Rural Finance Officer

IFAD CIV organization mission TBD

Agriculture contributes over 20% of Côte d’Ivoire’s GDP and provides livelihoods for nearly two-thirds of the population. However, most small-scale producers remain outside formal financial systems. Microfinance institutions reach only a fraction of rural areas, and most available financial products fail to meet the needs of low-income farmers. High collateral requirements, limited service coverage, and lack of tailored credit instruments restrict the ability of rural households to invest in production or adapt to market shocks. IFAD addresses these challenges by incorporating inclusive rural finance into its country programme. Ongoing interventions expand access to village savings groups, promote digital financial tools, and strengthen partnerships with microfinance networks to reach women, youth, and marginalized communities.

Under the direct supervision of the Country Programme Coordinator, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Contribute to the technical design, supervision, and implementation of rural finance components across IFAD-funded projects.
• Review and analyse rural finance delivery models supported by IFAD; assess their sustainability, outreach, affordability, and relevance to target groups.
• Support financial inclusion strategies tailored to smallholders, women, and youth, including savings groups, digital finance, value chain finance, and blended financing.
• Participate in the identification of barriers to rural financial access and propose solutions to enhance outreach and service quality.
• Engage with rural financial service providers, regulators, fintechs, and development partners to strengthen partnerships and expand access to finance.
• Prepare analytical inputs, mission reports, results summaries and contribute to corporate-rate reporting systems (e.g., ORMS, GRIPS).
• Support the monitoring of rural finance indicators, documentation of good practices, and knowledge exchange across projects.
• Assist in organizing learning events, partner consultations and technical workshops related to rural finance.
• Carry out any other related duties as assigned by the supervisor.