Technical Support Unit Head, Amhara BoA Technical Support Unit

Term of Employment: One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station(s): Amhara Bureau of Agriculture, Bahir Dar

Required Number:    One

Salary & Benefits:  Competitive

Application Deadline: January 31, 2021

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The ATA 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 and other programs.

ATA is currently in the process of launching a Technical Support Unit (TSU) along with a Delivery Unit in the Amhara Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) to enhance the bureau’s technical capabilities in selected priority areas. The unit’s responsibilities include providing targeted technical support during planning, implementation, and performance management, providing policy and strategy support/advisory, building the capacity of the implementation owners, and providing other strategic support on senior leadership’s high priority requests.

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 ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution to 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:

The Technical Support Unit (TSU) Head will report directly to the Head of Bureau of Agriculture where the TSU is placed and will work in collaboration with the ATA Regional Office Executive Director and the ATA HQ Systemic Interventions Senior Director. The TSU Head will be responsible for building the technical capabilities of the bureau focusing on the selected areas of assignments. To fulfill this duty, he/she will work with the RBoA and DU Head to align on priorities and mobilize the unit (Senior Technical Experts) on the identified focus areas.

The TSU Head’s primary responsibility is to ensure the unit is effectively delivering on the objective of enhancing technical capacity through close management of the TSU staff and activities, establishing and cultivating internal/external relationships, and leading efforts to build the capacity of RBoA staff for creating sustainable change in the system. The Head will also provide support around Policy and Strategy and other high-priority requests from leadership.

Candidates for these roles must therefore bring a can-do attitude and enjoy working in a fast-paced organization that is mission- and results-driven. An ideal TSU Head candidate must have very strong leadership, senior stakeholder management, and team management experience, and a track record of effectively leading the planning and execution of major programs, projects, or initiatives. They also have to demonstrate very strong analytical and critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and excellent written and verbal communication, and program and project management skills. Strong candidates should demonstrate the ability to exercise good judgment in a variety of situations, multitask, and work under pressure and competing priorities.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Work with the RBoA leadership and the DU to identify priority focus areas for enhancing technical capabilities.
• Support leadership on maintaining focus on priorities by ensuring implementers understand how their work relates to the overall strategy and the relevant performance indicators.
• Lead the Technical Support staff to ensure the unit is effectively fulfilling its objective of enhancing the RBoA’s technical capabilities:
• Work with RBoA leadership to understand key gaps and plan for the unit’s activities, collaborating with the DU as needed.
• Support STE’s in executing their day-to-day activities, providing targeted mentorship, training and advise as needed.
• Receive and prioritize priority request from senior leadership and allocate technical resources.
• Manage the performance of TSU staff.
• Provide technical support, advisory and critical inputs to RBoA leadership and staff to ensure they have adequate technical capabilities for designing, planning, implementing and managing the performance of priorities to achieve intended results.
• Work with the Delivery Unit to solve for high-priority implementation challenges by co-developing solutions or providing critical feedback the DU’s recommendations.
• Lead efforts to build the RBoA staff’s technical and other planning, project management and problem-solving capabilities to ensure enhancements are effectively integrated in the system.
• Conduct capacity gap assessment, design capacity building packages and facilitate provision working with the Delivery Unit.
• Continuously receive feedback from leadership and staff and implement corrective measures.
• Develop, cultivate and manage internal and external relationships to enable success of priorities, and co-lead change management efforts working with the DU Head.
• Regularly engage with DU Head to enable results achievement.
• Create positive working relationships with RBoA leadership and staff.
• Co-lead change management efforts working with the DU head and communicate and be an advocate for the delivery message.
• Provide technical advisory or support in the development and/or implementation of policies and strategies related to the area of expertise.
• Contribute to ToRs, concept notes, studies, workshops, and training materials in areas related to assigned focus.
• Provide technical/strategic support on high-priority requests by RBoA Senior Leadership.
• Carry out other related activities as may be requested by the RBoA Head.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• At least MSc/MA degree required in the following areas: Agricultural Value Chain Development and other related Agricultural fields, Business Management, Business Administration, Project Management, Economics, Statistics, Development Studies, or related fields.
• At least 10 years of experience with a master’s degree, working in Crop Value chain development, Project Management, Strategy development, Business Analysis, Business Development, Management Consulting, Project Design or other relevant field
• Navigate and achieve change in the agriculture sector – has knowledge or experience of operating in a political environment and driving reforms through public-sector decision-making processes such as budget setting, legislating, and procurement.
• Strong understanding of public and development sector issues and organizational culture, and ability to effectively liaise with senior and mid-level leadership in government organizations.
• Understanding of the Agricultural Sector and its various challenges and possibilities with a broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how the public, private and non-government organizations operate.
• Good experience of working at regional government offices and civil society or private sector sectors.
• Proven record of structuring and delivering challenging projects, with data analysis, regular reporting, and independent troubleshooting and problem-solving.
• Excellent critical-thinking and analytical skills, with experience applying these for both strategy and implementation/operations.
• Strong team player with excellent relationship management, capacity building, facilitation, training and presentation skills, and a passion for change and delivery
• Self-starter with strong motivation, ownership and commitment to drive transformation.
• Can act as a champion for change and can effectively support change management efforts.
• Strong desire and humility to learn.
• Strong knowledge and skills in Microsoft Office Suite, and various program / project management and data and reporting systems.
• Fluency in English and Amharic required.