Senior Agriculture and Food Security Technical Coordinator

Internal/External Vacancy Announcement #090/2020

GIZ-SDR Programme 

As an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, the federally owned ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit’ (GIZ) GmbH supports the German government in achieving its development policy objectives. GIZ promotes complex reforms and change processes.

In Ethiopia, GIZ has been working for more than 40 years in bilateral cooperation on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and on the commission of the Ethiopian government and international donors. The Ethiopian government recognizes the high economic value of the lowland areas and their products. Therefore, the pastoral and agro-pastoral population is supported in strengthening their drought resilience, allowing them to adapt their farming system to a changing natural and economic environment. German development cooperation participates with the programme “Strengthening Drought Resilience of the Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Population in the Lowlands of Ethiopia” (SDR-ASAL) in selected areas in Afar and Somali region. The programme comprises of seven projects. Major activities are participatory land use planning with all stakeholders in selected kebeles, water harvesting, and rehabilitation of degraded dry valleys followed by participatory rangeland management as well as training for pastoralists, administration and service providers.

Responsibilities:

• Liaising, communicating, and coordinating with the Minister of Agriculture and decision making staff of Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and its downstream institutions, and other stakeholders at political and strategic level in the agricultural sector;
• Supporting at strategic level the implementation of the TC projects of the Focal Area “Agriculture and Food Security” (FAAFS);
• performing tasks in compliance with GIZ’s Orientation and Rules (O+R);
• correctly providing services within the team in accordance with GIZ’s requirements.
  

Tasks:

• Strengthening the link between the Technical cooperation (TC) projects of German Development Cooperation and MoA within the FAAFS
• Developing a cooperation related strategy based on the support requests of MoA / downstream institutions within Ethiopia under GTP II and the comparative advantages of TC projects within agriculture, education, job creation, and so on
• Supporting evaluation / appraisal missions by linking them to partners within MoA and adjacent institutions involved
• If requested, supporting negotiation of project implementation agreements and comparable documents with legally binding character
• Supporting steering meetings
• Supporting / designing official visits and media relevant events between MoA and TC projects
• If requested, representing TC projects at meetings of Government of Ethiopia and international stakeholders
• Support to Technical Coordinator of FAAFS in fulfilling tasks between MoA and GDC at overarching technical level
• If requested, provide support to networking of GIZ staff with all relevant stakeholders
  

Other duties/additional tasks

• performs other duties and tasks at the request of the Technical coordinator of FAAFS
  

Qualifications

• Advanced degree (M.Sc. degree and above) in any or combination of the following fields:
• Natural science like forestry and forest ecology, agriculture, water management, rural development, or equivalent educational background.
• International studies would be of advantage
  

Professional experience

• General professional experience: more than 10 years of professional experience in governmental functions within development sectors in Ethiopia;
• More than 10 years’ professional experience in the educational sector
• More than 5 years within positions necessitating networking / coordination / management experience;
• Very good understanding of federal and regional economic development processes of Government of Ethiopia,
• Very sound experience of working with Government of Ethiopia and Government let development programmes.
• Regional experience: excellent knowledge of Education and Rural Development in Ethiopia;
• Strong managerial leadership skills are essential including excellent organizational and
• analytical capacities;
  

Other knowledge, additional competences

• Should be objective, fair and open to cooperation, being able to link federal and regional specific aspects as well as the political environment to German Technical Cooperation projects;
• A sound publications record would be of advantage 
• Good business language skill in English language;
• Good working knowledge of ITC technologies and computer applications;