JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION

JOB TITLE: Senior Advisor/Coordinator for institutional capacity development

REPORTS TO: Programme Manager

REPORTING TO POSTHOLDER: 21 Field Facilitators

LOCATION: Addis Ababa, with frequent travel to field offices ((Amhara, Benishangul Gumez, Gambella, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray)

DURATION:  2 years and 3 months (based on funding availability)

Farm Africa is a UK-headquartered INGO established in 1985 and with operations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and DRC. Farm Africa is a technical specialist in rural development, implementing projects in forestry, agriculture, natural resource management, and market-system development with extensive project implementation experience in Ethiopia. The organization has a deep commitment and long-term presence in the region, with over 35 years’ experience of supporting rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa to lift them out of poverty through interventions focused on improving production and productivity of crops, empowering communities to manage their natural resources sustainably, and increasing access to profitable markets.

Effective agriculture has the power to change lives. It underpins prosperity, food security and stability the world over. Farm Africa focuses on transforming agriculture and managing natural resources sustainably. We champion a holistic approach that boosts yields, protects the environment and connects smallholder farmers to thriving markets.

We work with different types of farmers in a range of regions. Their local situations vary, but the problems they face are all too familiar: lack of training and technology, inadequate inputs, no finance, vulnerability to climate change and poor links to markets.

We have an ambitious strategy to expand our work over the next five years. We’ll increase our impact, lift more communities out of poverty, work with more corporate partners who share our vision, open up more agricultural markets, provide more expertise, and make change happen.

Under the project “Climate-Sensitive Innovations in Land Management” (CLM), this technical consultancy service aims to increase the delivery capacity of agricultural extension services for services to build effective community-based SLM organisations. The impact hypothesis is that increasing the capacity of governmental and non-governmental extension services, which have a central role in planning and implementing climate-sensitive SLM measures at the local level, will result in a strengthening of local SLM organisations and thus an increase in the effectiveness of SLM measures (module objective). An underlying assumption is that communities rely on the support of extension services to implement SLM measures in order to meet the institutional and technical requirements for SLMP funding. Given the low level of education (e.g. very high illiteracy rate), it can be assumed that the support of the WSUAs in the planning and implementation of SLM measures by the DAs and private service providers acting at the interface between the communities and the state institutions must be permanent. An assumption for the achievement of the output is also that the government (and possibly a new government after the elections in 2021) will continue the reform process that has been started and the participatory approach to sustainable land management.

• Overall project coordination and personnel management (incl. timely delivery, liaison between GIZ and contractor’s HQ)
• Providing advice to the project management at national level on the establishment and functioning of community-based institutions/organizations for sustainable natural resource use
• Strategy, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of capacity development measures of the field staff/ facilitators
• Working together with and supporting the national and regional project management for achieving the objective of Output 2
• Ensuring mainstreaming of gender, environmental and livelihood in SLM implementation in line with the standard
• Regular results monitoring and reporting in accordance with set deadlines
• Assuming the overall responsibility for the consultancy package of the contractor
• Overseeing the work of field expert
• Networking with ATVETs, private training providers and other training implementation partners
• Identifying pilot areas together with regional project partners and beneficiaries for upscaling based on transparent criteria
• Ensuring the coherence and complementarity of the services of the contractor with other services delivered by the programme at local and national level (especially. with the GIZ team at national level and with GIZ staff on-site)
• Extended personnel management: identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, as well as planning and facilitating backstopping
• Responsibility for controlling the use of funds and financial planning in consultation with GIZ’s officer responsible for the commission
• Supporting the officer responsible for the commission in updating/adapting the project strategy, in evaluations and in preparing a follow-on phase
• Regularly consult with the AV and responsible DV of GIZ-CLM on all aspects of the assignment.

Investing in smallholder farming is the number one way to combat poverty in rural Africa. Farm Africa is a leading NGO specialising in growing agriculture, protecting the environment and developing businesses in rural Africa.

EXPERT. Deep expertise and insightful evidence-based solutions are at the heart of everything Farm Africa does.

GROUNDED. Positive change starts with Africa’s people, so our experts work closely with local communities, engaging them in every level of decision-making.

IMPACTFUL. We take a long-term view so we can deliver lasting changes for farmers and their families.

BOLD. We model innovative new approaches and are not afraid to challenge strategies that are failing.