Senior Technical Expert II- Dairy Entrepreneurship

Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute

Vacancy announcement

Position: Senior Technical Expert II- Dairy Entrepreneurship

Term of Employment: One year with possible extension

Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa

Required Number: One

Application Deadline: March 16, 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 calledAgriculture-focused Dignified Employment for Youth in Ethiopia(ADEY)to address challenges of young women and men youth 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 work opportunities for over six hundred thousand youth. Livestock is one of the major pillars of ACC initiatives identified for ADEY program based on its potential and job creation opportunities. 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.

TheDairy Entrepreneurship Expert-STE IIis responsible for the overall planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting of dignified job creation in prioritized interventions of dairy value chain. He/she will provide day to day management and technical supports for the effective implementation of the project and other duties as listed out below. TheDairy Entrepreneurship Expert-STE IIwill report to livestock team lead of ADEY Program and closely work with livestock commercialization program and ADEY Program team members at federal level, and with livestock and ADEY team and partners at regional level.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate youth-focused and market-based dairy value chain development and related interventions of ADEY Program across implementation regions of the country.
• Develop annual workplan for dairy value chain development and related interventions based on project document in collaboration with stakeholders including ATI federal and regional team and follow up on its implementation.
• Support regional dairy development team on the identification and prioritization of knowledge and skill gaps of targeted youths (young men and women) across the value chain.
• Provide technical support, training and coaching to youths on technical issuesand interventions related to dairy at different levels.
• Identify and engage relevant agricultural training institutions to provide skill-based training to targeted youths in dairy business and follow up on its implementation.
• Support regional dairy development team in organizing and facilitating learning events, dairy value chain alliance meetings, and other events and document lessons and best practices.
• Map dairy and other livestock development infrastructures established by federal and regional partners across project regions and create linkage with targeted youths.
• Develop appropriate database and data collection tools in consultation with M&E and livestock team and ensure regular data collection with high quality and undertake analysis.
• Monitor implementation progress and evaluate performance of prioritized dairy and related livestock development interventions across project regions and provide recommendations.
• Compile and share progress updates and performance reports and share with project team periodically (weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually).
• Support regional dairy development team on contract marketing, demand creation and promotion of new products and services.
• Support regional dairy team in establishing market linkages among input suppliers, producers, processors, and output markets in the project regions and beyond.
• Closely follow-up with implementing partners (sub-grants) for the proper implementation of technical and financial matters.
• Develop a strategy or approach for outreach and advocacy of the dairy development business of ADEY Program .
• Organize and facilitate stakeholder meetings, workshops and related activities and prepare materials as needed to expand the outreach and advocacy.
• Implement other activities as required by the team lead and supervisors.

Required qualifications, competencies, skills, training, and experience:

• Minimum of Masters degree in dairy production/science, dairy value chain 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Deep understanding and practical experience in sustainable job creation and management for youth and other segments of society in agricultural value chain.
• Expertise in planning, prioritizing, sequencing, managing, problem-solving and reporting on dairy and dairy related projects.
• Excellent understanding in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), common interest group, and entrepreneurship and the mechanisms how it functions.
• Excellent experience in establishing and facilitating public-private partnerships in dairy or other livestock businesses.
• Monitor project risks, supervise implementation of risk mitigation measures, and update the risk and mitigation measures yearly.
• 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.
• 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 influence other leaders across an organization 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 skills (both verbal and written) in English and Amharic with the ability to create and deliver compelling presentations to diverse groups of stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure and in a constantly evolving and challenging environment.
• Excellent analytical skill and computer literate
• Desire of creating and sustaining jobs and improving the livelihood of youth in agriculture.
• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.