Job Description
Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identify, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.
Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identify, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.
The Accelerated Value Chain
Development Project is a two year USD 400,000 project funded by USAID Kenya in
which Heifer International Kenya is one of the local implementing partner
responsible for the identification, mobilization and capacity building of
producer organizations, developing farmer groups and members capacity and
skills in animal husbandry, milk production, livestock feeds and business and
financial management and providing support for linkages with the private sector
for provision of artificial insemination services, financial services and
extension services.
Function
The Project Coordinator, under the
management of the Director of Programs, will be overall responsible for the
management and coordination of the Accelerated Value Chain Development Project
which is implemented in partnership with ILRI. The primary responsibility of
this position is for the successful implementation of Accelerated Value Chain
Development Project, but he will also be responsible for developing linkages
and coordinating livestock production and extension functions for POs in 4
counties in Western Kenya in partnership with the County extension departments
that will support service provision to over 6,000 farmers.
Essential Character Traits
Analytical, pragmatic,
self-motivated, attentive to details, creative, collaborative, responsive and
team player
Responsibilities And Deliverables
Train Extension staff (40%)
·
Establish in collaboration with the
county extension government and private, an effective extension infrastructure
to train farmers on Cornerstones, personal leadership, group dynamics, savings
and loaning and improved animal management with focus on efficient feeding,
animal health and breeding services.
Deliverables
·
Develop a training plan and roll out
in 4 AVCD Project implementation counties.
·
Establish in partnership with the
county government and private extension an effective animal health service
delivery model to small holder farmers.
·
Train 6 Producer Organization (PO)
extension staff, 30 Dairy farm assistants (DFA) in all the technical dairy
production modules.
·
Train 30 Community Facilitators (CF)
who will further mobilize, register farmers 6,000 in both original and pass on
groups, train them on cornerstones, personal leadership, group dynamics,
savings and loaning activities.
·
Work with a total of 6,000
beneficiaries trained on social capital using Heifer Project International
Manual and improved animal management and technologies adoption i.e breeding
and efficient feeding technologies using a training content adopted in
partnership with ILRI.
·
7 hubs with functional GCC, extension
and business subcommittees that plans, coordinates and monitors the delivery of
extension system.
Project
Planning, Management, Budgeting and Reporting (20%)
·
Carry out planning, budgeting,
reporting and assume overall responsibility for the management of the staff,
resources and office in the project implementation area that covers at least 4
counties in Western Kenya specifically Kisumu, Homabay, Migori and Siaya
counties.
Deliverables
·
Development of weekly, monthly,
quarterly and Annual work plans approved by the Programs Director.
·
Development of quarterly and annual
budgets reviewing them and monitoring project and ensuring that spending and
implementation are on track.
·
Monthly meeting with the supervisor,
PME staff and the project accountant to analyze the project progress and
spending and propose corrective measures.
·
Produce accurate and timely biweekly,
monthly, quarterly and annual reports capturing project outcomes achieved.
·
Harmonized project database to ensure
a standard data capture per beneficiary.
·
Build team work among the project
staffs and carrying out their performance evaluation.
Establish
and operationalize the Project Management Structures (10%).
·
The Project Management Structures
include: PMC, GCCs, GMCs, OG, POGs and MTs, they will be meeting to discharge
their duties on both extension and business. These management structures will
ensure effective project management and sustainability.
Deliverables
·
Establishment and operationalization
of 1 Project Management Committee that’s an umbrella for all the 7 hubs.
·
Ensuring that they meet every quarter
to discuss extension and business activities for the hubs.
·
Establishment of 7 Group Coordinating
Committees at the hubs and monitoring their activities on monthly basis.
·
Working with PFTs to establish at
least 70 Group Management Committees and ensuring that they carry out their
duties effectively
Collaboration and partnership for
successful project exit strategy implementation for the hubs (10%)
·
Establish and maintain close
collaboration and partnership with National and County Governments, USAID, ILRI
and all the development partners.
·
Conduct exit strategy report.
Deliverables
·
Establish and maintain a close
collaboration with the county government and other NGOs that will support the
sustainability of the project interventions.
·
Incorporate both the government and
private sector in offering extension support to the farmers.
·
Link the hubs/producer organizations
with the Business Development Service Providers.
