Senior Project Officer II Dairy Entrepreneurship Officer

Position: Senior Project Officer II Dairy 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: March 10, 2024

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 countrys agriculture sector. The ATI envisions that, to be the leading center of innovative solutions to catalyze and contribute to the transformation of the 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 countrys agricultural sector. The ATI offers rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. The ATI recognize that its most valuable assets are its staff and is committed to providing its 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 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 countrys 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 challenges of 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 production and productivity while supporting other actors along the value chain. Taking ATIs reputable experiences, ADEY program is designed to create inclusive and dignified employment opportunities for over six hundred thousand youths. 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 to agricultural inputs for 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 Dairy Entrepreneurship Officer- SPO II is responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, and reporting of prioritized interventions in the areas of dairy businesses in the region. He/she will provide day to day management and technical support for the effective implementation of the project and other duties as listed out below. The Dairy Entrepreneurship Officer- SPO II will directly report to Regional Program Manager (ADEY) and with Matrix to Federal Livestock Team Lead of ADEY project and closely work with regional and federal ADEY project team members, and with partners and sub-grantees at regional level.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate and manage youth-focused dairy and other livestock interventions of ADEY project in the region.
• Develop annual workplan and budget for dairy interventions in the region based on project document, and in consultation with federal livestock team and regional partners and follow its implementation.
• Identify knowledge and skill gaps of targeted youths (young men and women) in the region across dairy value chain in collaboration with regional partners.
• Organize and facilitate demand-driven skill-based trainings based on the gaps and coach and mentor targeted youths.
• Organize and facilitate learning events such as field days and experience sharing visits for youths engaged in dairy and other livestock related businesses in the region and document lessons and best practices.
• Organize and document dairy value chain alliance meetings and follow up on implementation of the action plans in collaboration with regional partners.
• Engage regional partners to provide physical resources such as working space and facilities for youth focused job creation in dairy businesses.
• Map and engage stakeholders (government, NGO and private sector) working on the dairy business 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 light analysis.
• Monitor the progress and evaluate performance of prioritized dairy interventions in the region.
• Compile and share progress updates and performance reports periodically (weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually) to regional and federal ADEY team.
• Support youth owned dairy 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 youth-owned dairy businesses in product processing and development, value proposition and marketing.
• Closely follow-up with implementing partners (sub-grants) 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.

• Minimum of masters degree in Dairy science, dairy production, dairy value chain development or other related fields.
• 8 years of professional experience in the areas of dairy business, donor supported dairy interventions, dairy value chain related project management, and others directly relevant to the position.
• Deep understanding of Ethiopias livestock sector, and specifically the dairy sub-sector, with a broad perspective on how the system functions and how public, private and non-government organizations operate in the system.
• Deep understanding and practical experience in sustainable job creation for youth and other segments of the society in agricultural value chains.
• Expertise in planning, prioritizing, sequencing, managing, problem-solving and reporting on dairy and dairy related 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 working relationship with dairy producers, dairy products traders, processors, dairy research and training institutions, public and non-governmental organizations, and others engaged in dairy value chain development.
• Excellent understanding and experience in developing dairy value chains, dairy businesses particularly in Ethiopia and in developing countries, and addressing obstacles that hinder its effectiveness.
• Excellent experience in creating and facilitating public-private partnerships in dairy or other livestock businesses.
• 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.
• Ability to work effectively with regional teams and partners and ensure timely data exchange and problem-solving between the Federal and Regional levels.
• Excellent communication skills (both verbal 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 skills and computer literate.
• Desire of creating job and improving the livelihood of youth in agriculture.
• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.