Environment forestry and agriculture Jobs at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) , Baringo County, Food and Agriculture Organization and other Companies

 
JOB DETAILS:
Implementation & Liaison Officer, SEEDSAT

Role Summary:
The position is part of the SeedSAT team within CESSA and reports to the Program Manager, SeedSAT. The individual in this position will serve as the key liaison between SeedSAT/CESSA and the partners essential for implementing the SeedSAT recommendations jointly agreed by AGRA and key national stakeholders, primarily government but also including other stakeholder groups (such as seed trade associations and apex farmer groups) and development partners. The key rationale for strong government liaison from the outset is recognition that permanent systemic change in seed systems requires government buy-in and ongoing support for the proposed changes. A highly functional liaison will be key to achieving this.
Internally, the position will coordinate closely with technical specialists for the eight technical SeedSAT thematic areas within CESSA to implement recommended solutions. These thematic areas are: Breeding, Variety Release and Maintenance; Early Generation Seed; Quality Commercial Seed Production; Farmer Awareness and Participation; Seed Marketing and Distribution; Policy, Legal and Regulatory; Quality Assurance; and National Planning and Coordination.
The position will entail over 75% travel to countries implementing SeedSAT recommendations, ultimately anticipated to include all AGRA focus countries.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:
• As required by the SeedSAT Project Manager, serve as the liaison person for non-government technical and/or development partners.
• Serve as the key point of contact for implementation of SeedSAT recommendations at a national level with designated government institutions and selected other permanent actor stakeholders.
• Serve as a key implementation conduit with both CESSA technical specialists and AGRA Country Teams, working jointly with them to ensure timely and effective implementation of SeedSAT recommendations leading to positive systemic change benefiting farmers.
• Develop strong working relationships with the key government individuals and institutions responsible for overseeing and strengthening national seed systems with the goal of jointly bringing about increased effectiveness (in terms of quantity, quality and varietal upgrading) and efficiency (in terms of cost and timeliness) of pluralistic national seed systems, aligned with best seed system practices.
• Build effective implementation partnerships with national government partners, with a focus on concrete and timely implementation of SeedSAT recommendations jointly selected for implementation by both AGRA and government and private sector partners.
• Maintain strong knowledge of status of all SeedSAT implementation efforts and when government or other partners are responsible for bottlenecks or slowdowns, work to quickly resolve the issues and advance the work.
• Working with the AGRA country teams and the full SeedSAT team, construct and maintain complete lists of critical resource persons, decision makers, and key individuals for implementation support.
• Develop a clear, easily communicated, tracking mechanism for national government collaboration responsibilities, status, and accomplishments related to implementation of funded SeedSAT recommendations.
• Prepare all materials required for AGRA updates, budgeting, communications, strategic planning, and other relevant purposes.

Academic, Professional Qualifications and Relevant experience:
• Minimum of a Masters’ Degree in an Agriculture-related field, Agricultural Economics, and or business paired with relevant experience in Agriculture.
• Minimum ten years liaison work with government institutions involved in Agriculture.
• Strong general knowledge of seed systems, including best practices for effective and functional seed systems supporting farmers.
• Ability to generally, but accurately, understand and communicate about a wide variety of technical seed issues.
• Proven ability to manage and successfully advance a multi-faceted, multi-country set of responsibilities.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills, including communication with government leaders and other high-level stakeholders.
• Able to work independently and in a team environment.
• Able to prioritize responsibilities and adhere to deadlines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills – fluency in English is a must.
• Fluency in French will be an added advantage.


JOB DETAILS:
Senior Program Officer, Regional Food Trade & Resilience

The Position
Reporting to the Head of Regional Food Trade, the Senior Program Officer the role provides leadership in the mainstreaming of climate resilience, nutrition and other cross cutting themes within regional food trade and resilience programming functions.

Key Duties and Responsibilities
Under Resilience, the Program Officer will;
• Create/innovate and/or strengthen integrated institutional frameworks and mechanisms for building in resilience in regional food systems movement from farm to fork.
• Leads the scaling up of integrated approaches for proven resilient food systems in-country and at regional level. Using evidence to inform sectoral and regional plans which guide investment into resilient approaches
• Undertake and promote global environmental benefits and agro-ecosystem resilience as a result of development and mainstreaming of resilient and integrated approaches to food systems across countries.
• Stimulate development of platforms of state and non-state actors to pursue evidence-based decision making for greater system resilience and sustainability.
• Provide technical support related to climate resilience and environmental protection within AGRA linking to other initiatives and regional strategies.
• Lead the mainstreaming of cross cutting themes such as nutrition, gender and climate resilience in programme work, convenings and knowledge development
• Lead the technical team in areas of knowledge management and dissemination around regional food trade, resilience initiatives. This includes but not limited to regular development and publication of food security monitor and other reports
• Coordination, reporting and knowledge management across the project interventions to enhance learning, programmatic impact, visibility and coherence in relation to system resilience and sustainability
Under Program management, the Officer will;
• Lead the convening of the coalition of partners that drive evidence-based policy advocacy and government engagement to improve policy transparency, resilience and predictability to unlock regional food trade and investment.
• Lead the development of intellectual capital around policy predictability in the sustainable agriculture sector as well the consolidation and sharing with a wider stakeholder base in a way that builds alignment and drives action.
• Support the creation and maintenance of strong linkages and partnerships to ensure that policy is informed by the concerns and needs of private companies operating in regional food markets and that the program leverages on these for result-oriented business led advocacy efforts.
• Support the identification and management of international, regional, and national technical experts in areas covered by the program, including market analysis, climate smart agriculture, value chain coordination, structured trade and market facilitation; in a way that creates efficiency in achieving overall program objectives.
• Support project documentation to include but not limited to reviewing, finalizing, and presenting proposals and grant memos at regular meetings with the Grants Committee in order to ensure timely implementation of the program.
• Support program visibility by maintaining relationships across agricultural and climate policy actors in the region and representing the program in targeted national and regional for a.
• Support the management of annual program budgets and program performance management in a way that ensures value for money and demonstrate programmatic impact.
• Support the development of quarterly and annual reports and other reports, as needed, in compliance with the requirements of DFID and other partners; as well as provide regular verbal and written updates and briefings on program operations, achievements, and problems to the Head, Regional Food Trade and other program staff.

