Deliver Unit Head, Amhara BoA Delivery Unit 100 views

Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

 Position:                          Deliver Unit Head, Amhara BoA Delivery Unit

Term of Employment:   One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):              Amhara Bureau of Agriculture, Bahir Dar

Required Number:         One

Salary & Benefits:           Competitive

Application Deadline:    January 31, 2021

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 ATA focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (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 the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative and other programs.

The ATA is currently in the process of launching a Delivery Unit in the Amhara Bureau of Agriculture to directly support their work on the implementation of prioritized initiatives. Delivery Units have played a critical role in accelerating the execution of development initiatives in many countries, particularly in Africa, East and Southeast Asia, including Ethiopia which ATA helped set-up. The Amhara Regional Delivery Unit will be jointly overseen by the Amhara BoA and ATA senior management.

The Delivery Unit will be active in several key areas:

–          Support RBoA leadership in identifying a small set of well-defined priorities.

–          Facilitate the detailed planning for the prioritized focus areas including the identification of indicators and target setting.

–          Lead the roll-out of enhanced planning, project management, and reporting tools, processes, and systems to facilitate adequate tracking and reporting on the progress of prioritized focus areas.

–          Embed sufficient follow-up and quality control methods to ensure timeliness and accuracy of priority area reporting by implementation owners.

–          Lead proactive identification of key issues in specific activities or overall initiatives and provide analytical and technical problem-solving on these issues.

–          Formulate and test recommendations for issues by driving decision-making at senior levels of government.

–          Provide timely reporting to the Amhara BoA Head for prioritized focus areas.

–          Provide analytical problem-solving support to senior leadership on high priority requests, such as analysis of trends, strategic planning, or policy analysis for areas related to priority focus.

–          Strengthen the execution and day-to-day project and activity management capacity of RBoA staff.

–          Drive delivery and transformational mindset as opposed to status quo mode of operation.

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 teamwork 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 to 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:

The Head of the Delivery Unit – seconded to Amhara Regional Bureau of Agriculture, will report to the Head of the Bureau where the DU is placed. The DU Head will work closely with the RBoA leadership and staff to align on strategic priorities, develop detailed priority area plans and targets, put in place regular performance monitoring and management routines, problem-solve for critical issues, and progressively escalate matters that require the senior leaders’ involvement. The DU Head will also be responsible to regularly seek feedback on DU performance, produce monthly performance reports and conduct enhancements to ensure any issues in the implementation of this new model are proactively identified and addressed.

The DU Head’s primary responsibility is to effectively deliver on the agreed strategic priorities through effective day-to-day management of the DU staff & activities and by ensuring commitment on delivery work from internal/external stakeholders. The DU Head will directly manage a team composed of two Delivery Members and work in close collaboration with the Technical Support Unit (TSU) composed of Senior Technical Experts. Further, the head will work closely with other senior leaders in the Amhara Regional Bureau of Agriculture, ATA’s Amhara Regional Office, and get guidance and support from ATA HQ Systemic Interventions Senior Director to ensure effective delivery of defined priority goals.

Candidates for these roles must therefore bring a can-do attitude and enjoy working in a fast-paced organization that is mission- and results-driven. An ideal DU head candidate must have strong leadership, senior stakeholder management, and team management experience and a track record of effectively leading the planning and execution of major programs, projects, or initiatives. They also must demonstrate very strong analytical and critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and excellent written and verbal communication, and program and project management skills. Strong candidates should demonstrate the ability to exercise good judgment in a variety of situations, multitask, and work under pressure and competing priorities.

     ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Ensure there is a strong and visible backing for the Delivery Unit from the RBoA Head and senior leadership to ensure successful implementation of delivery.

• Work closely with the RBoA Head to identify a small set of well-defined priority focus areas for the bureau, with support from the Technical Support Unit Head as needed.

• Establish strong, trust-based relationships and regularly engage initiative owners and relevant internal or external senior stakeholders around priority area planning, performance management, and problem-solving, to ensure strong buy-in and engagement required for achieving goals.

• Lead the Delivery Unit Members and their day-to-day activities to ensure the unit is effectively       delivering on its responsibilities:

o   Ensure DU staff catalyse delivering mindset as opposed to status quo mode of operation.

o   Develop clear annual plans, targets, and budgets for the Delivery Unit, ensuring the units time is being spent on the right priorities.

o   Ensure the effective engagement of members with initiative owners and other stakeholders.

o   Provide coaching and manage the performance of DU staff.

