Vacancy Announcement #134/2023

Livelihood Development Specialist

Climate Change/ CDSDR III

Contract duration: 30.06.2025

Application deadline: 06.08.2023

Duty station: Addis Ababa

 GIZ supports the Ethiopian Government in various areas, increasingly also in the Ethiopian lowlands, which account for nearly 60% of Ethiopia's land area. They are inhabited by more than 18 million (agro-)pastoralists, and people who create their livelihood from related professions. Due to population growth and the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme weather events, this livelihood system is increasingly put at risk and the people, their livestock and the harvests have become increasingly vulnerable. Extensive resource use like overgrazing and deforestation causes food insecurity, soil degradation, and erosion. The result are dry valleys, in which rainwater flows quickly out of the area before being able to infiltrate into the soil. This further exacerbates desertification and food insecurity. To address this issue, the Dry Valley Rehabilitation and Productive Use (DVRPU) approach was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the Bureaus of Agriculture (BoA) in Afar and Somali regions.

The Capacity Development for Strengthening Drought Resilience (CDSDR) Project has started its third phase. It promotes the DVRPU approach with a series of technical, biological, economic, social, institutional, and managerial measures applied to rehabilitate entire dry valleys for the benefit of the inhabitants and their animals while ensuring environmental stability. Besides upscaling of the approach in other weredas of Somali and Afar regions, it will further expand its application to selected lowland areas of Oromia and SNNPR regions.

The Livelihood Development specialist works together and supports the CDSDR III implementation in SNNP region.

Responsibilities and duties:

Responsibilities:

• Provides technical guidance for Livelihood and Value Chain Development to ensure productive use of the rehabilitated areas in CDSDR III  project;

• Identifies and finds ways of improvement of promising value chains and income generating activities for rural producers in the context of Dry Valley Rehabilitation and their Productive Use (DVRPU) approach with special accent on value chains relevant for user community.

• Identification, improvement and/or introduction of appropriate and sustainable farming methods for target groups in the context of DVRPU approach.

• Identification, improvement and / or introduction of appropriate measures for rangeland management and fodder production.

• Capacity development of partners and other organizations in SNNPR Region on flood-based farming, rangeland management, fodder production and value chain approach.

• Analyses and recommends possible options of productive use of rehabilitated dry valleys that able to improve the livelihood of beneficiaries

• Cooperate and coordinate with Bureau of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BoANR) and Bureau of Pastoral Development Affairs (BoPA)of the region.

Tasks:

Coordination and planning tasks

• Based on the operational planning and in consultation with regional rural development advisor, the other team members of the project and partners (BoANR, BoPA, project Woredas etc.) steers and plans the activities related to livelihood and value chain development in the project areas;

• Integrated in the participatory overall DVRPU approach, closely collaborate and exchange with the regional and federal CDSDR project management and specialists

• Functions based on guidance provided from project manager and regional partners

• Ensures  that pastoralist and agropastoral interests are integrated in DVRPU approach and particularly negative impacts on pastoralism are avoided.

Technical tasks

• Foster already identified promising value chains and/or identify new value chains;

• Identify and implement improved technical measures for sustainable farming, rangeland management and fodder production with target groups and partners in targeted Dry Valleys (DVs);

• Give technical advice on matters of sustainable innovations for farming in rehabilitated valleys and adjacent lands, rangeland management and fodder production.

• Responsible for the development of tender documents for activities to be subcontracted in his/her subject area;

• Responsible for technical evaluation of project proposals of partners regarding rehabilitation and productive uses of dry valleys or value chain development.

Knowledge management and capacity development

• Responsible for trainings of partners and other organizations in sustainable food crop and fodder production and Value Chain development;

• Responsible for the development of manuals, training materials for internal and external uses within his/her area of subject;

• Responsible for documentation and reporting within his/her area of subject.

Networking and cooperation

• Network exchange with Government partners and NGOs  concerning appropriate measures in relation to DVRPU approach; 

• Contribute to seminars, trainings and conferences organized by the CDSDR III project  and support the working groups or comparable platforms.

Other duties/additional tasks

• Performs other duties and tasks at the request of superiors at regional and federal project levels. 

Job Requirements

Qualifications

•  University degree (BA) in Agricultural economics or Development economics or equivalent. At least 5 years of professional experience in a comparable position.

Professional experience

• General professional experience: At least 5 years of professional experience in rural development sector; out of which at least 2 years practical professional experience in (agro) pastoral production systems and extension in Ethiopian lowlands, preferably in SNNPR regional state and at least 3 years experience of value chain analyses and development

• Experience in working with governmental structures, international organizations, NGOs and/or research institutes.

Other knowledge, additional competences

• High level of motivation, proactivity, self-discipline, integrity and accountability;

• Capacity to work in a multi-disciplinary team with a service attitude towards internal and external partners;

• Ability to fulfil the tasks independently and to be creative and innovative;

• Willingness to travel frequently in the project weredas and to work under challenging conditions.

• Willingness to learn from the local communities and their knowledge.

• Excellent communication skills both in written and oral in English, and Amharic. Any additional languages in South Omo Zone is an asset.

• Gender sensitivity and knowledge.

• Computer skills in software application MS-Office.

How to Apply

Application procedure:

Interested and qualified candidates shall submit their motivation letter along with
their non-returnable recent CV via Email: hreth@giz.de

Note:

Please make sure you mention the vacancy number and position Livelihood Development Specialist #134/2023 in the subject line of your email application.

Due to the large number of applications, we categorize applications with vacancy numbers.

Applications without vacancy numbers in subject lines might not be categorized in the appropriate folder and could be disqualified.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We encourage persons with disabilities to apply for the position. In the case of equal qualification, persons with disabilities will be given preference.

Applications from qualified women are encouraged.

“Please refer to our brochure to learn more about GIZ’s attractive benefits package.”