Senior Project Officer II – Horticulture Production and Processing Full Time

Position:                           Senior Project Officer II – Horticulture Production and Processing Entrepreneurship Officer

Term of Employment:   One year with possible extension

Duty Station(s):              Oromia (Based in Addis Ababa), Bahir Dar, Mekelle, and Hawassa.

Required Number:         Oromia (1), Amhara (1), Tigray (1) and SNNP (1) 

Application Deadline:    May 19, 2024

Please Note: ‘’PLEASE MENTION THE SPECIFIC DUTY STATION/LOCATION THAT YOU ARE APPLYING FOR, BUT IF YOU DON’T MENTION THE SPECIFIC LOCATION YOUR APPLICATION WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED”

    “We highly encourage competent FEMALE Candidates.”

PROGRAM AND POSITION SUMMARY:

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.  The Horticulture Farmers Production Cluster (HFPC) Project within 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. Like ACC, ADEY will operate along the commodity value chain, largely using ACC infrastructures and complement the different ACC outcomes in general. The project on horticultural crop production and processing value chain will be implemented in seven regions (Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, Sidama, South Ethiopia, Southwest Ethiopia Peoples’, and Samali).  Specifically, the job creation opportunities for youth, dominantly female youth, are through engaging on seed/seedling multiplication, production and aggregation of potential horticultural crops (e.g., Tomato, Onion, Avocado, Banana, potato, mango etc ); supporting youth female to engage in small and medium agro-processing and market linkage, and promoting and supporting youth female focused small scale business from horticultural crop value chains ( e.g  fruit processing, tomato processing, potato processing and  etc).

The SPO II is expected to have strong skills and experience in horticulture husbandry, irrigation horticulture and/or agronomy, project management, stakeholder management and coordination, desire for improving the lives of youth women, and a deep familiarity with Ethiopia’s agricultural research system with particular emphasis to increase the production and productivity of the prioritized ATI horticultural commodities in the regions.  The regional senior project officer II (SPO-II) is also responsible for implementing and coordinating the overall interventions planned in ADEY program at each ATI’s agricultural transformation center for the achievement of its planned results to a high level of quality and in a timely manner. To achieve this, the SPO II will be responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring/supervision, and coach the intervention implemented by other local partners in the region. The SPO II will integrate youth (80%female) job creation with horticulture production activities, such as seed & seedling production, horticulture nursery establishment, roadside horticulture market shed. He/she will organize youth groups/associations / MSMEs comprising about 80% females on job creation activities.

SPO II will report to the regional project manager. SPO II will closely work with all ACC project leaders, other ADEY’s senior project officers. Besides, SPO II will closely work primarily with Regional Bureaus of Agriculture, Bureau of Labor and Skills, Cooperative Promotion Agencies and partners implementing ADEY program in the region based on the direction given from regional project manager, ACC’s director, and regional senior director. The SPO II will also report and/or compile all activities, outputs, and outcomes progress reports.

MAJOR 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 horticulture value chain activities in each region.
• Actively engage in the Development Strategy for Horticulture Farmers Production Cluster (HFPC) and detailed implementation plan.
• Proactively identify, assess, and promote potential and viable agri-business ideas on youth’s job creation, dominantly for female youth
• Ability to establish common interest groups (CIG) of youth to engage them in different agribusiness entities (seed/seedling multiplication, production, aggregation, and value addition, and processing)
• Strategize to ensure collaboration with key partners/stakeholders to develop functional working relationships to support youth.
• Provide guidance to youth and female on horticultural crops production and agri-business opportunities in rural agriculture domain.
• Provide business advisory services to entrepreneurs to help improve their skills and knowledge in business and sustainable operation of agri-business and support to improve their capacity on business plan development and management options.
• Provide support in updating, producing, and disseminating capacity development materials to enhance the skills of project partners to promote business entrepreneurship across horticulture value chains.
• Support youths to develop actionable and business-oriented plans in collaboration with the local ADEY’s implementing partners and stakeholders.
• Plan, implement, and monitor cost driver activities, prepare, and review period progress reports, and submit to the regional project manager.
• Support to provide policy and technical support to service providers including government agencies for the promotion of youths’ agribusiness.
• Support youths on linkages to different service providers and input suppliers
• Ensure the gender and youth mainstreamed in every horticultural crop value chain-based agri-business opportunity.
• Make sure the SPO II work with formal and informal young female groups, associations, cooperatives to predominantly benefit the female youth.
• Develop a detailed project quarter and annual work plans and budget and follow up on its implementation.
• Ensure that horticulture value chain activities are implemented according to the schedule and according to the ADEY result framework targets.
• SPO II should ensure the project budget and follow utilization are according to the plan.
• Proactively participate in facilitating all relevant types of training carried out in each region.
• Flag any delay activities and other problems to the regional project manager in a timely manner and ensure the delay is converted in timely implementation and the problem is properly addressed and resolved.
• Oversight and tracking of relevant ATI-owned interventions implemented by other ATI teams.

• Minimum of Master of Science Degree in Horticulture/Irrigation Agronomy/Rural Development and Agricultural Extension/Agricultural econagromics/ Agribusiness and Value Chain Management/Agricultural Sciences or related fields
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant experience in horticulture crops value chains
• Specific experience within job creation-related activities under horticulture husbandry
• General understanding of Ethiopian agriculture with more emphasis on horticulture sub-sector development and best agricultural production/husbandry (irrigation and rainfed), mechanization, postharvest, storage/transport, packaging, marketing, and other value additive practices
• Extensive experience in identifying, forming, and supporting different models of agri-business.
• Extensive experience in implementing and management of donor-funded projects and good leadership skills.
• Very good experience on stakeholder mapping, analysis, and management skills
• Very good experience in business plan development business advisory and entrepreneurship skill
• Ample skill and experience in supporting to transform from small to medium and large-scale business enterprises.
• Experience in prioritizing and sequencing both programmatic and operational activities.
• Experience with program design, performance management, learning systems and monitoring & evaluation.
• Practical experience in developing linkages between producers and markets and working across horticultural crops value chains of crops in Ethiopia.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-moving, start-up environment, with an emphasis on high-performance, teamwork, accountability, and results.
• Ability to build relationships with all kinds of people.
• Highly facilitative and collaborative leadership style.
• Excellent adaptive problem-solver in a challenging environment.
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.
• Desire to improve the lives of smallholder farmers.
• Understanding of private sector, commercial farming, food processing and marketing
• A broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how public, private, and informal actors operate within the agricultural system.
• Strong communication skills (writing, speaking, composing, presenting, etc)
• Proficiency in oral and written English and Amharic. But it is mandatory to know the respective regional language.
• Computer literacy.