Project Officer – Agriculture Production and Marketing – Catholic Relief Services – CRS

Internal/External Job Announcement

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

For nearly 60 years, CRS has taken the lead in responding to natural and man-made disasters affecting Ethiopia’s most vulnerable communities. Moving beyond emergency response, CRS’ disaster mitigation and recovery projects in drought and flood-prone areas have rebuilt individual and community assets through non-food aid in the form of agriculture, livestock, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation assistance. CRS’s humanitarian work in Ethiopia also provides livelihoods support to farmers and entrepreneurs, promotes gender equality, mobilizes for immunization and mitigates the impact of HIV.

As part of CRS family, you will join the more than 5000 strong and vibrant individuals working globally to accomplish the mission of CRS. CRS/Ethiopia invites you, the qualified candidate, to apply for the following position.

Job Summary:

As a member of the Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA)/Ifaa project team, you will support, monitor and report on project activities, specifically around agriculture production and marketing, in support of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. The overarching goal of this multi-sectoral activity is Improved food security of vulnerable households in targeted PSNP communities, contributing to a sustained reduction in rural poverty in Oromia. Your thorough and service-oriented approach will ensure that the project consistently applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.

Job Responsibilities:

·         Support the coordination and implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.

·         Monitor and report any challenges and/or gaps identified to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. Assist partners in their efforts to reflect on project experiences.

·         Support partners to establish new livelihoods/Income Generation Activity (IGA) groups and strengthen existing ones with special attention to sequencing of events for effective Livelihood Groups (LG) maturation.

·         Provide technical support on RFSA’s Lead Farmers/Lead Herders extension approach to promote good agricultural practices; support Producers Marketing Group (PMG) formation and market linkage and ensure private sector engagement to input and output market system. Ensure that activities have a strong private sector orientation so that all PMGs activities chains make progress towards becoming market-oriented and financially sustainable.

·         Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities and assisting partners in their efforts to collect and analyze project data per specified mechanisms and tools. Collaborate with local partner(s) to prepare reports per established reporting schedule.

·         Collect information on staff capacity needs and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and monitor capacity building and technical support activities to ensure effective impact.

·         Support development of training curricula on crop production and management techniques, crop business and marketing skills. Support development of capacity building training modules/curricula to support partners in good agricultural practices using LF/LH approach; crop production and marketing; PMGs; marketing and business skills; Climate Smart Agriculture; and engaging private service providers including agro dealers.

·         Complete project documentation for assigned activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on promising practices.

Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:

Education and Experience

·         Bachelor’s degree preferred in a relevant field including Agriculture/Crop Production, Agronomy Agricultural Economics, and value chain Management and other related field

·         Minimum of 3 years of work experience in project support. Experience in the field of agriculture production and marketing and for an NGO would be a plus.

·         Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement

·         Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data preferred

·         Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Personal Skills

·         Observation, active listening and analysis skills with ability to make sound judgment

·         Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with local partners and community members

• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented

 Required/Desired Foreign Language

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Afaan Oromo
• Written and verbal communication skills in Amharic a plus

Travel Required:  Field travel to and within East Hararghe

Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory: None

Internal: Ifaa/RFSA Chief of Party, DCOP for Gender and Youth/ Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics Lead/, SBC lead, DCOP for Programming, RFSA/Ifaa Economic Livelihoods PM, RFSA/Ifaa Economic Livelihoods TA, Ifaa team technical and operation teams, all Country Program staff, Regional and Headquarters SBC technical advisors.

External:  Ifaa Consortium members, local government stakeholders and communities and, representatives from for-profit and other non-profit organizations, private sectors and peer organizations operating in Ifaa woredas.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

·         Serves with Integrity

·         Models Stewardship

·         Cultivates Constructive Relationships

·         Promotes Learning