Term of Employment: One year with possibility of extension
Duty Station: Hawassa
Required Number: One
Application Deadline: December 01, 2022
Job Description
The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government Institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions to be the leading center of innovative solutions for the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030.
The Institute focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.
Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Sidama, South-West, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.
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 teamwork to achieve excellent results.
At ATI, 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 Senior Director will lead the ATI Regional Team and will have a primary responsibility of closely engaging with ATI senior management to plan and implement a portfolio of integrated initiatives towards increasing efficiency in crop production, marketing value to agriculture and livestock produces while striving for operational excellence in finance, procurement, logistics and human resources management. The Senior Director shall primarily collaborate and closely work with the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Livestock Resources and shall engage with all strategic regional stakeholders including the regional hierarchies of the zonal, woreda and kebele offices. The Senior Director will seek to strengthen the collaboration and capabilities of federal and regional institutions. The ideal Senior Director will be passionate about his/her work on improving the lives of rural people, particularly smallholder households. S/he must possess a deep familiarity with Ethiopia’s socio-economic and political environment and Ethiopian agricultural systems. Also, s/he must possess deep familiarity and extensive knowledge of agricultural extension system and institutions operating in the sector. The Senior Director will lead and oversee all programmatic functions such as clusters, and other projects and administrative (Finance, audit, procurement, logistics and HR) while integrating the regional office work with that of the ATI headquarter.
He/she will also work closely with other Senior Directors at ATI in order to leverage and maximize synergies across different programs. To this end, he/she will support and guide implementation plans and strategies along priority program areas in his/her oversight He/she must possess and be able to demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills and relationship building abilities. As part of the Senior Management Team, the Senior Director supports the steering of ATI’s broader strategy to agricultural transformation and supports evidence-based decision-making.
This position will report directly to the ATA’s Deputy CEO and will be based in Hawassa with frequent to regions.
MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The main responsibilities of the Senior Director include but are not limited to the following:
Leadership
- Lead ATI’s Regional Team and engage with the Regional Bureau of Agriculture and Livestock Resources, and other relevant regional and federal institutions in the implementation of ATI’s targets and deliverables
- Develop thought partner relationship with ATI’s SMT in the development of organizational strategies, policies and procedures to enhance organizational capacity and capabilities
- Articulate ATI’s vision, mission, values, strategic initiatives, programs and plans to the regional presidents, regional cabinets and other implementation partners
- Effectively manage the regional programmatic as well operational component of the regional office
- Ensure the strengthening and operationalization of transformation platforms
- Align strategies and programs with regional priorities to deliver increased results in effectively impacting the agricultural sector
- Support effective cross-sector and public-private stakeholders’ coordination and problem-solving issues at the regional and federal level, including alignment of ATA’s priorities with other national and regional strategies and programs
- Provide effective timely upward reporting to the Regional Transformation Council, chaired by regional presidents as required
- Provide effective timely upward reporting to the ATI’s CEO, Deputy CEO, and Senior Management and leadership on programmatic and operational issues
- Ensure effective regular communication and reporting with the various government offices, and key public, private and development partner stakeholders
- Lead the regional enhancement program while instilling a transformational mindset to regional staff and beyond
- Participate in SMT discussions and provide strategic input, contributing to decision-making and the direction of the organization
Project Management
- Ensure stakeholder coordination, planning, reporting, problem-solving, and implementation support activities are seamlessly executed
- Ensure annual plan and established KPIs are met at the regional level for nationwide impact Ensure effective capacity-building support to Regions on issues related to ATA Initiative
- Lead process of performance management from the Kebele, Woreda, cluster, regional levels in connection with annual plans and regional targets
- Lead process of work plan development and is responsible for execution to meet set KPIs at agreed timeline and budget
Operations
- Ensure regional budget utilization is according to the plan
- Optimize organization resources to drive impact on smallholder farmer’s livelihood
- Ensure both financial and operational standards are maintained to meet government and partners’ audit requirements
- Commit in people development plan to ensure the regional office is staffed with only high caliber staff
Required qualifications, competencies, skills, and experience:
- Minimum Master’s degree in Public Policy, agricultural economics, or closely related fields from a reputable University is required.
- At least 14 years of relevant and combined experience is required in the agriculture sector, structuring, and managing policy analysis within the government, at a research or think-tank organization out of which 6 years should be in leadership and managerial positions.
- Significant experience and proven success of leading and delivering high-impact, challenging policy-related drafting and analysis, stakeholder consultation, and engagement with policymakers is required.
- Proven ability to develop credible, evidence-based policy advice and effectively liaise with senior policymakers, as well as development partners, non-governmental and private sector organizations
- Exceptional ability to communicate clearly and effectively with a range of stakeholders in a cross-cultural environment (fluency in English is essential)
- Highly collaborative management style and demonstrated success in managing and developing high-performance policy staff and teams
- Strong understanding of the country’s broad economic reform program, the rationale and what it will mean for agriculture and rural development
- Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service.
HOW TO APPLY
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et
It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your application/cover letter.
Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.
Women are highly encouraged to apply.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.