Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position:                              Project Officer I-Problem Solving

Term of Employment:      Project-based - 1 Year Term with Possible Extension

Duty Station(s)*:              Hawassa

*Initially will be based in ATA Headquarters in Addis Ababa for 6 to 9 months of training and project work with Strategy & Analytics Team before joining Regional offices*

Required Number:          one

Salary & Benefits:           Competitive

Application Deadline:   1/26/2020

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

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 team work to achieve excellent results.

At ATA, 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.

POSITION SUMMARY:

Project Officers (Problem Solving) will be key members of SNNP regional team, reporting to the Implementation Support Director and working closely with other team members. Project Officers (Problem Solving) are expected to provide effective support in areas such as strategy development, strategic and operational planning, program management, problem solving around implementation issues, stakeholder coordination and reporting.

While these positions are based in the Regions listed earlier, the Project Officer (Problem Solving) will be posted to ATA Headquarters in Addis Ababa for the first six to nine months to participate in intensive training and preparation with ATA’s Strategy & Analytics Team. This will include working with other members of the Team in three to five person project teams similar to top-tier management consulting firms, contributing to a range of high-priority deliverables in areas such as strategy development, analytical studies to support policy and decision making, stakeholder engagement, and program / project design.

The Project Officer (Problem Solving) position is therefore very fast-paced and varied, and often quite challenging but also very rewarding. This is a fantastic opportunity for a very motivated individual with strong analytical skills, and ideally also some experience with strategy development, program planning and management, to step up into a career focused on delivering agricultural sector transformation. ATA provides best-in-class training to our staff, as well as regular actionable feedback taking into account each staff member's specific development objectives and career goals. Through these and other professional development activities, analysts develop their skills at a highly accelerated pace.

To support implementation of SNNP Regional teams are being established by Regional Governments. These bodies have the following main responsibilities:

•  Provide effective upward reporting to the Regional President and the Regional ACC Council, chaired by the Regional President and the Head of the Bureau of Agriculture, as well as to the National ACC Coordination and Capacity-building Unit

•  Support effective stakeholder coordination and problem-solving of issues at the Regional level, including alignment with other national and regional policies, strategies and programs

• Oversee stakeholder coordination, planning, reporting, problem solving and implementation support activities by ACC Support Teams in clusters across the Region

• Coordinate planning and program management including strategic and operational planning at the cluster level, through supporting establishment of public-private Value Chain Alliances, day-to-day coordination of value chain actors, and other activities

•  Facilitate private sector investments by ensuring timely and efficient investment support (e.g. registration, certification) and ongoing problem-solving support

•  Prepare performance and financial reporting utilizing standard tools and templates

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

Support strategy development, strategic and operational planning, including:

•  Identify and structure problems, develop and apply appropriate analytical frameworks and approaches, collect data and complete high-impact analysis for robust recommendations

•  Prioritize assigned tasks and manage workstreams from start to finish, including timelines, content, and stakeholder input and validation

• Identify key required resources, including budgetary, human resources, etc. to ensure execution

• Proactively identify risks and issues affecting work stream delivery, support problem solving on overcoming implementation obstacles, promptly communicate upward with solution options

• Organize and conduct interviews with junior-to-mid level stakeholders

•  Deliver high-quality analyses, documents and presentations with communicating key insights

 Support program management, stakeholder management and coordination, implementation problem-solving, and reporting, including:

• Present ideas and respond to queries clearly and concisely in team meetings and externally

• Prepare and engage in regular briefings and update with stakeholders

• Prepare performance and financial reporting utilizing standard tools and templates

Synthetize implementation lessons learned for future refinement / best practice sharing

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s or Master's degree with minimum GPA of 3.0 and above and focus on Business, Economics, Agriculture, Public Policy, International Development and other relevant subject areas

• 5 years for BA or 3 years for Master’s with relevant work experience in management consulting or other strategically and analytically focused roles in public, private or development sector organizations

• Interest in and familiarity with Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, agricultural and rural development

• Genuine intellectual curiosity and desire to innovate and bring large-scale change

• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and data gathering skills

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with highly collaborative working style

•  Experience with project and stakeholder management preferred

•  Experience in working within multi-cultural teams preferred

•  Strong willingness to learn, and ability to be a real team player

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

•  Strong personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service

•  Fluency in English

• Fluency in Amharic, is a plus based on the region you are placed