WAI Analyst

Mission & History of Root Capital:

Root Capital is a nonprofit whose mission is to grow rural prosperity and build the resilience of farming families around the world. We support the growth of agricultural enterprises so they can transform rural communities. These businesses purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. With growth, they become engines of impact that can raise incomes, create jobs for the next generation of leaders, level the playing field for women, and take urgent action against climate change.

We supply these businesses with vital credit and capacity building to foster their growth and resilience. We work in hard-to-serve communities where others don’t. To date, we’ve distributed $1.5 billion to improve the lives of over 10 million people in farming families.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Root Capital currently has associated offices in Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ghana, and Kenya.

Position Overview:

The WAI Analyst supports and shapes Root Capital’s Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI), Root Capital’s strategy to expand access to finance by more women-led and gender-inclusive businesses; support women’s leadership and potential at all levels; and ensure that training and opportunities to lead are equal, so that the women along the value chains we do business with fully participate and are integrated to all the benefits the organization can provide. The WAI Analyst contributes to strategy evolution, implementation and monitoring via research, analysis, writing and cross-team coordination.

The WAI Analyst contributes to the design and implementation of learning tools for Root Capital’s Gender Lens Investment Strategy, conducts data analysis and visualization to inform organizational gender strategy, prepares and delivers internal and external-facing training materials, reports, and presentations, and provides general WAI coordination support.

The position includes collaboration with Root Capital colleagues across our global and regional advisory, lending, impact MEL and innovation teams, and with external technical partners and funders. The role reports to Leonor Gutiérrez, Director, Women in Agriculture Initiative.

This position is an exciting opportunity for candidates passionate about closing the gender gap to apply and deepen their technical and practical expertise within a global, cross-functional and multicultural team committed to rigorous impact measurement.

Responsibilities:

 Research & Analysis to Inform WAI Strategy & Programs (50%)

• Conduct research and analysis to inform the strategic and programmatic evolution of Root Capital’s WAI work, including gender lens investment best practices, gender certifications, and other related topics.
• Support the Monitoring team with WAI-specific indicator development, data validation and WAI-specific data analyses.
• Produce WAI-related research outputs, including analyses, reports, visuals and presentations for internal learning purposes and external reporting and field building purposes.
• Provide the Grants Management and External Affairs teams with qualitative and quantitative inputs for donor and other external stakeholder reports.

Knowledge Management and Learning (25%)

• Identify valuable opportunities to increase the impact of our programs.
• Participate in and take notes from webinars and external workshops of interest.
• Coordinate reflection meetings to discuss data findings, and their impact on WAI programmatic decisions.
• Support internal knowledge sharing and collective learning across Root Capital’s global team.

WAI Coordination (25%)

• Conduct or coordinate all necessary translation of WAI materials as required.
• Contribute to overall efficient management of WAI resources and processes.
• Coordinate internal and external meetings related to Root Capital's climate resilience programming, assisting with scheduling, agenda setting, note taking, and follow up.
• Support WAI Director in the preparation of administrative documents: terms of reference for contracting consultants, minutes of meetings and emails.
• Serve as a resource to other teams on our WAI Strategy, providing updates on activities and achievements, maintaining key documents, developing new content for communications and fundraising, collaborating with the Strategy Analyst to ensure WAI strategy inputs in the Strategy portal, and generally serving as a technical reference on the WAI and different departments.

Required Skills and Experience:

1. Must be authorized to work in a country with a Root Capital office.
2. Commitment to Root Capital’s mission and passion for its vision.
3. Bachelor’s degree and at least four years of professional experience in research, analysis, capacity building, finance, and/or advocacy for gender lens investment, ideally related to women in agriculture.
4. Understanding of core principles and best practices for gender inclusion; familiarity with measurement and reporting frameworks, for example those used by the sustainable development goals and 2X Challenge.
5. Detailed knowledge of or experience in financial analysis of gender investments is a plus.
6. Experience with research and analysis to inform program strategy and design. Proven ability to produce and present compelling presentations and reports for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
7. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with a wide variety of audiences, including Root Capital staff across our global offices, donors and investors, and technical partners.
8. Superior written and oral communication skills in English. Working proficiency (ability to read and write internal communications; ability to converse with colleagues) in Spanish is a firm requirement.
9. Attention to detail. Excellent organization and project management skills.
10. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel; proficiency in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Experience with Salesforce preferred.
11. Self-starter with ability to flexibly manage and prioritize multiple competing tasks; ability to thrive in a dynamic team environment within a matrix management structure.
12. Willingness to occasionally (1-2 times per year) travel to and within Africa, Asia, and Latin America, often in remote areas.