Change Agent for Rural Development (Senior Advisor)

Job Description

Vacancy Announcement #065/2023

Change Agent for Rural Development (Senior Advisor)

Female Applicants Only
Climate Change Cluster
Contract duration: 31.07.2024
Application deadline: 10.04.2023
Duty station: Addis Ababa

The Project “Protection and sustainable use of natural resources in Ethiopia” aims to strengthen the capacities of institutions responsible for protected areas and forests for a climate-resilient management of selected landscapes in accordance with the interests of the local population.

The new module of the project (2021 – 2024) introduces innovative implementation approaches that promote a wider collaboration among local stakeholders, partners, communities, as well as the engagement of private actors in the restoration of degraded landscapes; the use of digital solutions for improving partner’s capacities and efficiency; and the expansion of the timber value chain.

Another new area of intervention of the project is the capacity development of partners for the selection and application of alternative financial mechanisms for the management and sustainable use of natural resources, like management delegation of protected areas or payment for ecosystem services. In each landscape, communities will be further integrated in decision making processes that reflect their interests and development needs.

The project supports national and regional partners in the institutionalization and up-scaling of the already developed instruments for the management of forests and protected areas through digital solutions and interactive platforms. Digital tools are also used for monitoring the overall contribution to international commitments and partner’s strategies.

Pertaining to the function of the position advertised; the programme is collaborating with the private sector to promote and unleash the potential of nature-based businesses in improving rural livelihoods and in return improve and acknowledge environmental stewardship of local communities.

The end goal of all the livelihood related interventions is to reduce the pressure from resource extracting surrounding communities, foster a harmonious co-existence between the surrounding communities and key ecological attributes of the protected areas, as well as to promote a collaborative relationship between park management and the communities.

In this regard, the livelihood development change agent will be responsible to oversee all and providing technical support to existing and future integrated development public-private partnerships (iDPP) and all other income generating activities operated by local communities around all 6 BFP sites.

Given the many partners and service provider the project cooperates with the other main pillar of responsibility would be to support the project management coordinate services implemented by various service providers.

Responsibilities

The detailed responsibilities of the senior advisor include, but are not limited to: 

Promote and advance interventions in nature-based and climate smart business with prime aim of benefiting forest/protected areas steward communities – and with particular attention to marginalized communities and groups.
Undertake communication outreach and networking with local and global stakeholders engaged in nature-based business.
Promote and support producers and processors to have access to trade platforms and ensure market linkages.
Establish collaborations with forest product certification companies e.g. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to give an international recognition for products sourced from our intervention sites.
Support producer and processor cooperatives around our intervention sites to apply standard forest product quality control and labelling practices and mechanisms.
Promote the concept of farmer business schools and processor business schools to empower, improve production and processing efficiency of farmers and cooperatives.
Contribute to the communication work of the programme.
Support coordination and quality control of service providers.
Provide guidance to financing recipients in our intervention sites.
Engage in the promotion and incubating of private or group-initiated innovative biodiversity-based start-ups.
Build the technical capacity, boost the inspiration and outlook of BFP’s six field advisors in areas of value-links in agricultural supply chains and/or agri-businesses.
Act as line manager for some of our field advisors.
Collaborate with other German and international cooperation projects engaged in agri-business, rural development, industrialization, job creation and related sectors.
Compile livelihood profiles of local communities, gather socio-economic studies of communities in our intervention sites, collect best practices of innovative nature-based business with a green growth impact.
Perform any other task assigned by the programme manager.

Job Requirements

Qualifications

MSc in agronomy, agri-business or agricultural economics, nature-based business development, private sector development, rural development or a related field

Professional experience

Minimum of 6 years’ professional experience in interacting with the private sector and start-ups engaged in a nature based/climate smart agriculture.
Minimum of 5 years’ practical experience in dealing with pro-poor and pro-nature value-chains and global agricultural supply chains.

Other knowledge, additional competencies

Proven leadership experience in international teams.

Passionate about creating market linkages and promoting innovative start-ups.
Excellent working knowledge of ICT technologies and computer applications (e.g. MS Office packages, graphics, statistical packages and etc.) and willingness to continuously apply new tools and functions.
Excellent negotiating skills as well as intercultural and communication skills.
High level of self-organization and ability to steer many parallel processes successfully.
Willingness to continuously update know-how and skills in a changing environment.
Willingness to travel to the six programme sites on a regular basis (estimated travel of 10 days per month)
Good report writing skills with proven ability to compile case studies, practice, and policy briefs and (other) documents for learning and sharing.
Skills in teamwork, facilitation, and training.
Sensitive and committed to gender equity and diversity.
Fluent written and oral knowledge of English and Amharic.

Application procedure:
Interested and qualified Female candidates shall submit their motivation letter along with their recent CV to: hreth@giz.de.
Note:
Please make sure you mention the vacancy number and position ‘Change Agent for Rural Development (Senior Advisor) #065/2023’ in the subject line of your email application.
Due to the large number of applications, we categorize applications with vacancy numbers.
Applications without vacancy numbers in subject lines might not be categorized in the appropriate folder and could be disqualified.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
We encourage persons with disabilities to apply for the position. In the case of equal qualification, persons with disabilities will be given preference.