Practical Action
Job Title: Senior Project Officer – Agriculture and Livelihoods
Reporting to: The Project
Manager – Resilient Agriculture for the Youth (RAY) Kenya
Matrix management: N/A
Direct reports: N/A
Matrix reporting: None
Member: NA
Relationships
· Internal: Delivery Teams, Impact Team, Business Development,
communications, other RCO and UK colleagues on agriculture.
· External: Strategic Partners relevant PA strategies including government ministries, donors, partners
Financial scope: NA
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Grade: 6
Travel requirements: Regular, within
geographic scope of the project
About us
We are an international development organisation putting
ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest
problems.
Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and
persistent gender inequality.
We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and
locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate
resilience and clean energy.
And we share what works with others, so answers that start small
can grow big.
We are committed to advancing gender equality and women’s
empowerment through all our work.
At a minimum, we ensure that all our work is gender sensitive,
seeking gender transformative approaches as our overall ambition and in
accordance with context.
We’re a global change-making group.
The group consists of a UK registered charity with community
projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development
publishing company and a technical consulting service.
We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help
shape a world that works better for everyone.
Our Aims
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest
problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender
inequality.
Our aims are to:
· Make agriculture work
better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to
climate change and achieve a good standard of living.
· Help more people harness
the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable
deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
· Make cities in poorer
countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
· Build disaster
resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk
of hazards and minimizing their impact on lives and livelihoods.
PRACTICAL ACTION KENYA
In Kenya, Practical Action has a long history of addressing
systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that transforms
their lives, helping communities and government make cities healthier and
safer, making agriculture and markets work better for small holder farmers and
supporting communities and government to become more resilient.
We use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy
services with shapers of policy and practice to achieve our aims.
Practical Action
About the role
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 Senior Project Officer will coordinate the field level
activities in the project intervention areas with the primary responsibility of
promoting agribusiness activities among youth ages between 18 – 35 years.
The function involves directly supporting young people to start
and/or grow their agribusinesses while earning an income to support their
livelihoods.
This will include supporting the young people access skills and
knowledge, finance and markets as well as working with different stakeholders
to ensure an enabling markets and policy environment that supports growth of
youth led agri businesses. The role works closely with the technical staff both
in the Kenya and UK office.
The position holder will be expected to directly support the
enhancement of personal and economic development of the youth and work with
technical experts based in Kenya and the UK 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).
ACCOUNTABILITIES
Leadership and Strategic
Alignment
· Contribute to the
development process of the Kenya Strategic Business Plan (SBP)
· Ensure that Practical
Action Agriculture change ambition is shaped by learning from the project
· Provide information
needed to inform routine quarterly and annual reporting of the SBP including
reporting on the Global Indicators.
· 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.
· Convene and participate
in local coordination / networking meetings as required.
· Work collaboratively and
effectively with partners for learning and adoption of innovative, gender
responsive and inclusive interventions to improve project delivery.
· Contribute to effective
lesson learning, information management and lesson sharing 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.
· Develop formal and
informal networks to assist in the planning and review of work as appropriate
· Support fundraising
initiatives for Practical Action in the agriculture change ambition by
participating in program design processes.
· Ensure key approaches in
the agriculture change ambition: Markets systems analysis and regenerative
agriculture are embedded in program design and delivery and budget for
effectively
· Contribute to ensuring
safeguarding in the project, including capacity building of partners in
safeguarding and reduce the risk of safeguarding incidents.
Delivering Quality
· Directly implement the
project interventions and ensure the active and meaningful participation of
young men and women in the project intervention areas
· Ensure the formation of
youth led initiatives and groups and ensure the timely, quality delivery of
activities designed and delivered.
· Capacity building,
training, and empowerment of the youth in the project location areas while
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 project reports that demonstrate good accountability
including gender considerations.
· Capacity building of
partners to ensure they implement assigned project activities including in
safeguarding and gender mainstreaming
· Work effectively with
the Project Manager and other teams to ensure that the on-going project is
implemented according to contract (in terms of budget, activities, and time
frame) and that any amendments are cleared in a timely manner.
· Oversee MEL activities
in the project including data collection and reporting
· Identification and
analysis of trends, threats and risks in the area of youth and livelihoods,
building this into research and learning from the project.
· 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.
· Participate in team
reflections, identifying learnings and challenges and contributing ideas for
adaptation 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
and update the safeguarding assessment tool.
· 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:
Experience &
Knowledge
· Graduate in
Agriculture/Agribusiness/Natural Resource Management/Social Science/Development
studies or any other relevant subject from any reputed University.
· Over five (5) years of
working experience where at least three (3) years’ experience in a rural
development field.
· Proficient in
communicating with different stakeholders i.e. youth of rural communities,
urban youth, government representatives etc.
· Ability to work with
young people and create space for youth leadership.
· Experience working with
multi-faceted teams both directly and remotely providing timely support when
required.
· Experience in engaging
with stakeholders including government, donors, private sector, and
multilateral agencies
Essential
· Commitment and
understanding of reducing the risk of safeguarding incidents
· Significant knowledge
and understanding of the agricultural sector and climate resilience
· An excellent
understanding of 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 challenge
· Knowledge and skill in
developing IEC/BCC materials
· Good communication,
facilitation and representation skills
· Ability to work with,
support and influence others
Desirable
· Fluency in Swahili or
other regional/local languages
· Existing strong
relationships and networks within the change ambition area of interest
· Knowledge of monitoring,
evaluation and learning strategies.
· Knowledge of gender and
safeguarding best practices
· Post-graduate degree in
relevant subject is an added advantage.
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 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
