Position:                           Project Officer II - Cluster Coordinator  

Term of Employment:   One year with possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):              Oromia (Arsi Zone)

Required Number:         One

Application Deadline:    March 09, 2023

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government Institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions to be the leading center of innovative solutions for the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030.

The Institute focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (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, Sidama, South-West, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector 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 ATI, 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 Cluster Development project within ATI has been established to improve income of smallholder farmers (SHFs) by helping them to increase agricultural yield and achieve greater commercialization. The project is expected to develop farmer production clusters (FPCs) which is an approach of grouping farmers with adjacent farm plots to consolidate their farm activity, develop them like a business entity and access targeted support across the value chain.

 The Cluster coordinator will work across the three ACC crop segments (Input, production & market linkage) but reports to the Regional Director of Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) Program. The Cluster Development Project team is working to deliver three major project components, which include: farmer clustering, assessment and transition support/capacity building ultimately contributing to the evolution of the FPCs from pre- basic to production company.

 The Cluster Coordinator will drive day-to-day coordination of implementation activities in the ACC by public, private, and development sector stakeholders, as agreed in the ACC target-setting and operational-planning process.

ACCOUNTABILITY:

The cluster coordinator is accountable to support clusters with ACC prioritized interventions or projects across the value chain and ensure the interventions or projects contributes to increasing level of farmers' aggregation and adoption of improved production practices through effective delivery of the following KPIs:

 Farmers know about and get registered in FPCs,

Land covered under FPCs/ACC with full package recommendations increased,

Volume of production and priority commodity productivity under FPC/ACC increased

Volume of marketable surplus under FPC & ACC woreda increased

Involvement of farmers in the bottom up FPC plan preparation ensured,

ACC planning and M&E system integrated into respective zonal system and processes,

VCA forums are facilitated and conducted regularly,

 RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Specific responsibilities for the cluster coordinator in the Cluster Development Project include, but not limited to:

• Mainstream use of planning, program management and reporting processes and tools developed by the National and Regional cluster development teams and by other local stakeholders, to ensure effective decision-making,

• Coordinate planning (including preparation and circulation of meeting agendas, presentation decks, and cluster reports) and facilitating of cluster commodity value chain alliance meetings and other activities within the cluster and its follow ups,

• Ensure strong program management within the FPC/ACC through driving day to day coordination of interventions and reporting, verifying status and progress of interventions, proactively identifying issues and solution options, working with stakeholders to ensure effectively joint problem-solving,

• Escalate issues and needs which cannot be addressed at the ACC level to regional director where appropriate, including support around coordination, resources, capacity-building, policy, and other systemic interventions,

• Oversight and tracking of relevant ATI-owned interventions implemented by other ATI team,

• Follow up woreda focal persons and VC members and report regularly on progress,

• Coordinate DAs for periodic and yearly FPC assessment,

• Ensure upward reporting meets needs for Regional and National stakeholders,

• Record and document cluster level basic ATI bases including cropping system and all agricultural ATI and information’s, any ATI intervention projects and ACC Woreda agricultural basic ATI 

• Engage on delivery of full package training for Zonal and woreda experts and DA’s in collaboration with Zonal and Woreda office of agriculture

• Provide FPC technical support/backstopping, implementation monitoring and supervision in collaboration with Zonal and Woreda Agricultural office

• Actively participate on clusters level monitoring

• Organize learning field days for ACC/FPC participant farmers in collaboration with the Zonal Office of Agriculture  

• Document best practices in collaboration with the Zonal Office of Agriculture and share to other areas

• Facilitate market linkage platforms for FPCs with potential buyers to enhance contract farming/marketing

Other

• The cluster coordinator is responsible for additional tasks assigned by the Regional Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) Program Director to meet the team’s functions.

Job Requirements

• Master’s degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Plant Science, Agriculture, Crop Protection, Plant Breeding, Irrigation Agronomy, Dryland Agriculture, Rural Development, Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, and other relevant fields with four years of directly relevant experience.

• The cluster coordinator is expected to have in-depth knowledge of agriculture and rural development, particularly on Agricultural policy and regulatory framework in Ethiopia including specifically: -

• In-depth experience and knowhow of agricultural commercialization, agri-business / agro-industry, or industrial cluster or corridor initiatives in Ethiopia,

• Possess excellent stakeholder management skills including knowledge and understanding of various public and private stakeholder relationships in the ACC, extensive experience in facilitating dialogue with them,

• Strong knowledge and skill on identifying and problem-solving challenges to agricultural value chain development, as well as best practice program and project management approaches and monitoring and evaluation activities,

• Understanding of the private sector, commercial farming, market-based experience with a particular focus with smallholder farmers,

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with highly collaborative working style

• Experience in working within multi-cultural teams

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

• Fluency in English and local language of the working places are essential. Knowledge of Amharic language is a plus

How to Apply

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to THIS LINK

It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your cover letter.

Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.

Women are highly encouraged to apply.

NB. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.