Practical Action is commencing a five-year project that will be implemented in Kisumu, Homabay, Siaya, Migori, Nyamira, Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia and Vihiga Counties. The project aims to make agriculture an attractive and resilient employer for young people by promoting agricultural livelihoods for the youth underpinned by agro-ecological principles and practices. The project aims to break the cycles of low productivity and increasing rural poverty, through a holistic approach which will enable young men and women to increase their income through agri-business.
The Project Officer will have the primary responsibility of working to promote agribusiness activities among youth aged between 18-35 years. The post holder will support the enhancement of personal and economic development of the youth and work with internal technical experts to ensure that young people generate a livelihood from agri-business and attain skilled based education and training; agricultural extension and related services as well as an increase in access to financial services (e.g., financial literacy, generating savings, and access to credit).
The six Project Officers will be distributed as follows:
- Vihiga & Nyamira – 1 Project Officer
- Homabay – 1 project Officer
- Migori – 1 Project Officer
- Siaya – 1 project Officer
- Busia – 1 Project Officer
- Bungoma – 1 project Officer
ACCOUNTABILITIES
Leadership and Strategic Alignment
- Contribute to Practical Action’s strategic business planning process specifically the agriculture change ambition.
- Apply agroecological and market systems focused lens to analyse the nature, causes and scale of the problem we want to address, using a systems approach.
Strengthening Profile, Generating Funding and Managing Relationships
- Represent Practical Action in the Project area to local government, local communities, NGOs and other actors when requested to do so.
- Participate in local coordination / networking meetings as required.
- Support in documenting lessons learnt from the project and disseminate the same within Practical Action and externally through different medium.
- Develop and maintain professional links with development agencies, government bodies, county governments, technical and economic specialists, universities and other professional institutions as required by the project.
- Support Fund raising initiative for Practical Action in the agriculture change ambition
- Work collaboratively and effectively with partners for learning and adoption of innovative, gender responsive and inclusive interventions to improve project delivery.
Delivering Quality
- Directly implement the project interventions and ensure the active and meaningful participation of young men and women, and particularly, youth participation.
- Support the formation of youth led initiatives and groups and ensure timely, quality design and delivery of activities.
- Support the capacity building, training and empowerment of the youth in the project areas ensuring that support to the youth is timely and as per project expectation.
- Contribute to development of tools and methodologies to ensure gender responsive approaches are incorporated in project delivery including capacity building activities for project partners.
- Support the production of clear and quality reports that demonstrate good accountability including gender.
- Work effectively with the Project Manager and other teams to ensure that the project is implemented according to contract (in terms of budget, activities and time frame) and that any amendments are cleared in a timely manner.
- Support the project’s effective, systematic and gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation and ensure findings are recorded and escalated to guide the continued successful implementation of other projects and inform the development of other new initiatives.
- Support the identification and analysis of trends, threats and risks in the area of youth and livelihoods, building this into research and learning from the project.
- Contribute towards periodic assessments to understand social cultural dynamics hindering participation of young women, men and vulnerable groups, and in development and implementation of mitigation measures to address these.
- Engage the community and stakeholders during reflections, reviews and evaluations (using gender sensitive /PLA tools), ensuring the voices of the most vulnerable are heard
- Actively participate in team reflections, identifying learnings and challenges and contributing ideas for adaptive for increased impact
- Support accountability with communities and stakeholders including the running of feedback and response mechanisms for safeguarding in the project target counties.
- Work with partners (and at times building their capacity) to adopt gender inclusive strategies in implementation of project activities.
- Contribute towards effective monitoring and implementation of safeguarding measures in the project.
- Adhere to and ensure that the principles of safeguarding are embedded in all project planning, implementation and reporting and that project staff and other stakeholders receive regular sensitization on same
PERSON PROFILE
To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:
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Experience & Knowledge
Essential
Desirable
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§ Graduate in Agriculture/Agribusiness/Natural Resource Management/Social Science/Development studies or any other relevant subject. § 3-5 years relevant working experience in a rural development/ agri-business development/markets development/project management. § Ability to work with young people and create space for youth leadership. § Proficient in communicating with different stakeholders i.e. youth of rural communities, urban youth, government representatives etc. § Experience working with multi-faceted teams both directly and remotely providing timely support when required. § Commitment and understanding of reducing the risk of safeguarding incidents in the work environment. § Experience in implementing market based agro-enterprise initiatives in rural contexts.
§ Significant knowledge and understanding of the agricultural sector and climate resilience § An excellent understanding of low input systems and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). § Strong experience in activity planning and implementing in a way that ensures gender inclusion is embedded strongly. § Ability to innovate, initiate and accept change and challenges. § Good report writing skills, facilitation and presentation skills § Ability to work with, support and influence others § Knowledge and skills in developing IEC/BCC materials § Ability to innovate, initiate and deal with challenging situations.
§ Existing strong relationships and networks within the change ambition area of interest § Knowledge of monitoring, evaluation and learning strategies. § Knowledge of gender, inclusion and safeguarding best practices § Post-graduate degree in relevant subject |
HOW TO APPLY
If you are ready for an exciting challenge with an organisation whose mission and values are particularly relevant in these rapidly changing times, please forward your application, curriculum vitae and cover letter as a single document in PDF to: Practical Action, Kenya Office by email: recruitment@practicalaction.or.ke no later than 9th December 2022 indicating ‘Job Title and your preferred job location’ in the subject line of the email e.g. Project Officer – Migori County.
Your cover letter should outline why you feel this is the position for you and you are the right candidate. Please include the names of 3 referees in your CV.
Please DO NOT attach copies of your certificates/testimonials.
Additional Information
We treat all applications for employment on their merits and do not take into consideration any factors that are not relevant to the job such as disability, race, age, religion, gender and gender reassignment or sexual orientation.
Practical Action is an equal opportunities employer and we encourage applications from under-represented groups. We stay committed to cultivating an inclusive and diverse working environment and believe that people from different backgrounds or cultures give us different perspectives, and the more perspectives we have, the more successful we will be. By building a culture where everyone feels heard, respected and valued we give everyone working with us the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks.
The successful applicant must have the pre-existing right to both live and work in Kenya. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
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