Senior Project Officer II: Soil Health and Fertility Management 32 views

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION INSTITUTE (ATI)

Job Announcement

Position:          Senior Project Officer II- Soil Health and Fertility Management

Term of Employment:   One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):  Oromia (Based at Addis Ababa), Amhara (Based at Bahir Dar) and Tigray (Based at Mekelle)

Required Number:         Oromia (1), Bahir Dar (1) and Mekelle (1) 

Application Deadline:    September 28,2024

BACKGROUND

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), formerly known as the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, which is a key contributor to the country’s GDP, exports, and workforce. The ATI’s work is centred on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers (SHFs) across the country for improved income, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

The ATI works to transform the agriculture sector in Ethiopia by conducting policy and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support and capacity building, coordinating.

platforms to better integrate partners and projects and designing and directly leading several innovative/pilot interventions.

The Institute joins forces with various stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, farmers, and development partners, to support the implementation of agricultural development programs and initiatives. In addition, the ATI collaborates with national and international partners to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning opportunities. The Institute plays a crucial role in generating and disseminating information to support evidence-based decision-making in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector.

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 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 Summary 

ATI has designed a program called “Agriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia” (ADEY) to address 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 smallholder farmers’ production and productivity while supporting other actors along the value chain.

Taking ATI’s reputable experience, ADEY program was designed to create inclusive and dignified work opportunities in ACC regions and Somali for over 600 thousand youth. The program will focus on several streams such as agriculture and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to strengthen access to agricultural input and output markets and finance; improve the competitiveness of youth-owned MSMEs through capacity-building activities; enhance the skills and mindsets of young women and men through technical and business skill development and create an enabling environment for work opportunities through policy interventions. Like ACC, ADEY will operate along the commodity value chain, largely using ACC infrastructures and complement the different ACC outcomes in general and outcome four (engagement of women and youth) in particular. The project on Soil Health and Fertility Management will be implemented in seven regions (Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, Sidama, South Ethiopia, Southwest Ethiopia Peoples’, Central Ethiopia and Somali). Specifically, the job creation opportunities for youth, dominantly female youth, are through engaging on vermicompost production for soil fertility and health restoration and climate change adaption); supporting youth female to engage in small and medium vermicompost packaging and market linkage, and promoting and supporting youth female focused small scale business linkage with horticulture crops production under irrigated condition.

The Senior Project Officer will be responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting of ADEY program interventions on soil health and fertility management in the region. He/she will provide technical guidance and supports to the regional partners and youth enterprises to effectively implement the program activities and achieve the planned target indicators. The Senior Project Officer will directly report to the Regional ADEY Program Manager with Matrix reporting to the Soil Health and Fertility Management Senior Technical Expert at the Head Office. He/she will closely work with other ADEY program staffs at the regional and federal levels, and with partners and sub-grantees at the regional level.

Position Summary 

The Senior Project Officer-II (SPO-II) for Soil Health and Fertility Management (SHFM) plays a pivotal role in planning, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on soil health initiatives within the region. He/she will report directly to the ADEY Program Manager at each Agricultural Transformation Center (ATI) with Matrix reporting to the SHFM Team Lead at the Head Office. He/she will provide technical guidance and supports to the regional partners and youth enterprises to effectively implement the program activities and achieve the planned target indicators.

The candidate expected to possess proven experience in project management and soil health initiatives; strong ability of establishing youth enterprise; strong skills in planning, monitoring, and reporting; ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders; experience in coaching and supervising local partners; knowledge of soil ecosystems and agricultural transformation. He/she shall also have a passion for improving the lives of smallholder farmers. He /she will primarily support the integration of soil health and fertility consideration into the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster Initiative.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Proactively identify, evaluate, and advocate for promising agribusiness opportunities in soil health and fertility management, with a particular focus on creating job opportunities for youth, especially young women.
• Develop annual workplan and budget for soil health and fertility management agribusiness activities of the region based on the program document and in consultation with the program management team and regional partners.
• Ability to establish youth enterprise to engage in different soil health and fertility management related agribusiness entities.
• In collaboration with the local partners, identify knowledge and skill gaps of youth beneficiaries on soil health and fertility management agribusiness activities across the program intervention woredas.
• Develop strategies to collaborate effectively with key partners and stakeholders, fostering functional working relationships that support youth initiatives.

• Provide guidance to youth and female on soil health and fertility management agri-business opportunities in rural agriculture domain.
• Map and engage stakeholders (government, NGO and private sector) working in the area of soil health and fertility management agribusiness for alignment and joint implementation of prioritized interventions.
• Establish vibrant market linkage among input suppliers, producers, processors and output markets for soil health and fertility management products in the region.
• Provision of business advisory services to entrepreneurs to help improve their skills and knowledge in business and sustainable operation of agri-business and support to improve their capacity on business plan development and management options.
• Aid youths in developing actionable, business-oriented plans by collaborating with local ADEY implementing partners and stakeholders.
• Plan, implement, and monitor cost-driver activities; prepare and review periodic progress reports, and submit them to the regional project manager.
• Provide policy and technical support to service providers, including government agencies, to promote youth agribusiness.
• Facilitate advisory services for youth on technical and financial management, as well as business governance for their agribusiness ventures.
• Assist youths in establishing linkages with various service providers and input suppliers.
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• Make sure that you as senior project officer work with formal and informal youth entrepreneurs, to predominantly benefit the female youths.
• Strengthen relevant input supply chains –the inclusion of the latest soil health technologies within existing services of input suppliers.
• Build capacity of the extension system on disseminating soil fertility, acidity and salinity management technologies.
• Build the capacity of the extension service to provide effective advisory services on on-farm soil management
• Support the ACC projects in relation to soil fertility and soil health technologies dissemination.
• Link the soil fertility management technologies (vermicompost, compost, lime d etc.  with youth job creation activities.
• Directly support the soil fertility directorate of the MoA in developing the content and technical capabilities of Ministry counterparts (federal and regional) and other partners, related to soil health and fertility issues as appropriate.
• Engage in soils related discussions with key stakeholders and build independent working relationships with all levels of stakeholders; represent ATI on key fora  in respective regions.
• Prepare presentations, propose ideas for communication and support the facilitation of constructive dialogue where required in respective regions.
• Understand the cultural and political dimensions of stakeholders and their impact on recommendations being made related to the environment
• Demonstrate depth of expertise in the area of soil health and fertility and use knowledge to enrich and guide problem-solving with teams and external stakeholders
• Serve as an SPO, responsible for the implementation, values, culture, and management of the SHFM project more specifically related to soil information system, research, and extension component under ADEY and ACC.
• Develop effective and collaborative partnerships with stakeholders across the soil-landscape (government, business, research institutions, universities, cooperatives, farmers’ organizations, farmers, donors, etc.) in the delivery of priority sector objectives.
• Proactively identify opportunities to support stakeholders so that they can execute their missions in the SHFM project and support them in the mobilization of needed financial, human, or organizational resources for project execution
• Regularly report to the Program Manger on progress, challenges, and constraints of the work
• Support the Program Manager  in the preparation and managing e the ATI SHFM Project budget; obtain approval from the Director and monitor budget utilization against the allocation.
• Work collaboratively with other ATI programs to achieve synergies that impact the broader agricultural system.