Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute

Position:                                     Senior Project Officer II – Agribusiness in Crop and Horticulture  

Term of Employment:              One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station:                              Somali, based in Jigjig  

Required Number:                    One

Application Deadline:              August 16,2024

BACKGROUND

The Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) was established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify systemic bottlenecks, conduct studies, and provide recommendations, provide implementation support, manage projects, create linkages and coordination among activities and agricultural development programs. The Institute 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 that, to be the leading center of innovative solutions to catalyze and contribute to the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030 where smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

ATI provides a unique 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 teams with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

The programmatic focus of the Institute responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and other sectors along commodity value chains. Across the programs, the ATI engages public, private, and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models. Currently, ATI is tasked to coordinate the revised Agriculture and Rural Development policy agendas of the sector and such sectoral level delegation requires high level expertise in the policy areas and skillsets in coordination and networking with multiple stakeholders.

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.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

ATI has designed a program called “Agriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia” (ADEY) to address youth and women 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 increasing 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. 

Currently ATI is working with smallholder farmers 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.  ATI has been established to improve the income of smallholder farmers (SHF) by helping them to increase agricultural yield and achieve greater commercialization. Taking ATI’s reputable experience, ADEY program was designed to create inclusive and dignified work opportunities in ACC woredas and Somali region for over 600 thousand youth. The program will focus on several streams such as agriculture and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to strengthen access to agricultural input and output markets and finance; improve the competitiveness of youth-owned MSMEs through capacity-building activities; enhance the skills and mindsets of young women and men through technical and business skill development and create an enabling environment for work opportunities through policy interventions. ADEY will operate along the commodity value chain, largely using ACC infrastructures and complementing the different ACC outcomes in general. The project on horticultural and crop production and processing value chain will be implemented in eight  regions (Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, Sidama, South Ethiopia, Southwest Ethiopia Peoples’, Central Ethiopia  and Samali).  Specifically, the job creation opportunities for youth, dominantly female youth, are through engaging on seed/seedling multiplication, production and aggregation of potential grains and horticultural crops, supporting youth female to engage in small and medium agro-processing and market linkage. 

The SPO II is expected to have strong skills and experience in grain crops and horticultural crops agribusiness including production, processing and value addition techniques, irrigation and/or agronomy, market functions, and actors’ network and functions. The SPO II is expected to have experiences in project, stakeholder and partners management and have a desire to improve the lives of young women. He/she needs to have knowhows and practical skills in Ethiopia’s agricultural system, particularly with an emphasis to enhance agribusiness activities in grain and horticultural crops.  The regional senior project officer II (SPO-II) is responsible for planning, implementing, monitoring and supervising and coordinating the overall interventions planned in ADEY program in the Somali region. He/s 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 ACC- Director at the Head Office. The SPO II will closely work and collaborate with Regional Bureaus of Agriculture, Bureau of Labor and Skills, Cooperative Promotion Agencies and partners implementing the ADEY program in the region based on the direction given from regional project manager.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES

Duties and responsibilities for the regional SPO II include, but are not limited to the following activities: 

• Provide high-level technical/expertise support to the grain and horticultural value chain activities in the region.   

• Actively engage in the Development Strategy for prioritized grain and horticultural crops Production Cluster and detailed implementation plan.   

• Proactively identify, assess, and promote potential and viable agribusiness ideas in grain and horticulture crops for youth, especially women, employment. 

• Establish youth enterprises and engage them in different agribusiness activities (seed/seedling multiplication, production, aggregation, value addition, processing and marketing)

• Strategize to ensure collaboration with key stakeholders and partners to develop functional working relationships to support the ADEY activities.

• Guide youth enterprises on the design and implementation of agribusiness activities in selected crops.

• Provide business advisory services to entrepreneurs to help improve their skills and knowledge in business and organizational management. 

• Provide support in updating, producing, and disseminating capacity development resources that can be used to enhance the mindset, technical, and business skills of the youth beneficiaries and other partners.

• Support youth enterprises to develop feasible agribusiness plans in strategic crops (grain and horticulture) in the region in collaboration with implementing partners and stakeholders.

•  Plan, implement, and monitor cost driver activities, and prepare, review, and submit reports to the program manager.

• Support and guide service providers. 

• Support youth enterprises on linkages to different service providers and input suppliers. 

• Ensure inclusion of gender and youth in agribusiness activities in horticultural crops.

• Work with formal enterprises/groups, private sectors, associations, and cooperatives to enhance participation and benefits of young women. 

• Develop detailed work plans and budgets for the agribusiness activities in selected crops in ADEY components. 

• Ensure agribusiness activities are implemented according to the plan and result frameworks of the program. 

• Facilitate and provide training to youth beneficiaries and partners.  

• Manage data collection, reporting, and learning with other regional staff.  

• Plan, implement, monitor, prepare, and review progress reports, and submit to the regional ADEY program manager and matrix to the ADEY team leader at the Head office as required.

• Introduce, compile, and publish best experiences and implementation approaches.

Job Requirements

Required qualifications, competencies, skills, training, and experience:

• Minimum of Master of Science Degree in crop and/or Horticulture, Irrigation Agronomy, Natural resource management, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Agricultural Extension, Agricultural economics, Value Chain Management, or related fields 

• A minimum of 8 years of relevant experience in grain and/or horticulture crop value chains 

• Previous experience in employment creation in agribusiness activities in horticulture and other crops.

• Extensive experience in identifying, forming, and supporting different agribusiness models. 

• Extensive experience in implementing and management of donor-funded projects.

• Rich experience in stakeholder mapping, analysis, and management.

• Experience in business plan development business advisory and entrepreneurship development.

• Experience in strategizing and addressing programmatic and operational issues.

• Experience in program design, performance management, learning systems, and monitoring and evaluation.

• Practical experience in developing linkages between producers and markets and working across grain and horticultural crop value chains in Ethiopia.

• Ability to thrive in a fast-moving, start-up environment, with an emphasis on high performance, teamwork, accountability, and results.

• Understanding of the private sector, commercial farming, food processing, and marketing and Desire to improve the lives of smallholder farmers.

• A broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how public, private, and informal actors operate within the agricultural system.  

• Ability to build relationships with all kinds of people and Highly facilitative and collaborative leadership style.

• Excellent adaptive problem-solver in a challenging environment and Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.

• Strong communication skills (writing, speaking, composing, presenting, etc) 

• 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

• Excellent analytical skills , computer literate and Experience in working with MSMEs.

• Excellent communication skills (both verbal 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). 

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 THIS LINK

• It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your application email.  

• Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.  

• Women are highly encouraged to apply. 

• NB. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.