Senior Technical Assistant – Agriculture

Job Description

Employment Type: Definite Period

Job Purpose:

The Senior Technical Assistant of Agriculture will work within the wider Concern team to support the project activities of integrated in Tigray region Mekele and its intervention woredas. Under the leadership of the project manager, the post holder will be responsible to work closely with Tigray Concern Area Office team and ensure the adherence of standards conduct outlined in the Concern Code of Conduct and Program Participant Protection Policy (P4) and other organizational policies. 

The major purposes of the job will be:

• The Senior Technical Assistant of Agriculture will be responsible to overall project planning, implementations, monitoring and evaluation together with other project staffs to meet the desired project goal.
• He/she also has a role of capacitating government partners and other stakeholders including target project beneficiaries on the areas of climate smart agriculture and nutrition sensitive agriculture
• Facilitate inputs procurement and distribution to project beneficiaries and conduct post distribution monitoring and keep proper documentation across all project implementation periods.  
• To provide technical support to partner organizations in agriculture related project implementations through on-job (frequent field support), offline and online trainings, and facilitating joint supportive supervision in consultation with MEAL team of the organization.

Main duties &  Responsibilities

Project Design and implementation

• Prepare detail implementation plan of the project activities and budget, in consultation with project manager, and share to relevant project staffs and implementing partners as well if necessary. 
• Design appropriate implementation modalities of agriculture and/or livestock programs to enhance agricultural production and productivity and ensure sustainability conditions.
• Develop supportive supervision and capacity building plans to project implementing partners and target beneficiaries as per the need assessment.
• Design to link smallholder farmers with private sector to access climate smart and nutrition sensitive crop and/or vegetable varieties seeds to ensure the sustainability 

Project Implementation

• Work closely with Concern support staffs like procurement and/logistics team so as to ensure better quality inputs to be procured and distributed to project beneficiaries. 
• Set targeting criteria, together with government partners and influential community members as needed, for project beneficiaries identification with minimizing /avoiding inclusion and exclusion errors. 
• In collaboration Concern concerned staffs, build the capacity of government partners, target beneficiaries and other stakeholders regarding with agricultural practices in general and climate-smart-agriculture and nutrition-sensitive-agriculture in particular
• Prepare and conduct technical and supportive supervision on the achieved project activities and report the progress to immediate supervisor. 
• Facilitate and participate in the identification and selection of target beneficiaries in collaboration with CWW project staff, local community and Local Government structures.
• Collect and handle the complaints and feedback during and after beneficiaries targeting and other project activities implementations.
• Gather required data, assessment result reports and support the HO team in development of new proposals especially in providing required and reliable data of the region.
• Ensure the mainstreaming of equality, gender, DRR, accountability, etc. issues in the program implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases; and
• Other duties assigned by supervisor.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Conduct regular monitoring and evaluation activities of the project and develop constructive feedback/report.
• Prepare monitoring checklist and schedule and share to MEAL unit and respective project manager.
• Plan and undertake regular technical and supportive supervision support field visit and ensure the implementation of the planned activities are in line with programme document and standard quality. 
• Gather relevant data, compile, analyse and prepare technical report and budget utilization,
• Prepare and share quarter monitoring and other technical support filed visit report on the major finding of the project implementation as per the deadline and as desired,

Networking

• Participate in various networks with government and other relevant organizations related to agriculture and/or food security and livelihood programs for learning, experience sharing and joint activity implementation.
• Work closely with partner organizations to establish and develop the partnership relationship based on mutual respect and understanding, shared values & principles to achieve common goals. 

Reporting

• Proper collection and documentation of data/information on the project  implementation
• Write progress, monthly, quarter, biannual and annual reports regarding the implementation, challenges, best practices, learning, etc. of Livelihood programme for internal use, Concern Addis Ababa, donors, Government as per the deadline and reporting schedules.
• Review partners’ quarter, biannual and annual reports and provide support and advice on outstanding issues and follow up the implementation.
• Provide technical assist to Concern or/and partners staff in writing report on time

Emergency response

Concern is committed to responding to emergencies efficiently and effectively in order to help affected people meet their basic needs, alleviate suffering and maintain their dignity. To this end, when emergencies strike and the Ethiopia Programme is to respond, all staff are required to actively participate in the response, regardless of location and contribute to the efforts aimed at achieving the humanitarian objective of the organization.

Safeguarding

• Able to seek appropriate advice and report concerns, and feel confident that they have been understood.
• Understands local safeguarding structures and arrangements.
• Practices in a manner that seeks to reduce the risk of abuse, harm or neglect.
• Identifies and refers to appropriate services any other associated persons including carers, family members and children at risk.
• Able to document safeguarding concerns, and maintain appropriate record-keeping, recording the wishes and views of the adult or child at risk, differentiating between fact and opinion.

Accountability

In line with Concern’s commitments under the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS):

• Actively promote meaningful community participation and consultation at all stages of the project cycle (planning, implementation, M&E)
• Work with relevant staffs to ensure that the Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible, that feedback and complaints are welcomed and addressed
• Work with relevant colleagues to ensure that information about CRM, safeguarding and expected staff behaviour is disseminated among programme participants and communities

Gender Equity 

• Demonstrate understanding of Concern Ethiopia’s Gender Equality Strategy
• Contribute to ensuring that Concern Ethiopia is a place where men and women are treated equally and with  dignity and respect
• Demonstrate gender equality awareness and gender sensitivity and an ability to integrate a gender equality perspective into tasks and activities

What we offer

• A competitive salary and benefit package
• Excellent medical benefits (100% cover including dependents)
• 20 days annual leave
•  26 weeks (paid) maternity leave, 18 weeks (unpaid) parental leave

Job Requirement

Qualification

• BSc or college diploma in Agriculture (Plant Science, Crop science, Animal and Livestock production), rural development, Horticulture, Agronomy, or other relevant fields
• 3 years of relevant work experience for Degree holders 
• 5 years relevant work experience for Diploma. 
• NGO experience is a plus.

Skills Required

• Plus basic computer knowledge (word, excel)
• Basic English spoken and writing. 
•  Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Better understanding and experience on climate-smart-agriculture and nutrition sensitive-agriculture 
• Certified trainings on continual learning of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA), Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), economic empowerment, nutrition in general and Adolescent, Maternal, Infants, and Young Children Feeding (AMIYCF) in particular or e.g. short residential or online courses, leading on special projects in a previous role, additional degree or course etc.