Ethiopia: Director, Inclusive Growth

Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position: Director, Inclusive Growth

Term of Employment: Fixed

Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Required Number: One

Salary & Benefits: Competitive

Application Deadline: Feb 10, 2018

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 the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources Development and is Secretary to the Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister.

Theprogrammatic *focus of the Agency responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources Development and the Transformation Council. Within the Agency, issues are divided into four different pillars: Crops & Natural Resources which includes Inputs and Plant Protection, Soil Health & Fertility, Irrigation and Drainage, and Mechanization; Cross Cutting Initiatives, which includes Inclusive Growth, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, and Planning and MLE; Livestock, which includes Animal Health and Genetic Improvement and Feed & Feeding; and Agribusiness and Markets including Market Development, Rural Finance, ICT, and Private Sector. In addition, the Agricultural Commercialization ClustersInitiative 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 ameaningfulcontribution 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 Director, Inclusive Growth is a leadership level position reporting to the Senior Advisor to the CEO on Crosscutting Initiatives. He/she will be responsible for the coordination and strategic direction of the ATA’s overall activities linked to inclusive agricultural growth, particularly in terms of ensuring gender equality and realizing opportunities for youth. He/she will also be responsible for the promotion of nutrition sensitive agriculture within Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation. Specific activities will include the strategic integration of relevant issues into ATA’s policy dialogue, strategy development and analytical work as well as its programmatic interventions. The director will coordinate ATA’s interaction with relevant governmental and non-governmental institutions for collaboration in moving forward the agenda on inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture. The director will also oversee design and implementation of gender, youth, and nutrition specific ATA implemented projects (as appropriate).

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

1.Strategic integration of inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture issues into ATA’s work

· The Director, Inclusive Growth will lead a team of senior technical experts on gender, youth employment/development and nutrition sensitive agriculture to review and update and/or develop an approach for strategically integrating issues of inclusive agriculture growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture into the current Agricultural Transformation Agenda and in the context of GTP 3.

· Based on an agreed upon strategic approach for addressing inclusive agriculture growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture, he/she will coordinate technical input to Knowledge Centers, ATA project teams, the Core Analytics team and the Communications team as they develop thought pieces, studies, policy briefs, strategies, publications, in-depth analytical work, communications briefing materials, etc.; and, as they design and implement projects.

· He/she will also oversee and guide the implementation of interventions within the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) initiative to achieve the following five key objectives:

• at the farm level, reducing productivity gaps (where they exists) of women and youth headed HHs; and, where opportunities for non-farm employment exist, addressing challenges particularly for youth to engage in rural non-farm activities;
• enhanced outreach of services and required inputs to ensure that all active farming HH members are supported (particularly women)
• promoting greater youth and women's membership in cooperatives and other membership groups with enhanced roles in decision making; and,
• Promoting enhanced participation of women and youth in contract farming arrangements.
• Enhanced nutrition sensitive agricultural practices within the ACC
• He/she will support ATA’s Performance Management Unit (PMU) to identify key gender/youth/nutrition related progress indicators as well as to assess and report on progress on inclusive growth and nutrition sensitivity in relation to Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation.
• He/she will lead the development of “do no harm” principles and social safeguards, and ensure that they are incorporated into initiatives of the ATA.
• He/she will lead the development of capacity building initiatives for the ATA and public sector staff (particularly MOANR and MOLF) in regards to issues related to inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture.

2.Engage with relevant governmental and non-governmental institutions to move forward the agenda on inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture as part of Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation

• He/she will coordinate analytical and technical input to the development of a roadmap for the operationalization of the gender in agriculture, rural employment opportunity and nutrition sensitive agriculture strategies of the MoANR and MoLF.
• In consultation with stakeholders, he /she will identify and design relevant transformation agenda deliverables for implementation as ATA projects as per ATA project development guidelines.
• He/she will oversee the implementation of any inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture related project approved by ATA’s senior management

General

• Drawing on existing policy networks and learning’s from innovation in Ethiopia and globally on inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture, the Director will integrate and leverage this knowledge in all of the ATA’s program activities.
• He/she will build a genuinely collaborative engagement with key stakeholders (government, NGO’s, civil society, universities, initiatives, farmers, donors, etc.) to identify and prioritize actions on inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture in the context of agricultural transformation in Ethiopia
• He/she will serve as the leader of the Inclusive Growth, responsible for the overall direction and management of the team’s work. He/she will provide high caliber team management, coaching and support to ensure a high performance team, prepare and manage the team’s budget; and, ensure timely reporting to senior management on team activities.
• He/she will serve as a thought leader on inclusive growth and nutrition sensitive agriculture to enhance ATA’s work and, where appropriate, seek external peer review and counsel on ATA’s approaches
• He/she will lead relevant discussions and constructive dialogue as necessary and represent ATA at relevant fora.
• He/she will regularly report to the Senior Advisor on Crosscutting Issues, and to the CEO on progress, challenges and constraints of work
• It is expected that the Director, Inclusive Growth will understand cultural and political dimensions of stakeholders and their impact on recommendations being made related to cross cutting issues of gender, youth and nutrition sensitive agriculture
• He/she will demonstrate depth of expertise and share experience within and outside of the ATA in the areas of gender, youth and nutrition sensitive agriculture and use knowledge to enrich and guide problem-solving with teams and external stakeholders.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Masters’ degree in a related field is required; PhD degree is preferred
• At least 10 years of relevant, professional experience working on gender issues in a development context, preferably in Ethiopia, at a leadership role
• Expertise in strategic gender planning, gender analysis, gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting, and gender-sensitive indicators
• Knowledge of best practices and lessons learned in designing and implementing gender approaches in specific sector work
• Understanding of Ethiopia’s agricultural system, with a broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how public, private and informal actors operate within the system
• Experience with civil society and governance structures at the national, regional and local authority level preferred
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative in solving problems, manage multiple projects effectively (prioritizing and sequencing both programmatic and operation activities), think analytically and ensure the team delivers outputs on schedule
• Practical experience in piloting and scaling up relevant solutions at the local level.
• Strong leader with outstanding management skills and experience
• Excellent analytical, leadership, and data gathering skills
• Ability to work under pressure and in a constantly evolving and challenging environment
• Ability to build relationships with all kinds of people and influence them
• Exceptional writing and communication skills, for a diverse range of audiences to listen and help others understand complex ideas; ability to write coherent and analytical reports is required
• Strong computer skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook)
• Fluency in English is essential. Fluency in at least Amharic and/or one additional Ethiopian language is a plus

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter, (ii) CV (maximum 5 pages), and (iii) a completed ATA Application Form athttp://apply.ata.gov.et.

Please note that CVs, cover letter and other application materials WILL NOT be considered unless accompanied by a fully completed ATA Application Form. Also, please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application form.

Womenare highly encouraged to apply.

NB. Only short listed candidates will be contacted. ist