• Provide effective upward reporting and timely escalation of critical issues to the Head of the Amhara BoA, the Bureau’s leadership, and the Executive Director of the Amhara Regional ATA Office where relevant, on progress, challenges, and constraints around the delivery of prioritized goals.

• Put in place robust implementation planning, target-setting, and budgeting process and tools with owners of priority initiatives and ensure effective use for facilitating delivery.

• Maintain regular performance monitoring and management routines with senior leadership, initiative owners, and relevant stakeholders to maintain focus on goals, ensure visibility on progress, and regularly problem-solve for implementation challenges.

• Drive the proactive identification, prioritization, and effective problem-solving of key implementation challenges to maintain progress against goals:

o   Lead day-to-day problem-solving activities of the DU team with the priority area implementation owners to identify root causes of issues challenges and develop impactful recommendations.

o   Collaborate with RBoA leadership/staff, the TSU, ATA regional and federal project teams and ATA Analytics Team or outside consultants as needed to solve more complex issues.

o   Manage Delivery Members, supporting them with work planning and prioritization, clearing roadblocks, and skill-building.

• Facilitate linkage and coordination between the various regional implementers working on prioritized activities to facilitate timely delivery of impact.

• Proactively seek and action feedback on DU performance from the Head of the Bureau and the BoA’s office as may be appropriate to continuously improve the team and its implementation model.

• Work with ATA SI Senior Director and other Regional BoA DU Heads in sharing learnings and best practices as well as on matters related to priority areas to ensure a streamlined implementation.

• Contribute to recruitment, onboarding, and initial and ongoing capacity building of staff in DU to ensure the right talent is hired.
• Perform other related duties as may be required, related to accelerating delivery of priority agendas.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of MBA, MA, MPA, or master’s degree in management, leadership, business administration, project management, economics, agricultural science, public administration, and other relevant fields

• At least 10 years of work experience, preferably in a management consulting or large program management setting or other roles focused on strategic planning, program/project design, management, and reporting, and applied analysis; five of the ten years of experience should be in a leadership or managerial position.

• Broad experience in leading, structuring, and managing programs/projects, analytically focused work, and senior management reporting and decision support, in a range of sectors or topic areas.

• Navigate and achieve change in the agriculture sector – has knowledge or experience of operating in a political environment and driving reforms through public-sector decision-making processes such as budget setting, legislating, and procurement.

• Think logically to sequence and plan the delivery of prioritized strategies with pace, optimism, and urgency.

• Experienced in using data and other evidence to make arguments and solve problems – an analytical thinker, able to commission and interpret a wide range of statistical analyses and translate technical information to a lay audience.

• Demonstrated experience in designing and writing high-quality presentations and reports – produces clear, concise, and compelling narratives through a combination of expert prose, use of data, graphics, and exceptional engaging storytelling; able to coach others in producing high-quality work.

• Strong understanding of public and development sector issues and organizational culture, and ability to effectively liaise with senior and mid-level leadership in government organizations.

• Understanding of the Agricultural Sector and its various challenges and possibilities with a broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how the public, private and non-government organizations operate.

• Good experience of working at regional government offices and civil society or private sector sectors.

• Hands-on experience in delivery mechanisms in public institutions highly desirable.

• Self-starter with strong motivation, vision, ownership, and commitment to drive delivery.

• Highly collaborative leadership style and demonstrated success in leading, motivating, managing, and developing high-performance teams.

• Exhibits an innovative and high-performance mindset and culture, and can perform at a high level under pressure, with a high workload, and in challenging environments.

• Highly results-oriented and delivery focused, with the ability to strengthen the accountability of others.

• Can act as a champion for change and can effectively support change management efforts.

• Strong team player with excellent relationship-building skills, ability to promote dialogue, and communicate clearly and confidently.

• Proactively seeks and acts on feedback to drive their development and contributes to others’ development through active coaching and sharing knowledge and best practices.

• Strong knowledge and skills in Microsoft Office Suite, and various program/project management and data and reporting systems.

• A strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service.
• Fluency in English and Amharic languages required.