About JICA Ethiopia Office

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is an implementing body of Japanese government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) with its vision “Leading the world with trust”, and has been active in Ethiopia since 1972 after establishing its Ethiopia office.

JICA Ethiopia Office consists of 15 Japanese staff and 27 Ethiopian Staff (as of July 2020). Program section and administration section are in the office. Industrial Promotion Team is one of the teams in program section, and has team leader (Japanese), Project Formulation Advisor (Japanese) and Program Officer (Ethiopian; this is the post for this recruitment).

JICA supports in various modalities such as Technical Cooperation, Grant Aid, Concessional Loan, Dispatch of Volunteers, partnerships with Japanese small and medium enterprises, etc. Most of the projects are implemented by JICA experts, consultants, and contractors (most of them are Japanese personnel). Therefore, our office staff, including this post, will be involved in project formulation, monitoring, evaluation, and some other support.

After COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia, JICA decided to let all the JICA Experts and consultants working under JICA’s Technical Cooperation Projects, to return and stay in Japan for some time. This may make it difficult to implement the projects as initially scheduled, nor have discussions on formulating new projects for the time being. And the operation of our office will also be at the minimum for the present because most of the staff do telework in Ethiopia and most of Japanese staffs work from Japan.

Under this hard situation, for the time being, program officer in this post is also expected to do telework at home and come to the office almost once a week. (PC and Wi-Fi devices can be rent from our office if necessary).

JICA strategies for Ethiopia

In accordance with Country Assistance Policy for Ethiopia developed by Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JICA supports Government of Ethiopia with the four strategic pillars:

1)  Agriculture and rural development

2)  Industrial Promotion

3)  Infrastructure (incl. Power, Transport, Water & Sanitation)

4)  Education and Health

Under the second pillar Industrial Promotion, the following projects are conducted and planned.

(Ongoing)

1)  Industrial Promotion Project (incl. Industrial Policy Dialogue, Investment Promotion, Export Promotion)

2)  Project for the TICAD Human Resource Development Center for Business and Industry (TICAD-HRD)

3) Kaizen Project (Phase 3) and Kaizen PhD Program

4) Project on Business Development Services Enhancement for Enterprises Growth

5)  Training program on African Business Education for Youth, and SDGs Global Leadership

(Under planning)

Terms of References:

Collect and analyze information for the sector

• To collect and analyze information for industrial promotion sector on government policies and strategies, issues including COVID-19 impact, by obtaining information from stakeholders such as government, development partners, seminars/workshops held by various stakeholders,
• To give weekly update on the above with office staff

Project formulation

• To identify the room for JICA to support for the sector based on the information as mentioned in the above (1) and dialogues with various stakeholders such as government, development partners, expected beneficiaries, JICA experts, JICA Headquarters.
• To discuss with government on the new project design and facilitate the official request from the government.
• To support the detailed planning process for the new projects by supporting the mission teams dispatched by HQ (incl. logistical arrangement), collecting additional information, and discussing with HQ.

Monitoring during the ongoing projects

• To facilitate ongoing projects for ensuring effectiveness & sustainability:
• To work on public relations to make government and the public understood about JICA support, to maximize the project outcome.

Evaluation

• To conduct ex-post evaluation for the completed projects.
• To assist the mission teams for mid-term and terminal evaluation.

Representing JICA

• To represent JICA Ethiopia Office by attending, making presentation on JICA in the meetings/seminars/workshops with government higher officials and development partners, etc.,

Others

• Perform any other relevant tasks requested by Chief and Senior Representatives.

Qualifications:

• Does not exceed 35 years old.
• Fluency in oral and written English
• Minimum three (3) years’ experience in a similar international organization on related duties
• University degree holder on relevant fields or above.
• Good skill for PC including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook