Project Manager: EUDR Compliance for Ethiopian Coffee

Pula Advisors

Pula Advisors

Legal, Operations
Nairobi, Kenya
Posted on Jul 24, 2024

About Pula

We are an insuretech firm that provides agriculture insurance design and execution services, specialising in index based insurance and are backed by top tier VC investors who have invested more than $25 million in the business. Since 2015 we have provided climate insurance to 15.4 million smallholder farmers, 41% of which were women across 19 markets in Africa and Asia who pay an average of $6.8 per season to insure their crops. So far we've unlocked over $2.22 billion of capital from local and international insurance markets for climate risks since we started in 2015 and paid out $40.8 million to our client farmers.

Pula is a fast-paced space, constantly adapting to new opportunities and challenges and we are made up of a high-performance, multi-cultural team. We expect our team to value performance, results and professionalism.

At Pula, our values are:

  • Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!
  • Connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.
  • Have a Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.
  • We have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better.

According to the UN’s InterGovernmental Panel for Climate Change more than 3.3 billion people globally live in hotspots with high vulnerability to climate change and are now already feeling the impact of climate change through increased temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall.
Insurance is a tool for vulnerable households in these affected regions to adapt to the effects that climate change is already having today on these households. It is a tool that enables for compensation payment for losses and damages that these households had no part in causing. Insurance compensation enables these households to make adjustments to their day to day livelihoods and practices and therefore allows for an equitable and just transition.

At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 17 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2021, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 6 million farmers, 30% of which are women, across Kenya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. We are a for profit, and have raised over $10 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.

Pula is proudly fast paced, constantly learning from the challenges we face and overcome. We are proudly culturally diverse but united in our ambition of continuous high-performance. By challenging ourselves we believe that we can overcome the hard problems we love solving.

At Pula, our culture is defined by our:


1.Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!

2. Ability to connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.

3. Our Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.

4. Ability to have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better.

Pula in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, in partnership with the Agriculture Transformation Institute (ATI), Pula has introduced the largest crop insurance product embedded with the input voucher scheme (IVS), targeting 7.5 million farmers across four regions.Data is the core of our business, it supports our climate change adaptation programs. For all of our insurance and data products, we collect farmer information, yield levels and geo-mapping (GPS points and polygons) as part of our standard field operations, making our farmers' database the largest and fastest-growing in emerging markets.

EUDR Compliance for Coffee Value Chain .

In response to the recent EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation), which mandates exporters of commodities such as coffee, soy, palm oil, and timber to prove their products do not contribute to deforestation, Pula is collaborating with key partners in Ethiopia to ensure coffee supply chains meets EUDR requirements. We offer readiness assessments, consultation for baseline and implementation plans, and traceability support using our GIS capabilities collecting Polygon and GPS data from smallholder coffee farmers in Ethiopia. This data collection informs traceability, source mapping, product tracing, and EUDR claim verification.

As such, we are seeking a Project Manager to lead this upcoming initiative working with stakeholders including the Ethiopian Tea and Coffee Authority, Ministry of Finance, Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, and Coffee Cooperatives, ensuring compliance with EUDR by year-end. The Project Manager will be responsible for the project execution both with internal and external stakeholders.

What you will be doing:

Client-Specific Deliverables

    • Participate in nationwide EUDR related conversations while engaging with internal and external stakeholders including the European Union, Ethiopian Tea and Coffee Authority, Ministry of Finance, Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, and Coffee Cooperatives in policy formulation, project design etc.
    • Collaborate with the Pula country team in client identification, engagement, onboarding & contracting and providing recommendations for EUDR compliance related activities.
    • Establish and maintain interpersonal relationships with key partners and stakeholders across the private and public sector to ensure smooth running of project operations.
    • Take lead in organizing internal and external kick-off meetings.
    • Coordinate and deliver high level training and workshops to Pula’s partners and clients from federal to kebele level.

Project Planning and Execution:

    • Develop a comprehensive project plan, outlining key milestones, deliverables, and timelines.
    • Coordinate with internal teams to ensure resources are allocated appropriately and tasks are completed on schedule.
    • Monitor project progress and performance against established Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and milestones.
    • Prepare and present regular progress reports to internal and external stakeholders, highlighting achievements, challenges, and next steps.

