Vacancy Announcement
ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY
Position: Delivery Unit Coordinator, MoANR / MoLF / ORPO Delivery Units
Term of Employment: 3 years
Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Required Number: Three (3), with one position in each Delivery Unit
Salary & Benefits: Competitive
Application Deadline: Open rolling basis
BACKGROUND:
The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) has been established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and address systemic bottlenecks to Ethiopia’s agricultural development. The Agency does this through problem-solving, implementation support, and capacity building of stakeholders involved in implementation of interventions that address the systemic bottlenecks. The interventions are part of the GTP II Agricultural Transformation Agenda, and are overseen by the Agricultural Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister.
ATA is supporting the placement of Delivery Units in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR), Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF), and Oromia Regional President’s Office (ORPO) to support these partner institutions efforts to further strengthen their coordination and implementation activities. Delivery Units (DUs) have been successfully introduced in over 20 countries including recently in Ethiopia, to enhance and accelerate implementation for high-priority government initiatives. DUs are therefore fundamentally program management offices mandated to work in partnership with existing institutions to ensure effective delivery in critical areas. The MoANR and MoLF Delivery Units will focus specifically on GTP II Agricultural Transformation Agenda activities for which these Ministries are the primary owner and accountable institutions in the agriculture and livestock sectors, and will be jointly overseen by each Ministry’s and the ATA’s senior management through the end of GTP II. The ORPO Delivery Unit will focus on the Regional Government’s top priority initiatives
These Delivery Units will be active in a number of key areas:
To effectively oversee and support these Delivery Units, a central Delivery Management Team will also be established at ATA. The Delivery Management Team will provide oversight of the Delivery Unit Coordinators and staff through regularly engaging senior leadership in partner institutions where the Units are placed to ensure their overall effectiveness. This team will also manage recruitment, initial and ongoing training of staff for the Delivery Units, and provide systems, tools and templates for common processes and activities across the Delivery Units.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Delivery Unit Coordinator will report to a senior leader in the host institution in which the DU is placed (i.e. MoANR, MoLF or ORPO), with a second functional reporting line to the Director of the Delivery Management Team at ATA. He/she will work closely with the senior leader to align on DU priorities, agree annual plans and targets, put in place regular performance monitoring and management routines, seek feedback on DU performance, and escalate critical issues that require the senior leader’s involvement. The DU Coordinator will also be responsible to produce a monthly performance report on the DU for the first year, and likely thereafter at lower frequency, to ensure issues in implementation of this new model can be quickly identified and enhancements proactively made.
The DU Coordinator’s primarily responsibility is to effectively deliver against the agreed priorities for the DU through day-to-day management of DU staff and activities, and establishing strong relationships with and regularly engaging relevant internal external senior stakeholders and initiative owners to ensure strong buy-in and support achievement of targets for priority initiatives. The DU Coordinator will oversee or directly manage a number of DU staff including a Delivery Team Leader, several Senior Delivery Analysts and Delivery Analysts, a Data & Reporting Officer, and an Operations Officer. In the case of the MoANR and MoLF, the DU Coordinator will work closely with TAD Sub-Deliverable Owners (i.e. State Ministers) and Implementing Coordinators (i.e. Directors) to ensure effective engagement with the DU to support delivery as well as utilization and contribution of additional technical staff with dual reporting lines to the DU Coordinator and these senior ministry staff. In the case of ORPO, the DU Coordinator will work closely with other senior members in the President’s Office to ensure effective engagement with the DU to support delivery.
Candidates for these roles must therefore bring an entrepreneurial, can-do attitude, and enjoy working in a fast paced organization that is mission and results driven. They will have very strong leadership, senior stakeholder management, and team management experience, and a track record of effectively leading planning and execution of major programs, projects or initiatives. They will also demonstrate very strong analytical and critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and excellent written and verbal communication, and program and project management skills. Strong candidates will also have the ability to exercise good judgment in a variety of situations, multitask and work under pressure and competing priorities.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
• Ensure the effectiveness of the Delivery Unit through regular engagement with (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leadership as well as the Director of the Delivery Management Team at ATA
• Develop annual plans, targets and budgets for the DU around critical focus areas including stakeholder engagement, initiative planning, tracking, reporting and escalation, execution capacity building, problem-solving and light analytical support, change management and office management
• Establish strong, trust-based relationships with and regularly engage relevant internal external senior stakeholders and initiative owners around annual planning and target-setting for priority initiatives, enhancing execution effectiveness, tracking, reporting and escalation, and problem-solving, to ensure strong stakeholder buy-in and achievement of initiative targets
• Put in place robust annual planning, target-setting and budgeting process with owners of priority initiatives, and regular performance monitoring and management routines with senior leadership, initiative owners and relevant stakeholders
• Contribute to recruitment, onboarding, and initial and ongoing capacity building of staff in DU
• Oversee and manage the staff in the DU day-to-day, ensuring effective engagement with stakeholders and initiative owners, and coaching, providing feedback and performance reviews for these staff
• Input to the design, development, roll out and continuous improvement of enhanced planning, project management and reporting tools, processes and systems for the DU to track and report on progress of priority initiatives and activities, and ensure effective use of these tools, processes and systems
• Provide guidance and direction to DU staff as well as initiative owners in identifying, developing and implementing strategic solutions for challenges around implementation and reporting
• Provide effective upward reporting and timely escalation of critical issues to the (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leader, and the Delivery Management Director at ATA where relevant, on prioritized initiatives as well as progress, challenges and constraints of the Delivery Unit
• Proactively seek and action feedback on DU performance from the (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leader, and the Delivery Management Director at ATA, including through production and discussion of a monthly performance report on the DU
• Oversee identification, prioritization and effective delivery of technical and analytical problem-solving support for challenges in implementation of priority initiatives, as well as light analytical support to (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leadership provided on a demand basis
• Proactively engage ATA teams or external partners for heavier or more analytical problem solving support where needed
• Minimum of MBA, MPA, or Master’s Degree in other relevant field of study
• At least ten years of work experience, preferably in a management consulting or large program management setting, or other roles focused on strategic planning, program/project design, management and reporting, and applied analysis; five of the ten years of experience should be in a leadership or managerial position
• Broad experience in leading, structuring and managing programs/projects, analytically-focused work, and senior management reporting and decision support, in a range of sectors or topic areas
• Strong understanding of public and development sector issues and organizational culture, and ability to effectively liaise with senior and mid-level leadership in government organizations
• Understanding of Ethiopia’s agricultural sector (for MoANR and MoLF DUs) or of major programs in Oromia Region (for ORPO DU), with a broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how public, private and non-government organizations operate
• Self-starter with strong motivation, vision, ownership and commitment to drive transformation
• Highly collaborative leadership style and demonstrated success in leading, motivating, managing and developing high-performance teams
• Exhibits an innovative and high-performance mindset and culture, and can perform at a high level under pressure, with high workload and in challenging environments
• Highly results-oriented and delivery focused, with ability to strengthen accountability of others
• Promotes data-driven and evidence-based problem-solving, and timely, effective decision-making
• Can act as a champion for change and can effectively support change management efforts
• Strong team player with excellent relationship building skills, ability to promote dialogue and communicate clearly and confidently
• Proactively seeks and acts on feedback to drive own development and contributes to others’ development through active coaching and sharing knowledge and best practices
• Strong knowledge and skills in Microsoft Office Suite, and various program / project management and data and reporting systems
• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service
Fluency in English and Amharic required; Fluency in Afan Oromo required for ORPO Delivery Unit