.
  • Refine financing options and term sheets with relevant FSPs and specialist A2F partners,
  • Agree and validate financing roll-out plans, including timelines, partner responsibilities, enterprise referral processes and readiness requirements.
  • Compare and help adapt financing options for different enterprise groups, including working capital, equipment leasing, asset finance and value-chain finance; assess affordability, accessibility, risk and suitability.
  • Contribute to approved grant, revolving finance, guarantee or risk-sharing arrangements with specialist partners; clarify partner roles, referral processes and follow-up without assuming lenders’ credit approval responsibilities.
  • Address financing barriers affecting young women and underserved youth, and strengthen providers’ understanding of feed-enterprise cash flows and risks. Monitor financing uptake, disbursement, repayment and capital recycling where applicable, with A2F and MEL colleagues.

Inclusive enterprise and financing pathways

  • Work with gender and inclusion colleagues to address barriers involving collateral, documentation, assets, mobility, care responsibilities, disability and control over income; avoid selection that favours only better-capitalised participants.
  • Embed safeguarding, safe work and participant feedback in enterprise and finance support, preventing unsuitable debt and excessive risk transfer while promoting agency and sustainable income.

Partner leadership and performance

  • Assess incubation, business-development and financing partners; define results and quality standards, strengthen capacity, review delivery and recommend corrective action to the Country Lead.
  • Coordinate with Market Systems Expert and feed, digital and inclusion teams so enterprise and financing support responds to demonstrated market opportunities and technical requirements.

Evidence and adaptive learning

  • Work with MEL and finance partners to track enterprise survival, sales, profitability, financing performance and sustained youth work, distinguishing services delivered from verified outcomes.
  • Use enterprise and financing evidence to improve support packages, assess product effectiveness, recommend scaling or discontinuation, and share practical lessons with the country team and programme leads.

Requirements

  • Master’s degree in finance, agribusiness, business administration, entrepreneurship, economics, agricultural economics, development studies or a related field. PhD will be an added advantage.
  • Professional training in incubation, MSME finance, inclusive finance, investment readiness or enterprise coaching
  • At least eight years of progressively responsible experience, with demonstrated responsibility in both enterprise development or incubation and access to finance.
  • Proven experience designing or leading incubation, business development services, mentoring or accelerator programmes, supporting enterprises from start-up through stabilisation and growth.
  • Demonstrated experience building financial partnerships and facilitating suitable financing for micro and small enterprises, including investment readiness, financial projections and enterprise pipelines.
  • Strong understanding of enterprise viability, cash flow, financing needs, product suitability and responsible lending; experience assessing financing outcomes with financial service providers.
  • Experience adapting enterprise and finance support for young women and economically-disadvantaged youth, managing delivery partners, supervising staff and using performance evidence to improve results.
  • Substantial experience in Senegal or comparable West African contexts, with understanding of agricultural enterprises and the financial ecosystem.
  • Excellent written and spoken French and strong working proficiency in English for technical exchange, partner coordination and reporting.
  • Experience adapting enterprise and financing support to barriers affecting young women and underserved youth.
  • Experience with large-scale youth entrepreneurship or employment programmes, particularly young women’s economic participation
  • Experience with savings groups, informal businesses, cooperatives, leasing, guarantees, value-chain.

Desirable Qualifications

  • Experience with feed, livestock or rural enterprises.
  • Experience with Islamic finance  or Experience in Morocco or other North African contexts.
  • Familiarity with Mastercard Foundation approaches to Youth in Work and Dignified and Fulfilling Work, and with research-for-development organisations.
  • Strong commercial judgement and analytical skills, including interpretation of cash flow, enterprise performance and financing risk.
  • Strong negotiation, coaching and partnership-management skills, with the ability to explain business and financing concepts to diverse audiences.
  • Ability to coordinate across institutions and technical disciplines, manage competing priorities and present clear, evidence-based recommendations.
  • Knowledge of Wolof or other relevant Senegalese languages is an advantage; willingness to travel regularly to implementation areas.

Post location: The positions will be based in Dakar, Senegal

The positions are at job level HG18 and it is open to both national and international applicants. The position is a 3-year contract, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funding. ILRI offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes pension, medical and other insurances.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV expressing their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Head of People and Culture through our recruitment portal by clicking on "Apply Now" on or before 5 December 2026. The position title and reference number REAP/09/2026 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

We thank all applicants for their interest in working for ILRI. Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). ILRI also does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.

To find out more about ILRI, visit our websites at http://www.ilri.org/

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