Senior Project Officer II – Grain Production & Processing Entrepreneurship Officer 111 views1 application

Position:                          Senior Project Officer II – Grain Production & Processing Entrepreneurship Officer

Term of Employment:   One year with possible extension

Duty Station(s):              Oromia (Based in Addis Ababa), Bahir Dar, Mekelle, and Hawassa.

Required Number:         Oromia (1), Amhara (1), Tigray (1) and SNNP (1) 

Application Deadline:    May 02, 2024

Please Note: ‘’PLEASE MENTION THE SPECIFIC DUTY STATION/LOCATION THAT YOU ARE APPLYING FOR, BUT IF YOU DON’T MENTION THE SPECIFIC LOCATION YOUR APPLICATION WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED”

“ We highly encourage competent FEMALE Candidates”

 PROGRAM BACKGROUND

The Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) was established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify systemic bottlenecks, conduct studies, and provide recommendations, provide implementation support, manage projects, create linkages and coordination among activities and agricultural development programs. The Institute is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions that, to be the leading center of innovative solutions to catalyze and contribute to the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030 where smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

ATI provides a unique 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 teams with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

The programmatic focus of the Institute responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and other sectors along commodity value chains. Across the programs, the ATI engages public, private, and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models. Currently, ATI is tasked to coordinate the revised Agriculture and Rural Development policy agendas of the sector and such sectoral level delegation requires high level expertise in the policy areas and skillsets in coordination and networking with multiple stakeholders.

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 ATI, 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.

Program and position summary

 ATI has designed a program called “Agriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia” (ADEY) to address the challenges of youth and women unemployment and increase the participation of young people in the labor market, particularly in the agriculture sector. ATI has mainstreamed youth employment, gender equality, climate-smart, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture in all its programs and projects with the primary objectives of increasing access to sustainable and inclusive job opportunities for youth, inclusivity, and the sustainable use of natural resources while building resilience capacities to shocks at all levels.

ATI, among others, currently works with more than 3 million smallholder farmers (540,300 are women and youth) engaged in the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) and digital agriculture programs designed to improve production and productivity while supporting other actors along the value chain.

Taking ATI’s reputable experiences, ADEY program was designed to create inclusive and dignified work opportunities in ACC woredas and Somali region for over six hundred thousand youths. The program supports youth employment through market-based agricultural value chain development, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) capacity development, and facilitating access to finance, market and inputs. To promote youth engagement in agriculture and enhance competitiveness of youth-owned MSMEs, ADEY will implement social behavioral change activities and targeted training to develop agribusiness skills.  and the program will collaborate with other partners to create enabling environment for youth employment through policy interventions. ADEY will leverage and largely build on ACC infrastructures and complement its outcomes through employment creation for youth women and men.  Grain crop production and processing value chain activities will be implemented in seven regions (Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, Sidama, South Ethiopia, Southwestern Ethiopia, and central Ethiopia). The interventions are designed to  create employment opportunities for youths, predominantly females, through engaging them in  the  production and aggregation of potential grain crops (e.g., wheat, maize, soybean, Tef, malt barley and other high value crops). The program will support small and medium youth enterprises to engage in market-oriented grain production, post-harvest management, aggregation, agro-processing and marketing. It will promote small-scale business development by young females,  specially focusing on important agribusinesses such as food processing and value addition, edible oil processing, soybean milk processing, etc.).

Position Summary

The regional senior project officer II (SPO-II) will be responsible for implementing and coordinating the overall interventions planned in ADEY program. He/she will work at each Agricultural Transformation Center and strive for the achievement of its objectives with measurable outcomes. To achieve this, he/she will be responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring/supervision, and coaching of interventions implemented by other local partners in the region. He/she will be responsible for data collection, reporting, documentation, and sharing of lessons, as per the ATI and donor standards.

He/she will report to the regional program manager and closely work with all ACC and other ADEY program staffs. Besides, he/she will closely work primarily with Regional Bureaus of Agriculture, Bureau of Labor and Skills, Cooperative Promotion Agencies, and ADEY program implementing partners under the guidance of the regional program manager.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

•  Proactively assess, identify, and promote potential and viable agri-business ideas for youth employment, predominantly for female youths.
• Ability to establish youth groups and engage them in different agribusiness activities along grain crop value chains.
• Strategize to ensure collaboration with key partners/stakeholders to develop functional working relationships to support youth employment.
• Provide technical support and guidance to youths on feasible agri-business opportunities along the grain crops value chains.
• Provision of business advisory services to youth entrepreneurs to help improve their skills and knowledge on agri-business development, and support to improve their organizational and operational capacities.
• In collaboration with other program staff, produce and disseminate manuals and training modules for skill development of youths and local partners.
• Support youth enterprises in developing feasible business plans in collaboration with implementing partners and stakeholders.
• Plan, implement, and monitor youth-sensitive grain production and processing activities, prepare, and review progress reports and submit to the regional program manager.
• Provide technical and policy supports to service providers including  financial institutions, input suppliers, and training and extension service providers for youths agribusiness development.
• Support and advise youth enterprises in financial management and organizational development.
• Support and advise youths on  standard requirements and procedures of business registration, agri-investment, revenue and tax administration, and access to finance.
• Ensure gender and safeguarding are mainstreamed in the grain production and processing business activities.
• Closely support and work with young women groups, associations, cooperatives and offices of women affairs to ensure participation and benefits young women.

• Minimum of master’s degree in Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, Agri-business, and related field of studies.
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience and at least 2 years of work experience in youth-focused job creation projects.
• Extensive experience in identifying, forming, and supporting different models of agri-business.
• Strong technical skills in production, processing, and pre-and post-harvest management of major grain crops.
• Extensive knowledge and experience of Ethiopian Agricultural systems in general and small-scale farming systems.
• Strong experience in implementation and management of donor-funded projects and good leadership skills.
• Very good experience in multistakeholder collaboration and partnership.
• Very good skills in business plan development and business advisory services for and entrepreneurship development.
• Strong analytical capabilities, problem-solving, and reporting skills.
• Ability and willingness to work under pressure and deliver quality results.
• Strong teamwork skills.
• Proficiency in computer and internet-based communication tools.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Proficiency in English and Amharic, and knowledge of the regional language is required.