Community Development Officer

JOB TITLE: Community Development Officer

PROJECT: Gender Transformation and Climate Resilience in Afar and Oromia Regional States, Ethiopia

REPORTS TO: Project Coordinator

REPORTING TO POSTHOLDER: none

LOCATION: 2x Amibra and Awash sebat woredas

DURATION & HOURS: one year with possibility of extension

Farm Africa drives agricultural and environmental change to improve lives. We are a specialist development NGO working with smallholder farmers, forest communities, local government and private sectors across East Africa for the last 30 years. With community engagement underpinning our approach, we design and implement sustainable solution to rural poverty based on evidence and best practices. In 2015 we reached approximately 1.8 million pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, farmers and forest dwellers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Farm Africa has worked in Ethiopia for over 35 years, throughout Oromia, SNNPR, Benishangul, Tigray, Somali , Gambela and Afar regions. With funding from a range of institutional donors and foundations including Sida , DFID, EU, Irish Aid, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Comic Relief, Barr Foundation, and Ashden Charitable Trust, we have implemented a large portfolio of projects primarily focusing on three areas: agriculture (crop and livestock production), natural resource management, and market engagement. We implement projects directly with communities and these three approaches are further enhanced with integration of cross cutting issues such as climate change, gender and capacity building.

Farm Africa will be implementing a project titled Gender Transformation and Climate Resilience in Afar and Oromia Regional States, Ethiopia which is funded by ADB (The African Development Bank.

This project will be delivered directly by a Farm Africa and two other consortium members with the team under the Programme Manager

The project will operate in Afar and Oromia region. Farm Africa will take a lead role for the project implementation, quality assurance, technical backstopping, monitoring and evaluation, partner management and donor reporting.

The Community Development Officer will be responsible for facilitating and coordinating the overall implementation of the Project in their respective project implementation woredas.

The Community Development Officer (CDO) will work under the direction and guidance of the Project Coordinator. The CDO will be responsible for facilitating and coordinating the overall project implementation and community/institutional capacity building, community mobilization, community facilitation activities at field level, that is, s/he will coordinate all the project activities at Woreda level.

Key areas of responsibilities are:

1. Facilitate and coordinate overall project implementation at Woreda level

• Work with the project team and government counterparts to achieve the project outputs/outcomes at his/her specific cluster
• Provide technical support to Woreda level government technical staff
• Ensure adequate consultation and participation of Woreda and village/community level stakeholders ensuring active participation of women
• Facilitate identification of training needs, prepare training materials, and deliver training, business plan development and other services to CBOs and unions
• Provide expertise and advice for community institutions on gender mainstreaming in project scheme
• Provide direct community support in partnership with government stakeholders in the Woredas as the project does not have CDFs in woreda level.
• Submit regular monthly and quarterly activity reports and submit training reports as needed
• Conduct other duties as may be assigned by the Project Coordinator

2. Facilitate and coordinate community/institutional capacity building activities

• Ensure implementation of these capacity building plans in close collaboration with the project coordinator
• Work closely with Cooperative Promotion Office and other stakeholders to build ground for sustainability of the project
• Contribute to familiarization of the OCAT application within and out of the region.
• Ensure conducive working environment and enabling team spirit in the field

3. Play an active role as a member of the Farm Africa Project team

• Identify and explore opportunities to improve project implementation and guarantee its sustainability
• Identify and explore opportunities to grow and expand the country project pipeline, both in relation to the current project (e.g., potential scale-up opportunities, replication in other geographies/regions) or related to new project opportunities
• Contribute to the implementation of Farm Africas strategy
• Participate in broader Farm Africa meetings with other project staff members, as requested by line manager.

These essential functions are not to be interpreted as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other job related duties as required. All work responsibilities are subject to having performance goals and/or targets established.

Investing in smallholder farming is the number one way to combat poverty in rural Africa. Farm Africa is a leading NGO specialising in growing agriculture, protecting the environment and developing businesses in rural Africa.

EXPERT. Deep expertise and insightful evidence-based solutions are at the heart of everything Farm Africa does.

GROUNDED. Positive change starts with Africas people, so our experts work closely with local communities, engaging them in every level of decision-making.

IMPACTFUL. We take a long-term view so we can deliver lasting changes for farmers and their families.

BOLD. We model innovative new approaches and are not afraid to challenge strategies that are failing.