Vacancy Announcement (re-advert)
ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY
Position: Program Manager, Federal Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC)
Term of Employment: Project
Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa
Required Number: One
Salary & Benefits: Competitive
Application Deadline: August 21, 2017
BACKGROUND:
The Ethiopian 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 Agency reports to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and is Secretary to the Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister..
The Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) initiative has been introduced in Ethiopia to apply a geographically-focused approach for rapidly enhancing priority commodity agricultural value chains throughout the country. The implementation of this initiative will support agricultural sector transformation by enhancing and supporting existing structures of government, private-sector and other non-governmental partners, to address systemic as well as commodity- and geography-specific bottlenecks in agricultural value chains.
ACCs are defined as geographically concentrated networks of producers, agro-industries, traders and other private and public actors engaged in the same industry and that are inter-connected and building value networks, either formally or informally, when addressing common challenges and pursuing common opportunities. This concept builds on previous federal and regional efforts for value chain development, including part of the government’s focus on Economic Growth Corridors and crop production and productivity Initiatives in priority woredas. The current approach advocates for a more focused and market-driven solution with significant coordination and support between federal and regional bodies.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Federal ACC is an initiative of the ATA mandated to coordinate Federal engagement on ACCs across Regions, provide effective upward reporting to the higher federal government office and Federal and Regional stakeholders, mobilize domestic and external resources, and provide training and capacity building to Regional bureaus. The Federal ACC Program Manager will lead and oversee all operations of the ACC and report directly to the Senior Director of ACC
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
The main responsibilities of the Federal ACC Program Manager include:
Leadership
Support the Senior Director of ACC in leading ATA’s Federal ACC engagement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, other relevant Federal level Ministries and Agencies in the implementation of ACC deliverables
Support the Senior Director in the engagement with the Regional Presidents and Regional Transformation Councils as well as with the Bureaus of Agriculture and other relevant Regional stakeholders
Support the Senior Director in aligning national and regional strategies and programs to deliver increased results in effectively impact cluster level VC concept
Support the Senior Director of ACC in co-coordinating public-private stakeholders' alignment on ACC strategies and deliverables
Support the Senior Director in timely and effectively designing and delivering higher level reporting on achieved results, planning and execution strategies
Ensure effective regular communication and reporting with the various government offices, and key public, private and development partner stakeholders
Project Management
Ensure stakeholder coordination, planning, reporting, problem solving and implementation support activities is conducted by Federal ACC Support Teams
Ensure effective capacity-building support to Regions on issues related to the ACC Initiative.
Lead process of performance management from the cluster, Regional and Federal levels in connection with annual plans and national targets
Design and deliver Integrated Delivery Scale Up to cluster woredas
Lead the Project Management Office to achieve its intended results
Resource Mobilization
· Support the mobilization of domestic and external resources for the ACC Initiative, including development of project proposals as required
· Support the facilitation of private sector investments and provide on-going problem-solving support by closely working with the concerned stakeholders
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
· Bachelor’s or Master's degree or equivalent in Agricultural sciences, Economics, Agribusiness, Business Management, or other relevant field.
· At least eight (8) years (for Master’s) and ten (10) years (for Bachelor’s) of professional experience supporting areas such as
o planning and implementation of activities at organization level
o market-led value chain development and upgrading activities (preferably including project management of large-scale agricultural development, agro-processing and/or agribusiness focused initiatives).
· Worked in Agriculture sector in Ethiopia
· At least three (3) years of leadership, senior and/or managerial experience.
· Good experience of working at Federal, regional and civil society or private sector sectors.
· Excellent stakeholder management skills including thorough knowledge and understanding of various regional level and federal level institutions; extensive experience in facilitating dialogue with relevant public and private stakeholders
· Fluency in English and Amharic required; fluency in regional language(s) advantageous.
· Excellent oral and written communication skills, with highly collaborative working style.
· Experience in working with multi-cultural teams preferred.
· Excellent analytical, problem-solving and reporting skills.
· Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service.
· Ability and willingness to shoulder responsibilities under hectic conditions (in terms of overlapping assignments that may happen occasionally).
· Ability to thrive in a fast-moving environment, with an emphasis on high performance, teamwork, accountability and results.