Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position:                          Senior Technical Expert II - Soil Extension and Input Supply

Term of Employment:  Full time

Duty Station(s):             Addis Ababa

Required Number:        One

Salary & Benefits:          Competitive

Application Deadline:   September 03, 2021

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sectors partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results. Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results. 

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals. 

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Technical Expert (STE) will lead the soil extension and inputs supply chain component of the Soil Health and Fertility Management (SHFM) project and collaborate with the Senior Director of the Systemic Interventions vertical to implement priority interventions within the ACC. The STE is also responsible to bridge soil extension and input supply intervention implementation gaps and create system integration in the soil extension and input supply chain ecosystem.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

The Soil Extension and Input Supply chain STE will be responsible for

• Problem Solving: Support the effort in the identification of critical soil extension and inputs supply chain bottlenecks, designing of different components of SHFM project within the soil inputs supply chain segment, and defining implementable recommendations. 
• Implementation support: Identify areas where there is a need to support partners working the soil extension and input supply chain and design an implementation support strategy to enable partners to execute their deliverables in the required quality and timely manner. 
• Work plan management and execution: Design work plan for soil extension and input supply chain component of the project, manage and follow up the execution of the work plan by regional teams and contact persons from external implementing institutions, mainly the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Bureaus of Agriculture, RARIs, EIAR, private soil input suppliers and other institutions.
• Coordination: Ensure alignment of different stakeholders and follow-up implementation of different interventions of the project related to soil extension and inputs supply chain. Implement the systems integration role through effective engagement with both internal project teams and external stakeholders working in areas of soil health and fertility extension and inputs supply chain.
• Capacity building: Ensure sharing of competencies for building the capacity of implementing institutions specifically in soil inputs supply chain mainly build operational/managerial capabilities of soil health and fertility input suppliers and support the enhancement of RBoAs planning capabilities for soil health and fertility inputs.
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: Support design and execution of MEL for each activity in soil extension and inputs supply chain component of the soil ecosystem in accordance with ATA’s overall MEL framework
• Serve as an STE, responsible for the implementation, values, culture, and management of the SHFM project more specifically related to soil health and fertility extension and inputs supply chain component.
• Develop effective and collaborative partnerships with stakeholders across the SHFM project (government, business/soil input suppliers, research institutions, universities, cooperatives, farmers’ organizations, farmers, donors, etc.) in the delivery of priority sector objectives.
• Proactively identify opportunities to support stakeholders so that they can execute against their missions in the SHFM project and support them in the mobilization of needed financial, human, or organizational resources for project execution related to soil health and fertility extension and input supply chain.
• Regularly report to the NRM director on progress, challenges, and constraints of the work
• Support the NRM director in the preparation and manage ATA SHFM Project budget; obtain approval from the Director and monitor budget utilization against the allocation.
• Work collaboratively with other ATA programs to achieve synergies that impact the broader agricultural system.

Job Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of MSc/MA in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Business Administration, or related field.
• Minimum of 8 years’ successful post-qualification experience in agribusiness or rural development.
• Demonstrated ability in soil extension and creating strong soil input supply chain linkages and putting in place operational mechanisms to bring soil health and fertility inputs supply chain options to scale.
• Strong conceptual and analytical skills in soil extension and inputs supply chain.
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize and develop products/supply chain solutions using carefully reviewed sources of information from research and development projects.
• Sound skills in proposal development and projects management, including managing consultancy services.
• Demonstrated ability to develop agri-business training and dissemination materials.
• Deep understanding of Ethiopia’s agricultural system, with a broad perspective on how the entire soil eco-system operates and how public, private, NGO and informal actors operate within the system.
• Experience in piloting and scaling up relevant solutions at both national and local levels, while building productive partnerships across sectors.
• Strong in-country network in Ethiopia in the agricultural sector, both at the national and the regional levels.
• Oral and written fluency in English and local/regional language is essential. Fluency in at least one additional Ethiopian language is a plus.
• Highly facilitative and collaborative style with the ability to build relationships across diverse cultures and organizations.
• Passion for participation in cultivating and developing high-performance peer teams while incorporating cooperation, open communication, and social relationship.
• Excellent adaptive problem-solver in a challenging environment, with the ability to think strategically and prioritize program activities under dynamic conditions.
• A strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills including thorough extensive experience with government institutions, development partners, private sector stakeholders, and farmer groups Demonstrated team player with good people management skills.  

How to Apply

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et

Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.

Women are highly encouraged to apply.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.