Senior Project Officer II-Agribusiness in Livestock

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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 centered 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.

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

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) has designed a program called "Agriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia" (ADEY) to address young women and men 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 increased 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 is designed to create inclusive and dignified work opportunities for over 600 thousand youth. The major intervention areas of ADEY program are: enhance skills and mindsets of young women and men through technical and business skill development; increase access for agricultural inputs production and marketing enterprises; introduce youth friendly and cost-effective agricultural production practices and technologies; establish young people owned micro, small and medium agro-processing and value addition enterprises; increased access to inclusive financial products tailored to the needs of young people; enhance access to market tailored to the needs and capacities of young people and create an enabling environment for work opportunities through policy interventions.

The Senior Project Officer will be responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting of ADEY program interventions on livestock agribusiness development (dairy, poultry and apiculture) 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 Livestock Team Lead 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.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop annual workplan and budget for livestock agribusiness activities of the region based on the program document and in consultation with the program management team and regional partners
• Coordinate and manage implementation of livestock agribusiness activities focusing on youth, especially women, employment and enterprise development
• In collaboration with the local partners, identify knowledge and skill gaps of youth beneficiaries on livestock agribusiness activities across the program intervention woredas
• Organize and facilitate demand-driven technical and business skill trainings based on the identified skill gaps and agribusiness development needs of the youth beneficiaries
• Facilitate provision of continuous business development services to youth enterprises
• Organize and facilitate knowledge management events such as field days and experience sharing visits for youths engaged in livestock agribusiness in the region, and document and share best practices and lessons
• Organize livestock agribusiness alliance meetings, document action agenda and follow up on its implementation by the partners
• Engage regional partners to provide physical resources such as working space and facilities for job creation for youths in livestock agribusinesses
• Map and engage stakeholders (government, NGO and private sector) working in the area of livestock agribusiness for alignment and joint implementation of prioritized interventions
• Ensure proper regular data collection based on the database and tools shared by federal ADEY team with high quality and undertake required analysis
• Monitor the progress and evaluate performance of prioritized interventions on livestock agribusiness in the region
• Compile and share project progress and performance reports periodically (weekly update, monthly, on quarter basis and yearly) to regional and federal ADEY team
• Support youth owned livestock agribusinesses enterprises in contract marketing, demand creation and promotion of new products and services
• Establish market linkages among input suppliers, producers, processors and output markets in the region
• Support commercialization of livestock and livestock products in the region
• Closely follow-up implementing partners (subgrants) on proper implementation of prioritized activities
• Organize and prepare stakeholder meetings, workshops and related activities and prepare materials as needed to expand the outreach and advocacy in the region
• Implement other activities as required by the team lead and supervisors

Required Qualifications, Competencies, Skills, Trainings and Experience

• Minimum of master's degree in animal science, livestock production, livestock production and management or other related fields
• 8 years of professional experience in the areas of livestock agribusiness, donor-supported projects related to livestock and livestock products value chain development, and other interventions relevant to the position
• Deep understanding of Ethiopia's livestock sub-sector, including dairy, sheep, goat, poultry and apiculture, with a broad perspective on how the systems function and how public, private and non-government organizations operate in the system
• Deep understanding and practical experience in job creation for youth in the livestock agribusiness
• Expertise in planning, prioritizing, sequencing, managing, problem-solving and reporting on livestock projects
• Excellent understanding of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), common interest groups and entrepreneurship, and the mechanism how it functions
• Good track record of work experiences on livestock farming, livestock product processing and development, livestock and livestock product marketing with public and non-governmental organizations, training institutions, and others actors in the livestock agribusiness
• Excellent understanding and experience in livestock agribusiness development particularly in Ethiopia and in developing countries, with strategies to address bottlenecks in the sub-sector
• Excellent experience in creating and facilitating public-private partnerships in livestock agribusiness
• Self-starter with strong motivation, ownership, and commitment to deliver results
• Promotes data-driven and evidence-based problem solving and decision making
• Strong team player with excellent relationship building and communication skills
• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service
• Highly developed interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to relate to and gain the confidence of the senior leadership immediately
• Proven leadership ability, with the skills to manage a team and stakeholders and influence others through informal guidance, coaching and feedback
• Ability to work effectively with regional team and partners and ensure timely data exchange and problem solving between the federal and regional levels
• Excellent communication skill (both oral and written) in English and Amharic with the ability to create and deliver compelling presentations to diverse groups of stakeholders (knowing regional languages is mandatory)
• Ability to work under pressure and in a constantly evolving and challenging environment
• Excellent analytical skill and computer literate
• Desire of creating job and improving the livelihood of youth in agriculture
• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits

How to Apply

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to: https://apply.ati.gov.et. It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your cover letter. Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.

Women are highly encouraged to apply.

NB: Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

ATI contact email: recruitment@ati.gov.et

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