Position: Senior Project Officer II – Poultry Entrepreneurship

Term of Employment:  One year with possible extension

Duty Station(s): Oromia (Based in Addis Ababa), Bahir Dar, Mekelle, and Hawassa.

Required Number: Oromia (1), Amhara (1), Tigray (1) and SNNP (1) 

Application Deadline:    March 11, 2024

Please Note: ‘’PLEASE MENTION THE SPECIFIC DUTY STATION/LOCATION THAT YOU ARE APPLYING FOR, BUT IF YOU DON’T MENTION THE SPECIFIC LOCATION YOUR APPLICATION WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED”

PROGRAM BACKGROUND

The Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) was established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify systemic bottlenecks, conduct studies and provide recommendations, provide implementation support, manage projects, create linkages and coordination among activities and agricultural development programs. The Institute 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 that, to be the leading center of innovative solutions to catalyze and contribute to the transformation of the Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030 where smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

 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. The ATI offers rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  The ATI recognize that its most valuable assets are its staff and is committed to providing its 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.

Program and position summary

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) has designed a program called “Agriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia” (ADEY) to address challenges of young women and men unemployment and increase the participation of young people in the labor market, particularly in the agriculture sector. ATI has mainstreamed youth employment, gender equality, climate-smart, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture in all its programs and projects with the primary objectives of increased access to sustainable and inclusive job opportunities for youth, inclusivity, and the sustainable use of natural resources while building resilience capacities to shocks at all levels.

 ATI, among others, currently works with more than 3 million smallholder farmers (540,300 are women and youth) engaged in the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) and digital agriculture programs designed to improve smallholder farmers’ production and productivity while supporting other actors along the value chain. Taking ATI’s reputable experience, ADEY program is designed to create inclusive and dignified work opportunities for over six hundred thousand youth. The major intervention areas of ADEY program are: enhance skills and mindsets of young women and men through technical and business skill development; increase access for agricultural inputs production and marketing enterprises; introduce youth friendly and cost-effective agricultural production practices and technologies; establish young people owned micro, small and medium agro-processing and value addition enterprises; increased access to inclusive financial products tailored to the needs  of young people; enhance access to market tailored to the needs and capacities of young people and create an enabling environment for work opportunities through policy interventions.

 The Poultry Entrepreneurship Officer- SPO II is responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, and reporting of prioritized interventions in the areas of poultry businesses in the region. He/she will provide day to day management and technical support for the effective implementation of the project and other duties as listed out below. The Poultry Entrepreneurship Officer- SPO II will directly report to Regional Program Manager (ADEY) and with Matrix to Federal Livestock Team Lead of ADEY project and closely work with regional and federal ADEY project team members, and with partners and sub-grantees at regional level. 

 Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate and manage youth-focused poultry interventions of ADEY project in the region.

• Develop annual workplan and budget for poultry interventions of the region based on project document in consultation with federal livestock team and regional partners and follow up on its implementation.

• Identify knowledge and skill gaps of targeted youths (young men and women) of the region across poultry value chain in collaboration with regional partners.

• Organize and facilitate demand-driven skill-based trainings based on the gaps and coach and mentor targeted youths.

• Organize and facilitate learning events such as field days and experience sharing visits for youths engaged in poultry businesses in the region and document lessons and best practices.

• Organize and document poultry value chain alliance meetings and follow up on implementation of the action plans in collaboration with regional partners.

• Engage regional partners in providing physical resources such as working space and facilities for youth focused job creation in poultry businesses.

• Map and engage stakeholders (government, NGO and private sector) working in the area of poultry for alignment and joint implementation of prioritized interventions.

• Ensure proper and regular data collection based on the database and tools shared by federal ADEY team with high quality and undertake light analysis.

• Monitor the progress and evaluate performance of prioritized poultry interventions in the region.

• Compile and share progress updates and performance reports periodically (weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually) to regional and federal ADEY team.

• Support youth-owned poultry enterprises in contract marketing, demand creation and promotion of new products and services.

• Establish market linkages among input suppliers, producers, processors and output markets in the region.

• Support commercialization of poultry and poultry products agri-business in the region.

• Closely follow-up with implementing partners (subgrants) on proper implementation of prioritized activities.

• Organize stakeholder meetings, workshops and related activities and prepare materials as needed to expand the outreach and advocacy in the region.

• Implement other activities as assigned by the team lead and supervisors.

Job Requirements

• Minimum of master’s degree in poultry science, poultry production, poultry value chain development, animal science or other related fields.

• 8 years of professional experience in the areas of poultry business, donor supported poultry interventions, poultry value chain related project management, and others directly relevant to the position.

• Deep understanding of Ethiopia’s livestock sector, and specifically the poultry sub-sector, with a broad perspective on how the system functions and how public, private and non-government organizations operate in the system.

• Deep understanding and practical experience in job creation for youth and other segments of the society in agricultural value chains

• Expertise in planning, prioritizing, sequencing, managing, problem-solving and reporting on poultry and poultry related projects.

• Excellent understanding of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), common interest groups and entrepreneurship, and the mechanism how it functions.

• Good track record of working relationship with poultry producers, chicken and poultry products traders, processors, poultry research and training institutions, public and non-governmental organizations, and others engaged in poultry value chain development.

• Excellent understanding and experience in developing poultry value chains, poultry businesses particularly in Ethiopia and in developing countries, and addressing obstacles that hinder its effectiveness.

• Excellent experience in creating and facilitating public-private partnerships in poultry or other livestock businesses. 

• Self-starter with strong motivation, ownership, and commitment to deliver results.

• Promotes data-driven and evidence-based problem solving and decision making.

• Strong team player with excellent relationship building and communication skills.

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

• Highly developed interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to relate to and gain the confidence of the senior leadership immediately.

• Proven leadership ability, with the skills to manage a team and stakeholders and influence others through informal guidance, coaching and feedback.

• Ability to work effectively with regional team and partners and ensure timely data exchange and problem solving between the Federal and Regional levels.

• Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written) in English and Amharic with the ability to create and deliver compelling presentations to diverse groups of stakeholders (knowing regional languages is mandatory).

• Ability to work under pressure and in a constantly evolving and challenging environment.

• Excellent analytical skill and computer literate.

• Desire of creating job and improving the livelihood of youth in agriculture.

• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.

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 online using 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.

NB. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.