Relevant Academic & Professional Experience
• Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, or in a relevant discipline. A PhD will be an added advantage.
• At least eight (10) years of experience on agricultural development, food trade and markets and resilience/climate smart agriculture.
• Experience in the project programming. Experience in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning will be an added advantage.
• Ability to develop sound project reports that can be understood by a wider stakeholder audience
• Strong analytical, critical thinking, problem solving, programming and decision-making skills.
• Ability to process multiple tasks at once; and with exceptional attention to detail.
• A desire to keep ahead of new and evolving discourse around policies in agriculture as well as food trade and market trends and resilience.
• Ability to move from program concept to on-the-ground reality in line with AGRA’s mission
• Ability to demonstrable fluence in program finance.
• Good command of English required, and a working knowledge of French would be an additional advantage.


JOB DETAILS:

Duties and responsibilities;
• Supervise the administration and delivery of services in the County and all decentralized units and Agencies in the County.
• Prepare and Implement County legislations.
• Implement National legislation within the County.
• Provide to the County Assembly regular reports on matters relating to the County.
• Advice the Governor on matters within his/ her areas of mandate.

Requirements for Appointment;
For appointment to this position the person should be;
• A Kenyan Citizen
• Have a Bachelors degree from recognized university in Kenya.
• Satisfy the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.
• Have knowledge and experience of not less than 10 years in a field relevant to the portfolio of the department seeking to be considered for appointment.
• Be conversant with the constitution of Kenya and devolution related legislations.
• Have capacity to conceptualize current County potentials, opportunities and challenges for strategic actions.
• Have ability to build a strong team to inspire and build synergy amongst team members.
• Be visionary and strategic thinker.
• Have the ability to work in multi-cultural and diverse environment.


JOB DETAILS:
County Cluster Land Specialist-SC8

Tasks And Responsibilities
The specialist will perform the following functions:
• In close coordination with the Programme Manager, act as a cluster manager in for the full implementation of scheduled activities on land.
• Plan and report (in the web-based database) all county activities monthly in collaboration with county programme and administrative officers and in consultation with sector heads.
• Provide the first level of line management to support their engagement with the relevant county ministries (a second level of line management will be provided by the sector heads).
• Under guidance of the programme manager, provide technical support for the establishment and trainings in the County.
• Guide and provide technical advice on the identification of existing policies, institutional and legal gaps/conflicts for sustainable governance of community lands and natural resources in alignment of the FAO county programme with a) the CPF and b) the CIDP.
• With support from the programme manager provide methodological recommendations for inclusive and negotiated Land Use Planning with the County Government.
• The specialist will be expected to: Represent FAO at the County Level, to Manage FAO County office and to spearhead programme activities at the county level
• Promote and technically support county government and community groups trained on Voluntary Guidelines and other related FAO tools, e.g., Participatory Land Delimitation (PLD) methodology, Improving Gender Equality in Territorial Issues (IGETI), etc. for monitoring efficiency and transparency in community land administration and management and training on provisions of the new legal frameworks for land governance.
• If there is no Head of County Officer already appointed, represent FAO in the county by: holding regular meetings with senior county government officials and being the prime point of contact between the County Governor and FAO Kenya.
• Monitor the progress and execution of activities as per the work plan, and perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
• Advanced university degree in Natural Resource Management, Land Management, land administration, Surveying, Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, legal studies or related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in natural resource management programmes at national level.
• Working knowledge of level C English and Swahili
• Must be of Kenyan Nationality
• FAO Core Competencies

Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills
• Excellent written and oral communications skills.
• Excellent strategic visioning, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Competence in Result Based Management and Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation tools.
• Excellent working knowledge of computer applications (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and GIS).
• High level of integrity and accountability, flexible approaches to work and commitment.
• Ability to perform multiple tasks and work under pressure with a wide range of individuals and institutions.
• Besides being based in the county, the officer must be willing to travel or be relocated to a different county as deemed necessary
• Must be willing to read and learn FAO methodologies and other relevant studies to perform this work.

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Deadline of this Job: 16 September 2022