Policy LINK/Ethiopia – Regional Program Manager- Mekele (Tigray)

Job Description

Project Background

Policy LINK will strengthen the capacity of local actors and institutions to lead and manage the agricultural transformation process and contribute effectively and collectively to improved, broad-based food security policy outcomes.

Specifically, the program aims to strengthen food security policy systems by investing in and reinforcing productive human and social capital and developing strategic partnerships that help bring these innovations and capacity investments to scale to achieve a critical mass of local actors with the ability and opportunity to effect positive policy change through collective action.

Policy LINK’s general approach is grounded in facilitative leadership and collaborative governance, which emphasize engaging stakeholders from civil society and public and private sectors in consensus-oriented decision making, collaborative problem solving, and adaptive learning.

Policy LINK in Ethiopia

C4FS is a five-year activity with the overall objective of supporting the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and other policy system actors in their aspiration to develop an inclusive policy development process. Specifically, the activity will facilitate the transition towards a policy development paradigm driven by multiple stakeholders. A significant part of C4FS programming will be dedicated to supporting the coordination amongst actors working on resilience-building.

Ultimately, the activity seeks to build the capacities actors and institutions involved in general food systems policy and resilience building to work collaboratively; these actors include academia, financial institutions, the judiciary, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector representatives from the national, regional, and local levels.

This approach is underpinned by Policy LINK’s overarching theory of change focused on increasing human and social capital, engaging policy system actors in collaborative processes, and developing mechanisms for collaborative governance and dynamic learning systems and platforms to sustain collective action.

As part of its work, C4FS will build and strengthen the backbone system for the coordination of development programming among actors involved in Resilience-building in selected regions (Afar, Oromia, Somali and South Ethiopia). These efforts are intended to support the sequencing, layering and integration of activities amongst multiple actors to enhance their collective impact. C4FS will therefore not directly implement resilience programs but support the Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands build collaboration and collective action amongst multiple stakeholders implementing Resilience building activities in selected lowland areas.

Position Objectives

The Regional Program Manager will be the principal point of contact for the Champions for Food Security (C4FS) Activity and liaison between the Addis Ababa office and the assigned regional state.

With overall guidance from the Country Lead, the Regional Program Manager is expected to support the design, implementation, follow up, and reporting of C4FS activities within the framework of Policy LINK’s established activity team structures, processes, and systems.

Responsibilities

The Regional Program Manager will be expected to understand and effectively communicate the Policy LINK Ethiopia C4FS Activity approaches and core principles to regional level stakeholders.

The Regional Program Manager is expected to continually reinforce Policy LINK’s agreed-upon core purpose and principles and approaches, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in the purpose and principles. S/he will contribute to a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

Unless advised otherwise, the Regional Program Manager will be based in the capital city of the assigned regional state, and will be responsible for the following primary tasks, though other duties may be assigned as appropriate:

Program Management

• Develop strong working relationships and lines of communication with Policy LINK team, and regional and subregional level stakeholders in his/her assigned region.
• Collaborate with the Policy LINK Addis Ababa team in the development of activity descriptions, activity budgets, and workplans.
• Lead the implementation and monitoring of C4FS activities in the region.
• Collaborate with Policy LINK logistics, finance and operations, and activity teams members in Addis Ababa to perform on-the-ground regional procurement and logistics support tasks such as generating procurement requests, collecting quotations, making ground travel arrangements, coordinating with workshop venues, and preparing workshop materials and transportation refunds for participants.
• Support to ensure and organize required logistics to facilitate regional visits of USAID, DAI/Policy LINK Addis, and other relevant visitors.
• Manage and facilitate regional level program performance evaluations
• Develop and submit periodic report for regional program activities

Regional Program Activities

C4FS has two main interrelated sub-activities:

1) General food and agriculture policy systems strengthening work which will be carried out to varying degrees in all regions and

2) Supporting coordination and collaboration amongst resilience-building actors in Somali, Afar, selected zones in Oromia and parts of the former SNNPR. The Regional Program Managers will be responsible for overall program implementation of their activities:

In Resilience regions:

• Facilitate joint learning activities among resilience actors at different levels within the region.
• Facilitate joint planning and implementation activities from Woreda level upwards.
• Support resilience actors to collaborate and develop a joint vision.
• Develop, facilitate, and maintain Facilitate linkages and partnership between and among the regional actors and C4FS.

Other general activities:

• Mapping and periodic updates of key regional policy and resilience system actors such as public sectors, private sectors, and civil society organizations using appropriate tools.
• Closely work with regional policy system actors and facilitate the institutional/organizational development and capacity strengthening needs assessments.
• Closely work with regional policy actors to identify opportunities to facilitate stakeholder engagement and collaborative governance activities at the subregional levels, including dialogues, learning events, technical roundtable discussions, systems mapping
• In collaboration with the Policy LINK Addis Ababa team, organize regional level capacity strengthening activities including technical assistance trainings, coaching etc.
• Facilitate joint planning and implementations of regional base activities with stakeholders,
• Support the process of policy system assessments, studies, and implementations of actions
• Closely work with Policy LINK Ethiopia team to identify, develop, and disseminate evidence and learnings

Reporting Lines

The Regional Program Managers in Somali and Afar will directly report to the Addis Ababa-based Resilience Lead. The Regional Program Manager in Tigray will directly report to the Addis Ababa-based Technical Programs Director. The Regional Program Manager will get overall guidance from the Policy LINK Ethiopia Country Lead and will have functional relationships with activity and operation teams as well as consultants. 

The Regional Program Manager will supervise the Regional Program Coordinators, Regional Admin/Logistics Coordinators, and Woreda Coordinators (in resilience-designated regions).

Job Requirement

Qualifications and Experience

The Regional Program Manager is expected to have the following qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in development, economics, agriculture, food security, environmental management, disaster response and other relevant areas
• Seven (7) years of relevant experience in management of agriculture and food security programs preferably in international development organizations, NGOs, or the private sectors
• At least three (3) years of experience in managing/coordinating operations and logistics
• Good understanding and analysis of national agriculture and food security policy and key stakeholders; the national and regional food and nutrition security situations, and the value chain actors
• Demonstrated experience in the design and implementation of regional agriculture/ food and nutrition security policy/strategies and programs.
• Demonstrated experience and skill in networking with partners and facilitation of platforms, partnership management, and facilitation of collaborative governance
• Strong communication and representational skills.
• Demonstrated experience and skill in organizational capacity needs assessment and capacity development including facilitation of trainings
• Experience in social work, advocacy and mobilization including organizing and setting up events and conferences for diverse set of stakeholders.
• Previous experience working in the regional State and good working relationship with regional public and private sectors is highly preferred
• Strong communication and representation skill with good command of English and proficient in the local language (Tigray, Afar, Somali)
• Basic computer skills to manage to manage Microsoft office and web-based communications