Programme Officer for Food Systems and Economic Integration Full Time

Our mission is to promote and protect abroad the values, interests and economic well-being of Ireland and its people.

Introduction

The Embassy of Ireland in Ethiopia’s role is to deepen bilateral diplomatic relations between Ireland and Ethiopia; serve the needs of Irish citizens; strengthen trade, tourism and investment between our countries and support Ethiopia’s socio-economic development through a targeted development assistance programme.

The Embassy wishes to contract the services of full-time Programme Officer to support the management, oversight and implementation of our development assistance programme. We are seeking highly motivated, innovative and experienced programme officer for Food Systems and Economic Integration.

Overview of Role

The Programme Officer will provide high quality technical support to the Embassy’s diverse development cooperation programme. The Programme Officer will oversee and monitor grants awarded by the Embassy and provide analysis and support to our programme engagements. The Programme Officer will ensure the highest standards in the implementation of Ireland’s international development policy priority areas, through project design, monitoring, evaluation and learning.

Overall Role and Responsibilities

Support the implementation of Ireland’s foreign policy and development strategies, including The Global Island: Ireland’s Foreign Policy for a Changing World; Ireland’s international development policy A Better World and Global Ireland: Ireland’s Strategy for Africa to 2025 in the region, and the Embassy’s annual Business Plan.

Work with the embassy team to implement the Embassy’s development cooperation strategy and support the design and implementation of a new mission strategy.

Support the implementation and grant oversight of projects funded by Ireland in related sectors including regular liaison with implementing organisations, partners and the regular review of budgets and work plans, monitoring, reporting and communications.

Provide high quality technical and policy analysis, grant and partner management, technical assessments and briefings in support of our annual Business Plan and Mission Strategy.

Provide day-to-day administrative support to the respective senior programme managers in the organization of high-level visits, field visits, programme payments, consultancy support, information management, and filing.
Preparing reports and case studies for internal accountability process (Bi-annual, annual and ad-hoc reporting) in line with result based management.

Support the respective Senior Programme Managers in related sectors Food System and Economic Integration and Multilateral, and Regional Affairs in the development of analysis and thematic papers as part of any reviews, evaluations or design phases of Mission Strategy Planning.

Attending, participating in and reporting on various external technical working group meetings and other fora as required.

Other duties as detailed in the job description and as required.

Essential Requirements

•  All candidates must have a relevant MA Degree in a relevant discipline – for example Economics, Agriculture and Development Studies.
•  Have a minimum of five years relevant experience in project cycle management including procurement process, financial management of budget and disbursement, audit, monitoring and evaluation, and information management.
•  In addition to the above the candidates applying for the position of Programme Officer for Food Systems and Economic Integration must have essential knowledge and experience in the areas of food systems and/or economic development in a bilateral and/or multilateral context.

In addition, the candidates must be able to:

•  Show examples demonstrating substantial technical knowledge linked to Ireland’s development cooperation priorities;
• Demonstrate examples of mainstreaming crosscutting issues, particularly related to governance, gender equality and/or protection, and some knowledge of climate issues.
• Demonstrate excellent communication, writing and reporting skills including fluent written and verbal English. Applicants may be contacted in advance to establish language proficiency and a short written language test may be required;
•  Demonstrate experience of engaging in programme/project design, monitoring & evaluation, learning and strategic planning;
•  Demonstrate examples of providing excellent interpersonal and communications skills in a professional environment; being persuasive; working in a team and also dealing effectively with people in external organisations;
• Demonstrate a proven capacity for delivering timely results and taking responsibility for quality outcomes;

In addition, all candidates must:

•  Be Proficient with MS Office Suite including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint; and any additional IT applications would also be beneficial (e.g. working with datasets);
• Have the ability and willingness to travel frequently, often to remote areas; and
• Have a legal entitlement to live and work in Ethiopia prior to recruitment.

Terms and conditions of employment:

• Start date: June 2025
• Location: Embassy of Ireland, Addis Ababa
• Contract duration: The successful candidate will be hired on a 3 year contract with a probation period of 60 working days
• Working hours: Monday to Thursday, with standard office hours from 8:00am – 5:00pm, Friday from 8:00am – 2:00pm with total working hours not exceeding 48 hours per week as per local labour law

Annual Leave Entitlement: Annual leave allowance is 20 working days per year

• Gross Salary: €1,890.60 per month paid in local currency. Salaries are paid direct to a bank account, therefore, the successful candidate must have a bank account

Closing date: Monday 13 March, 2025 @ 17 hrs