Position:                Senior Project Officer II – Agribusiness in Livestock (Re-Advert)

Term of Employment:    One Year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):              Oromia based in Addis Ababa

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.

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 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 600 thousand youth. The major intervention areas of the ADEY program are: to enhance the 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 Senior Project Officer will be responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting of ADEY program interventions on livestock agribusiness development (dairy, poultry and apiculture) in the region. He/she will provide technical guidance and supports to the regional partners and youth enterprises to effectively implement the program activities and achieve the planned target indicators. The Senior Project Officer will directly report to the Regional ADEY Program Manager with Matrix reporting to the Livestock Team Lead at the Head Office. He/she will closely work with other ADEY program staffs at the regional and federal levels, and with partners and sub-grantees at the regional level.  

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop an annual workplan and budget for livestock agribusiness activities of the region based on the program document and in consultation with the program management team and regional partners.

• Coordinate and manage the implementation of livestock agribusiness activities focusing on youth, especially women, employment, and enterprise development.

• In collaboration with the local partners, identify knowledge and skill gaps of youth beneficiaries on livestock agribusiness activities across the program intervention woredas.

• Organize and facilitate demand-driven technical and business skill trainings based on the identified skill gaps and agribusiness development needs of the youth beneficiaries.

• Facilitate provision of continuous business development services to youth enterprises.

• Organize and facilitate knowledge management events such as field days and experience sharing visits for youths engaged in livestock agribusiness in the region, and document and share best practices and lessons.

• Organize livestock agribusiness alliance meetings, document action agenda and follow up on its implementation by the partners.

• Engage regional partners to provide physical resources such as working space and facilities for job creation for youths in livestock agribusinesses.

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

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

• Monitor the progress and evaluate the performance of prioritized interventions on livestock agribusiness in the region.

• Compile and share project progress and performance reports periodically (weekly update, monthly, on quarter basis, and yearly) to regional and federal ADEY teams.

• Support youth-owned livestock agribusiness 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 the commercialization of livestock and livestock products in the region.

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

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

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

Job Requirement

• Minimum of Master’s Degree in Animal Science, Livestock Production, Livestock Production and Management or other related fields

• Minimum of 8 years of professional experience in the areas of livestock agribusiness, donor-supported projects related to livestock and livestock products value chain development, and others interventions relevant to the position.

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

• Deep understanding and practical experience in job creation for youth in livestock agribusiness.

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

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

• Good track record of work experiences in livestock farming, livestock product processing, and development, livestock and livestock product marketing with public and non-governmental organizations, training institutions, and other actors in livestock agribusiness.

• Excellent understanding and experience in livestock agribusiness development particularly in Ethiopia and in developing countries, with strategies to address bottlenecks in the sub-sector.

• Excellent experience in creating and facilitating public-private partnerships in livestock agribusiness. 

• 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 teams and partners and ensure timely data exchange and problem-solving between the Federal and Regional levels.

• Excellent communication skill (both oral 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 skills and computer literate

• Desire to create jobs and improve 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 https://apply.ata.gov.et

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.