Vacancy Announcement
ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY
Position: Senior Project Officer – Apiculture Expert
Team: Ethiopian Agribusiness Acceleration Platform Project
Term of Employment: Project – initially one year with possible extension
Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa with field travel
Required Number: One
Salary & Benefits: Competitive
Application Deadline: September 17, 2017
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 Agency reports to a Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister and whose co-chair is the Minister of Agriculture.
The programmatic focus of the Agency responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Transformation Council. Within the Agency, issues are divided into four different groups: Production and Productivity which includes Inputs and Crop Protection, Livestock, Research and Extension, Mechanization, Rural Finance & Agro-Processing Value Addition; Environmentally Sustainable and Inclusive Agricultural Growth including Sustainable Irrigation & Watershed Management, Sustainable Land Management, Gender Equality and Nutrition, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, and Planning and MLE; Agribusiness and Markets including Market Services, Market Infrastructure, Commercial & Contract Farming, Domestic and Export Market Development, and Cooperatives Development and Enhanced Implementation Capacity which includes ICT, Private Sector, and Organizational and Human Capacity. In addition, the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters Initiative is another critical focus area for the Agency. Across the programs, the ATA engages public, private and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models.
Our Culture
We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results. Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results.
At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has made the transformation and commercialization of the agriculture sector a key tenet of its second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II). At the very core of the strategy to achieve this transformation is the transition of smallholder farmers from subsistence orientation to market focused production systems and activities that better integrate them into domestic and global supply chains. The full development and competitiveness of the entire agricultural value chain is thus critical to ensure that smallholder farmers can make the necessary market linkages that allow such supply chain integrations to happen.
Agriculture oriented enterprises that are so essential to make value chains competitive are however largely missing, in particular across the downstream end of the value chain. A number of challenges have contributed to the absence of sufficient number of agriculture enterprises in Ethiopia, chief among them an under-developed business ecosystem “building blocks” such as access to appropriate and timely financial products and services, talent, support businesses, and under-developed downstream processing/manufacturing capabilities. There is thus a need for targeted support to spur the growth of agriculture oriented enterprises that can address this gap.
In many other countries, well-designed and well-financed Agribusiness Accelerators have shown the ability to fill such gaps through comprehensive business development services and funding for start-ups and growth agro-enterprises. The Ethiopian Agribusiness Acceleration Platform (EAAP) project will test and validate the accelerator concept for Ethiopia. The EAAP, in its initial years, will have both value chain focus as well as product and service offerings to demonstrate its impact. It will anchor its activities around identification and operational capacity building of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for investment readiness and scale up, and provision of matching seed grants to the most promising SMEs. The value chain focus for testing the accelerator model will be on Honey given its agro-ecological strengths, strong existing demand sinks, high degree of investment attractiveness, strong government support, and other parallel investments that create opportunities for significant leverage.
The project has identified that the supply chain of the SMEs is unreliable, untraceable and underutilized. The SMEs therefore have challenges in securing quality and continuous supply of honey. While small holder farmers and farmer groups have limited access to improved beekeeping technology, extension services, finance and market linkage. Therefore, the project plans to establish a sustainable and scalable contract farming scheme between the SMEs and suppliers.
The Senior Project Officer (SPO) - Apiculture Expert will be responsible for leading the design and implementation of contract farming scheme between the SMEs and suppliers by providing best practice project management, technical, operational and problem solving support in farm to market linkage. Specifically, the SPO will be responsible in providing technical and managerial backstopping to the suppliers and the supply chain management team of the SMEs. The SPO will also coordinate the overall SME’s sourcing activities of honey and wax by closely managing the relationship between the SMEs and suppliers such as model beekeepers, cooperatives, and youth groups.
The SPO will work closely with Program Teams within ATA’s Agribusiness & Markets and Enhanced Implementation Capacity Verticals, the Federal and Regional Agricultural Commercialization Clusters Initiative as well as across other ATA Program Teams, and with external stakeholders such as the Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Federal and Regional level government bodies, relevant associations, and other private sector market actors to further develop the Honey value chain and expand the domestic and international market position of Ethiopian Honey.
This position will officially report to the Project Manager of the Ethiopian Agribusiness Acceleration Platform.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES
· Lead the technical assistance provided to suppliers such as apiary site selection and preparation, hive construction, colony multiplication, bee forage development, disease and pest control, harvest and post-harvest handling
· Ensure an effective day-to-day management and execution of a contractual arrangement between suppliers and SMEs
· Ensure a long term strategy and vision for a sustainable supply chain, a win-win contractual agreement between suppliers and SMEs and the supply of high quality honey/wax
· Manage the contract farming arrangement through developing detailed implementation plans, setting key performance indicators, milestones and targets; engage all relevant stakeholders to creatively solve problems and overcome obstacles to achieve desired results
· Identify the opportunities, risks, costs and benefits of contract farming scheme, and identify appropriate contract farming business model
· Lead the selection of production areas and suppliers, assessment of suppliers’ and SME’s capacity development and identification of financial and non-financial services
· Lead and coordinate the contractual negotiations and working relation between the SMEs and suppliers
· Facilitate access to credit to the suppliers and SMEs engaged in the contract farming arrangement
· Suggest improvements in the value chain system to ensure direct linkages of the farmers with the major markets and increased incomes from their produce.
· Engage a wide range of stakeholders across Agricultural system (federal and regional governments, smallholder farmers, technical experts, traders, businesses, investors, cooperatives, etc.) to foster effective linkages and promote local value addition for Honey before export
· Aligns with other national and regional policies, strategies and programs focused on the Honey value chain
· Integrates and aligns with the Agribusiness Accelerator Project team and with other ATA programs and projects to achieve synergies and outcomes that impact the broader agricultural system
· Draws and documents lessons and experiences from the Project and contributes to the development of an institutionalized knowledge base for the ATA
· Regularly reports to the Project Manager of the Ethiopian Agribusiness Acceleration Platform Project on progress, challenges and constraints of the work
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
· Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree in Apiculture, Animal Science, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Development, Agribusiness, , or other relevant fields
· At least 8 years (Bachelor’s) or 6 years (Master’s) experience in either one or more of the following: apiculture and/or honey production, value chain development and financing, program/project coordination, agribusiness, agricultural marketing, stakeholder management. Specific hands-on experience in apiculture, including in beekeeping management, beeswax quality standards, traceability, hygiene and quality control, storage and post-harvest handling, and processing of honey and honey/beeswax for international marketing
· Excellent stakeholder management skills including thorough extensive experience with government institutions, development partners, private sector stakeholders, and farmer groups
· Strong understanding and practical experience with good practice in agribusiness development, value chain development, domestic and international marketing and trade development
· Strong knowledge of domestic and international marketing of agricultural products from East African countries and preferably Ethiopia specifically, how the entire sector operates and how public, private and informal actors interact
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
· Demonstrated track record of success with program design, performance management, learning systems, and monitoring and evaluation
· Practical experience in piloting, implementing, scaling up ideas/solutions
· Strong capabilities in problem solving, project and stakeholder management
· Exceptional ability to communicate consistently, clearly and effectively with a range of stakeholders in a cross-cultural environment
· Demonstrated team player with good people management skills
· Ability to work and perform under pressure and in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
· Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service
· Excellent proficiency with Excel and PowerPoint tools
· Fluency in English and Amharic, written and spoken, is essential; knowledge of other local languages a plus