·
Conduct quarterly/PMC workshops.
Monitoring
and Evaluation (10%)
·
Establish a Monitoring and Evaluation
framework and lead the field data collection processes for the mid- term
reviews and final evaluations and any impact assessment studies with support
from the Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.
Deliverables
·
Ensure collection of quality data on
registrations, training and outcome monitoring using data collection tools
developed by both HPI and ILRI.
·
Ensure that all the data is entered
in both ILRI (CISPRO) and HPI database.
·
Conduct 1 project impact
assessment/final internal evaluation.
Improving
visibility of HPI (5%)
·
To strengthen program effectiveness
work across Heifer’s global organization, to meet the requirements of an
increasingly competitive environment.
Deliverables
·
Establish strong relationships
between Heifer projects and all the relevant partners in the project
communities.
·
Organizing, planning and facilitating
functions such as field days, exhibitions, case studies,
·
Participating and facilitating in
stakeholders and development meetings and workshops.
·
Demonstrate professionalism in the
execution of duties.
·
Be a team player in the course of
executing duties for the fulfillment of Heifer mission.
Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor (5%)
·
This will be dependent on the
specific duties assigned.
Qualifications
·
Master’s Degree or equivalent in the
fields of Agriculture Economics, Agribusiness, Agriculture, MBA, Enterprise
Development or other related field, plus five (5) years in a mix of economic
growth/trade, value chain competitiveness, investment promotion, or agriculture
development.
·
Minimum of three (3) years’
management level work experience is essential.
·
Significant experience in building
public/private partnerships, preferably in the dairy sector.
Preferred Requirements
·
Demonstrated experience in setting
robust and sustainable extension systems and or business development for
producer organizations. This requirement is in line with the need to have in
built ‘exit strategies’ within the project as a measure of ensuring that there
are self-sustaining businesses by project end.
·
Significant experience in supporting
producer organization to increase dairy production, productivity and best
business practices.
·
Demonstrate experience in managing
project staff and creating performing teams and managing donor funded projects
to ensure projects are achieving their objectives.
Required
Experience
Most
Critical Proficiencies
·
Demonstrate ability to assess the
financial status of projects by reviewing periodic financial reports and take
actions to address any gaps.
·
Demonstrate the ability to
continuously track the projects progress in achievement of its targets and on a
continuously basis improve the delivery process based on the learning.
·
Clear understanding of the dairy
value chain and Heifer’s Value based model.
·
Demonstrated knowledge of the latest
developments in advancing good/best practices in livestock production and value
chain development.
·
Demonstrated creativity, ability to
think systematically, willingness and ability to incorporate innovative
solutions to improve livestock production and productivity.
·
Demonstrated ability to design and
implement strategies aimed at providing institutional capacity building’ to key
partner institutions with a view to build a more efficient, competitive, and
sustainable dairy industry. This requirement is in line with the need to have
in-built ‘exit strategies’ within the project as a measure of ensuring that
there are self-sustaining businesses by project end.
·
Ability to manage training programs
targeted at farmers in animal husbandry, business development, feed and health.
·
Innovative, analytical, and solutions
oriented.
·
Strong farmer mobilization skills.
·
Demonstrated ability to design and
implement strategies aimed at providing institutional capacity building’ to key
partner institutions with a view to build a more efficient, competitive, and
sustainable dairy industry.
·
Excellent organizational skills.
·
Knowledge of and experience with
developing private/public partnerships at the county level.
·
Strong communication skills both in
English, Swahili, and other local languages of the cluster area.
·
Strong computer literacy, preferably
with Microsoft Office Suite.
Essential
Job Functions and Physical Demands
·
Excellent interpersonal skills with
the ability to relate to individuals diplomatically and tactfully.
·
Ability to integrate financial
services within a value chain with the view to foster trust and build strong
relationship between chain actors and financial service providers.
·
Must be courteous, honest and of high
integrity, especially in high-pressure situations.
·
Proven interpersonal and
communication skills with ability to relate to individuals and groups
diplomatically and tactfully.
·
Self-starter and self-motivator with
the ability to work in a multicultural setting.
·
Must be a team player and have the
ability to execute and manage multiple tasks with minimal supervision.
·
Ability to work with sensitive
information and maintain confidentiality.