Position Objectives

The Regional Program Manager will be the principal point of contact for the USAID/ Feed the Future Policy LINK Ethiopia- Champions for Food Security (C4FS) Activity and liaison between the Addis Ababa office and the assigned regional state.

With overall guidance from the Country Lead, the Regional Program Manager is expected to support the design, implementation, follow up, and reporting of Policy LINK Ethiopia-C4FS Activity within the framework of Policy LINK’s established activity team structures, processes, and systems.

Responsibilities

The Regional Program Manager will be expected to understand and effectively communicate the Policy LINK Ethiopia -C4FS Activity approaches and core principles to regional level stakeholders.

The Regional Program Manager is expected to continually reinforce Policy LINK’s agreed-upon core purpose and principles and approaches, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in the purpose and principles. S/he will contribute to a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

The Regional Program Manager will be based in the capital city of the assigned regional state, and will be responsible for the following primary tasks, though other duties may be assigned as appropriate:

Program Management:

• Develop strong working relationships and lines of communication with Policy LINK team, regional and subregional level stakeholders in his/her assigned regi
• Collaborate with the Policy LINK Ethiopia team in the development of activity descriptions, activity budgets and workplans.
• Lead the implementation and monitoring of Policy LINK Ethiopia-C4FS activities in the region.
• Collaborate with Policy LINK logistics, finance and operations, and activity teams members in Addis Ababa to perform on-the-ground regional procurement and logistics support tasks such as generating procurement requests, collecting quotations, making ground travel arrangements, coordinating with workshop venues, and preparing workshop materials and transportation refunds for participants.
• Support to ensure and organize required logistics to facilitate regional visits of USAID, DAI/Policy LINK Addis, and other relevant visitors.
• Manage and facilitate regional level program performance evaluations
• Develop and submit periodic report for regional program activities

Regional Program Activities:

• Mapping and periodic updates key regional agriculture and food security policy system actors such as public sectors, private sectors, and civil society organizations using appropriate tools
• Facilitate linkage and partnership between the regional policy system actors and the USAID/Ethiopia Policy LINK-C4FS Activity.
• Closely work with regional policy system actors and facilitate the institutional/organizational development and capacity strengthening needs assessments.
• Closely work with regional policy actors to identify opportunities to facilitate stakeholder engagement and collaborative governance activities at the subregional levels, including dialogues, learning events, technical roundtable discussions, systems mapping
• In collaboration with the Policy LINK Ethiopia team, organize regional level capacity strengthening activities including technical assistance trainings, coaching etc.
• Facilitate joint planning and implementations of regional base activities with stakeholders,
• Support the process of policy system assessments, studies, and implementations of actions
• Closely work with Policy LINK Ethiopia team to identify, develop, and disseminate evidence and learnings

Reporting Lines

The Regional Program Manager will directly report to the Addis Ababa-based Deputy Country & Policy Systems Capacity Strengthening Lead. The Regional Program Manager will get overall guidance from the Policy LINK Ethiopia Country Lead and will have functional relationship with activity and operation teams as well as consultants.

Qualifications and Experience

The Regional Program Manager is expected to have the following qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in development, economics, agriculture, food security, environment
• Seven (7) years of relevant experience in management of agriculture and food security programs preferably in international development organizations, NGOs, or the private sectors
• At least three (3) years of experience in managing/coordinating operations and logistics
• Good understanding and analysis of national agriculture and food security policy and key stakeholders; the national and regional food and nutrition security situations, and the value chain actors
• Demonstrated experience in the design and implementation of regional agriculture/ food and nutrition security policy/strategies and programs.
• Demonstrated experience and skill in networking with partners and facilitation of platforms, partnership management, and facilitation of collaborative governance
• Strong communication and representational skills.
• Demonstrated experience and skill in organizational capacity needs assessment and capacity development including facilitation of trainings
• Experience in social work, advocacy and mobilization including organizing and setting up events and conferences for diverse set of stakeholders.
• Previous experience working in the regional State and good working relationship with regional public and private sectors is highly preferred
• Strong communication and representation skill with good command of English and proficient in the local language (Oromiffa for Oromia Region; Amharic for Amhara Region; Amharic plus at least one other local language for SNNPR).
• Basic computer skills to manage to manage Microsoft office and web-based communications