About CRS: “Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partner’s people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.”

In Ethiopia, CRS has a long and rich history of providing emergency relief and development assistance to the people of Ethiopia since 1958. At present, CRS/Ethiopia implements multiple projects through different partner organizations.  CRS/Ethiopia has a highly diverse portfolio ranging from very large food-supported emergency response to cutting edge development programs. The current CRS/Ethiopia budget stands at $100 million with funding from the U.S. Government, UN agencies, private foundations, individual donors, and CRS private funds.

CRS strictly adheres to its Policy on Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults among its staff, consultants, volunteers, and affiliates. CRS is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer: women, minorities and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

As part of CRS family, you will join the more than 5000 strong and vibrant individuals working globally to accomplish the mission of CRS. CRS/Ethiopia invites you, the qualified candidate, to apply for the following positions;

Position Title:                Technical Advisor I – Market Systems and Value Chain   

Department:                  Program/LRO

Duty Station:                  CRS Ethiopia/Addis Ababa

Required Number:        One

Employment Term:       Indefinite period contingent up on the availability of fund

Reports To:                     LRO Chief of Party (COP)

Application Deadline:   December 26, 2019

Job Summary:

You will manage the marketing system and value-chain component for Catholic Relief Services (CRS)-lead Feed the Future Livelihoods for Resilience -Oromia Activity, which works with the Ethiopia Catholic Church and Social and Development Coordination Office of Meki (MCS) to support PSNP clients in 9 woreda in Arsi, West Arsi and East Shewa zones.  You will be primarily responsible for both 1) arranging technical trainings to PSNP clients on value-chains they selected and 2) supporting relevant market systems and value-chains.   

Job Responsibilities:

• Organize and monitor technical trainings on priorities value-chains to PSNP clients.   Priority value-chains include ox and small ruminant fattening, poultry, maize, wheat, haricot beans, potatoes, cabbage and red chili pepper.   In addition, the value-added activities of agriculture products, such as baltina and agro-processing, are priority areas. Options may include working closely with MCS in contracting training providers (i.e. research centers, co-operatives, etc.) to either provide training of trainers (TOTs) to project and/or GOE staff who cascade these training to clients or trainings or directly train clients.
• Support market-systems through value-chain development, value-chain financing, market linkages and multi-stakeholder platforms (MSP).
•  Work closely with the Innovation Fund Technical Advisor in identifying potential points of in value-chains for Activity investments.
• Work closely with the Youth and Gender Technical Advisor to ensure value-chains are youth and women friendly.
• Provide guidance to MCS technical and field staff on establishing and nurturing marketing groups, as well as identifying potential areas for organizational capacity.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in market systems and value-chain programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculum, conducting training and workshops, and coaching.
•  Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the market systems and value-chain learning agenda.
• Contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, participate in forums in the area of market systems and value-chain to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:

· Master’s degree or BSC Degree in a relevant field including international development, agriculture, business, marketing, supply chain and/or food security.

· Minimum 5 years experience  for MSC applicant &  8 years experience for BSC applicant  demonstrated experience with USG or other similar development projects focused on value chain and market systems & access development, including improving financial services for the poor, preferably Ethiopian with understanding of the Ethiopian context

·  Experience in Livelihood is highly preferred.

·  Spoken and written proficiency in English

·  Demonstrated ability to work and coordinate effectively with a wide variety of stakeholders, including national and local government, donors, community-based organizations, and the private sector

·  Project management experience in market systems and value-chains is highly desirable.

· Experience engaging with partner organizations.

· Experience contracting and monitoring training providers

· Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.

· MEAL skills and experience preferred.

· Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

 Personal Skills

· Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.

· Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.

· Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports

· Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

Required/Desired Foreign Language: English and Amharic, Afaan Oromo preferred

Travel Required (40%)

Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory: Matrix management of 2 field-based Livelihoods Officers

Internal: Activity staff as well as with other CRS/Ethiopia technical and managerial staff, as well as with regional and headquarters technical staff.

External:  Meki Catholic Secretariat (MCS) technical and managerial staff, USAID officials, government organizations, representatives from for-profit and other non-profit organizations, research centers, universities, private sector actors and other USAID-funded projects.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

·         Trusting Relationships 

·         Professional Growth 

·         Partnership 

·         Accountability