Execution of data collection:

    • Recruit Field Associate Manager, Field Coordinators and Call Centre Coordinators while providing oversight on Field Agent recruitment.
    • Oversee the collection of farmer information, yield levels, and geo-mapping data using Pula’s in-house system, Mavuno.
    • Ensure data accuracy and integrity to support traceability, source mapping, product tracing, and EUDR claim verification.
    • Provide accurate timelines for project implementation and completion through collaboration with internal and external teams.
    • Ensure meticulous completion - leave no farm/farmer behind.

Evaluate efficiency of service delivery and operations using spending data, while actioning strategic initiatives to keep costs low for field operations teams

    • Detailed assessment of real costs by location and responsibility
    • Apply ingenuity to find savings wherever possible
    • Ensure all expenses are reconciled within policy deadlines.
    • Monitor budget verses spend closely

Strategic Development and learning

    • Organize post-project team workshops to evaluate key learnings and improvements in the design, tools, and execution of the project
    • Coordinating with the innovations and expansion teammates on launching new initiatives and pilots

The right applicant would have the following skillset:

  • 7 years + experience working in agriculture/ social enterprises linked specifically to the Coffee value chain. Understanding EUDR and key players is important.
  • Experience leading field operations or Monitoring and Evaluation department is a must. Having a good relationship with stakeholders such as Ethiopian Tea and Coffee Authority, Ministry of Finance, Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, and Coffee Cooperatives is an added advantage
  • Experience working at national level in a fast moving environment is an added advantage
  • Experience in managing teams remotely is an added advantage
  • Deep commitment to the "art of management" and nuances of modern management practice
  • Ability to work independently – highly self-motivated
  • Creative problem-solving skills
  • Highly collaborative, with an outgoing personality and clear and consistent communication
  • Detail-oriented, meticulous, and attentive to accuracy
  • Ability to grasp complex analytical concepts quickly and thoroughly
  • Prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring timely delivery

What Pula will bring to the table

  • Growth potential: With an untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide, on track to doubling the number of farmers insured in 2021 and Pula’s global leadership in Agriculture Insurance, our new staffers have a tremendous upside growth potential.
  • Market Leader: Not only is the opportunity massive, but Pula is by far the market leader in it’s category with 11m farmers insured as of 2023.
  • Solid: Pula has been funded by leading venture capital investors (Omidyar Network, ACCION, MercyCorps) and global philanthropic institutions (MasterCard Foundation, CGAP/World Bank as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Pula closed a $6m series A funding in December 2020 in the right in the middle of the pandemic a clear testimony of the opportunity that Pula is going after.
  • Respected: Winner of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019, Winner of The InsureTech of the Award, Africa. Featured on TED talks, The New York Times, The Economist.
  • Impact and creation: This is a high-impact role, that offers a unique opportunity to bring the company to the next level, whilst developing new strategies, approaches and ideas.
  • Leadership: The founders & CEO foster a culture of transparency, respect, high performance, pragmatism, execution and personal development.
  • Purpose: It is rare to find a professional opportunity that offers accelerated professional development and a life purpose. Pula is going through a second phase of accelerated growth that will naturally provide professional development, whilst contributing to the financial stability of small farmers in the emerging markets.
  • Remuneration: Competitive base salary accordingly with seniority and experience, commission on closed sales and an employee share option plan that offers an attractive equity upside.

To learn more about Pula you can visit

TED Talk: Crop Insurance, an Idea Worth Seeding
New York Times: He Grew up on a Farm. Now, He Helps Protect Them
The Economist: The Poor, Who Most Need Insurance, Are Least Likely to Have It

How to apply

Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English.

Our process:

Stage 1 The Culture Interview: Your complete applications will be reviewed and those shortlisted will be invited for a culture interview to understand if you have Pula DNA

Stage 2 The Technical Interview: Those that pass the culture interview will be invited to complete an assignment that will give you a good sense of what working at Pula is like. This way you will get to know if you like the job, and we get to know you. Those with completed assignments will be invited for a technical interview with the hiring manager.

Stage 3 The Panel Interview: Those that pass the technical interview will be interviewed by a panel of future colleagues who you will be working with at Pula so you can get to know your new colleagues and they can get to know you.

Stage 4 The Reference Check: as described :-)

Stage 5 Offer: If you have gotten this far, you may pat yourself on the back- as you’ll receive an offer!

Pula’s mission is to provide farmer resilience. To achieve this, we put our small holder farmers that use our services and the employees that provide them at the heart of everything we do. For that purpose, Pula was created to be an equal opportunity employer that celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.