Rebecca Groot
YEP period 2020 - 2021, batch 21
Young Expert at ICCO Cooperation - RwandaFirst position after YEP
Program Manager and Business Developer at ICCO-Cordaid, Rwanda
YEP Role
In my role at ICCO Cooperation Rwanda, I worked on enhancing the impact of agricultural programs and developing new opportunities and partnerships in this field. One of my tasks was to enhance learning and knowledge sharing for the STARS program (Strengthening African Rural Smallholders), which aims to improve access to finance and markets for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. This entailed designing and managing various studies, identifying and synthesizing lessons learned to enhance the impact of interventions, and organizing learning events with teams and partners. In addition to STARS, I worked on developing and managing new opportunities for programs in the field of agribusiness, value chain development, inclusive finance, and digital for development – building partnerships with new and existing private partners (SMEs, MFIs, cooperatives) and using lessons learned from existing programs to build evidence-based interventions.
Skills
With an educational background in anthropology and environmental science, I further specialized in private sector development, agriculture, access to finance, digital for development, and climate adaptation. Over the past years, I have worked in versatile roles (researcher, MEL specialist, project manager, business development), adding value by translating ideas into concrete plans and motivating teams, partners, and stakeholders.
Background
- Nationality: Dutch
- Education:
- B.A. Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, University of Amsterdam, 2011 – 2015
- MSc. Sustainable Development, track International Development, Utrecht University, 2015 - 2017
Experience before YEP
- Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Advisor, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), 2017 - 2021
- Research Consultant, Utrecht University, 2017
- Graduate Student Researcher – Royal Haskoning DHV Yangon (Myanmar), 2017, Hue University of Agricultural and Forestry (Vietnam), 2016
