Regional Seed System Coordinator NEW

Position Title: Regional Seed System Coordinator

Duty Station: Mekele, Tigray Region (with frequent travels to fields)

Open Position:  1

Safeguarding Risk Level: Medium

Program / Department Summary

The Ethiopia Seed Partnership Plus (ESP+) is a bilateral program between Ethiopia and the Netherlands in international trade and development cooperation. The goal of the proposed extended program ESP+ is to ensure the delivery of quality seed of new, improved, and adapted varieties to one million farming household across the country for food security, nutrition, and resilience to shocks and stresses. ESP+ will be implemented in Tigray, Oromia, Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambela, and Somali regions, which are more prone to shocks and stresses. Once conditions allow, activities will commence in Amhara as well. The program will have four components that are Private sector development, Innovation &empowerment, responding to seed insecurity, and Enabling seed sector transformation. Mercy Corps Ethiopia will be leading the third component of the program that mainly deals with Responding to seed insecurity. The ESP+ program will be implemented over four years period from 2024-2027.

General Position Summary

The regional Seed Insecurity Response coordinator is responsible for the overall planning, implementing, coaching, and monitoring, reporting of the Program intervention in the targeted Woredas of the region. S/he is also responsible for stakeholder management for engagements, strengthening B2B networks, technical capacity of the beneficiaries, strengthening the informal seed system through deploying improved varieties, local seed business through supporting innovation fund/business development, ensuring seed emergence response for purpose, and strengthening the regulatory provision of seed systems. S/he reports to the Program Manager. The key role and responsibilities of the position is summarized as follows.

 Essential Job Responsibilities

• Mapping key stakeholders, including humanitarian and development partners who directly support food security, engagements for collective action towards resiliently responding to seed insecurity in shocks/stress-prone targeted areas.
• Actively participate in annual planning, implementation, monitoring of each intervention, reporting.
• Identifying the existing seed systems, particularly local seed business owners and community-based seed banks, and assessing their strengths, weakness, and areas of their support.
• Participating, facilitating, and coaching region context, and Seed Security Systems (SSS) assessments in collaboration with other humanitarian, and development actors.
• Facilitating and organizing technical capacity training, workshops, evaluation events, field days, seed fairs, experience-sharing events, quick assessments, etc.
• Conducting/supporting, and facilitating the demonstration of participatory variety selections, and variety deployments through crowdsourcing/tricot approaches in collaboration with potential implementing partners, such as agricultural research centers, BoANR, and Universities.
• Facilitating/following up sub-grant/smart-subsidy supports for implementing partners, local seed businesses, and community seed banks, and closely monitoring the performance of physical progress.
• Closely working with humanitarian and development actors who are directly involved in response to food security in general and seed insecurity response in particular.
• Facilitating joint monitoring and evaluation events in collaboration with other Humanitarian and development actors through the guidance of MEAL Specialists.
• Closely working with woreda BoARN to ensure access to inputs and extension services to local seed producers, community seed banks, private seed producers.
• Supporting potential seed producers to ensure access to early-generation seeds (EGS) at the local level.
• Facilitating region-specific Disaster Risk Management (DRM) plan implementation in context to seed insecurity response.
• Facilitating business-to-business (B2B) networks to enhance seed marketing through the guidance of a senior seed system advisor.
• Facilitating, organizing, and coordinating multi-stakeholder platforms to enhance joint collective strategy and actions to ensure resilient seed insecurity response.
• Closely coach and supervise the implementing partners and local seed producers, collecting and compiling data as per outcome and output indicators.
• Regularly update the progress of the intervention, narrate field trips, outputs and action items of training and workshop events, monthly/quarterly/bi-annually/annual reports to MEAL Specialist and/or Program Manager.
• Regularly assess risks associated with conflict and other shocks/stress situations and suggest context mitigation measures.
• Additional assignments as per the policy and/or regulation of MERCY CORPS.

GEDSI (GENDER, EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION)

• Adherence of gender minimum standards
• Allocate budget for GESI related activities and staff capacity building on GESI
• Make sure GESI issues are properly reflected during program management!
• Support the organization’s commitment to age and gender inclusive team building process
• Promote an inclusive and equitable workplace culture
• Support Staff Capacity Building on Increase staff knowledge of GEDSI

Supervisory Responsibility

Technically support and supervisor the implementing partners, local seed producers, Community Seed banks, and other seed sector actors, including humanitarian working on food and seed in security response

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Program Manager

Technical Line Report To: Program Manager, Senior Seed system advisor and MEAL Specialist

Works Directly With: Program manager, technical specialist, MEAL specialist, implementing partners, local seed producers, community seed banks, and other seed actors.