Position:  Senior Project Officer I - Crop Value Chain    

Term of Employment:    One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa

Required Number: One

Application Deadline:  November 20, 2023

BACKGROUND:

 The Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) has been established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and address systemic bottlenecks to Ethiopia’s agricultural development. The Institute does this through problem-solving, implementation support, and capacity building of stakeholders involved in implementation of interventions that address the systemic bottlenecks. 

 ATI provides a unique 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 teams with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

The programmatic focus of the Institute responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and other sectors along commodity value chains. Across the programs, the ATI engages public, private, and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models. Currently, ATI is tasked to coordinate the revised Agriculture and Rural Development policy agendas of the sector and such sectoral level delegation requires high level expertise in the policy areas and skillsets in coordination and networking with multiple stakeholders.

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: 

FPC Grain Crops Value Chain is part of the Crop Commercialization Program under the ACC vertical. The projects pursue an approach of grouping farmers with adjacent farm plots to consolidate their farm activity and develop them like a business entity and access targeted support across the value chain to increase agricultural yield and achieve greater commercialization.

The crop value chain in collaboration with the regional crop value chain officers is responsible for strengthening the entire value chain of grain crops (the different disciplines, inputs, extension, production, and marketing) & farmers engagement, technical capacity building for different key stakeholder and farmers, supervision and monitoring and technical backstopping for regional crop value chain officers. He/she will give due emphasis to grain crops Farmers Production Cluster (GFPC) to be implemented as per the basic principles, and proper implementation of other activities in the value chain that ultimately contribute to the transformation of FPC from (pre) basic to production company. He/she reports to grain FPC project team lead and/or crop commercialization director. 

Essential duties

• Proactively identify crop value chain gaps, participate in physical and financial planning, implement to support FPC farmers across the value chains.

• Ensure effective operational planning of interventions and activities, budgeting, reporting, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning on FPC/ACC interventions in the priority crop value chains.

• Identify, map, and facilitate stakeholder engagement across commodity-based value chains for the achievement of the project expected outputs/outcomes.

• Frequent communication with regional project officers to follow up, collect and compile progress reports and frequently update data (inputs, services, market related data etc.) for each output/workstream in IMP systems.

• Organize/Provide technical training for different stakeholders.

• Request, facilitate and follow up any logistic or procurement related activities. 

• Frequent field supervision to four regions: Oromia, Amhara, SNNP/Sidama and Tigray regions

• Develop grain production guidelines or any training materials in collaboration with key stakeholders.

• Develop and conduct small- and large-scale demonstrations for ACC’s commodities in collaboration with ATI’s agricultural transformation centers.

• Work with other project teams and project deliverable owners to ensure the provision of focused support for FPCs/ACCs

• Assist the Team Lead in detailed planning, implementation, and resource allocation.

• Responsible for additional tasks assigned by the Project team Lead, Director, and SD to meet the team’s building, spirit, and functions.

Job Requirements

The Crop Value Chain is expected to have familiarity with National and Regional Agricultural policy and regulatory framework on crop development, protection, marketing strategies, and specifically:

• Minimum of master’s degree in Agronomy, Plant Science, Crop Protection, Plant Breeding, Seed science and technology, and another relevant fields.

• Minimum 6 years directly related working experience, in projects mainly focusing on supporting smallholder farmers is preferable.

• Understanding of the agriculture sector in general (Input and Credit access, Mechanization, agrochemical uses, crop protection, post-harvest losses, best agricultural practices, etc...)  and FPC/ACC commodities.

• Overall understanding of ACC’s commodities value chains and practical experience on crop agronomy practices, crop protection, pre and post-crop production management, and cluster development

• Proven ability to undertake and oversee analytical studies, problem-solving and policy analysis, and willingness to innovate, design, and plan catalytic and implementable interventions.

• General understanding of public and private sectors potentially engages in commodity-based value chains, particularly input suppliers, and service providers.

• Excellent stakeholder management, integration, crop value chain, and resource mobilization skill

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

• Experience in working within multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder and multi-cultural teams.

• Strong set of personal values including integrity, commitment, dedication, honesty, and desire to be of service

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 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.