Project Officer Job in Kenya

Action Africa Help International (AAH-I) is an African-led, regional organisation, working in East and Southern Africa to improve the quality of life in livelihood challenged communities. AAH-I has country programmes in Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. 

It brings over 20 years’ experience working with communities in conflict and post-conflict situations, including refugees, internally displaced people and host communities. 

More recently, it has expanded its activities to work with other marginalised communities, including pastoralist communities and communities in urban slums. 

With the current growth in AAH-I and to facilitate the implementation of our 2014-2018 strategy, we wish to recruit for the following positions in January 2015:
 
Job Title: Agriculture Project Officer, AAH Kenya
 
Department / Section: Livelihoods
 
Reports to: Livelihoods Co-ordinator
 
Staff reporting to this post: Incentive Workers
 
Technical Dotted-Line link to: Co-operatives Finance Officer
 
Liaises with: Project Manager, Program Officer, Finance Officer, UNHCR and other Partners on ground
 
Duty Station: Kakuma Refugee Camp, AAH-Kenya
 
Purpose of the Role: To give oversight for all agricultural livelihoods activities and provide advisory services on design and implementation of the UNHCR/AAHI Livelihood Programme.
 
In close cooperation with the Livelihoods Co-ordinator, the Agriculture Project Officer will be responsible for facilitating, organizing and supporting program activities including capacity building, relationship building, partnership and regular monitoring and evaluation. 

Duties & Responsibilities
  • Be the matter expert, ensuring that agricultural interventions are effective, productive and profitable for the target PoC.
  • Be responsible for hiring the services of a water expert, who will advise and support the PoC involved in agriculture to sustainably harvest, store and use water for their irrigation activities.
  • Ensure that the agriculture activities are scaled up and run as a business, thereby providing profits for the target PoC.
  • Be responsible for identification of knowledge, attitude and practice gaps among target PoC and ensure a capacity building program is implemented to build PoC capacity to use modern farming methods.
  • Ensure that a pilot greenhouse is developed and used to train identified PoC on modern agriculture practices.
  • Support the PoC to manage and run the greenhouse under a Cooperative, ensuring that the greenhouse is profitable and sustainably managed.
  • Assist in ensuring that the livelihoods interventions are effective in terms of creating self-reliance in the PoC mind set and that activities undertaken are profitable and sustainable in the life of PoC.
  • Keep the Livelihoods Co-ordinator (LC) informed on progress of the various initiatives, monitoring their progress and ensuring that they remain relevant and appreciated by the beneficiaries.
  • Be directly involved in the implementation of proposed initiatives.
a) Assist in proper collection, storage and dissemination of data on PoC economic activities, clearly identifying gaps and instituting interventions to fill the gaps in PoC knowledge, attitude and practice in livelihoods and self-reliance.

b) Assist in developing and supervising the implementation of a capacity building program to meet the identified PoC gaps.

Expected Outcomes
  • Conceptualization, innovation, planning and management of the livelihood project as well as the transfer of knowledge and skills.
  • Guide and supervise Incentive Workers in identifying training needs and providing on the job training.
  • Prepare the necessary reports as per UNHCR guidelines and handle reporting requirement in a timely manner.
  • Work closely with the Livelihoods Co-ordinator and the Cooperatives Project officer on material and strategies to support the programme.
  • Provide information and support to the Incentive Workers.
  • Monthly work (action) plans for the program, ensuring objectives and targets are achieved.
  • Support the Livelihood Program staff in the development of project documentation including marketing materials such as success stories, case studies, human interest pieces, and the like that can effectively represent the project to external audiences
  • Provide technical assistance to the PoC and Program staff  regarding project management practices, organizational management, financial accountability, Monitoring & Evaluation practices, or thematic topics related to agricultural livelihoods
  • Monitor activities of the PoC, communicating project progress to appropriate Program staff
  • Support the lively hood team in preparing reporting (weekly, monthly, quarterly & annual) materials
  • Work with Livelihood program team to develop and manage a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan
  • Perform any other functions deemed necessary or as delegated by the supervisor in order to meet the level of services in the organization
Minimum Personal Specifications
 
Minimum Professional Qualifications Required
  • University degree preferrably in Agricultural Economics, Agro-Enterprise, Rural Development, or a closely related field.
Minimum Relevant Experience Required
  • Minimum of three years’ work experience in development programs, with a heavy focus on rural, community-based programming and agriculture.
  • Demonstrated capacities to establish and maintain strong, collaborative working relationships with donors, government officials, local organizations, communities and other stakeholders
  • Demonstrated strengths in relationship management; able to work with diverse groups of people in multicultural, team-oriented environment;
  • Skilled in influencing and obtaining cooperation of individuals;
Desirable Skills
  • UNHCR Field experience.
  • Knowledge and exposure to the social and cultural values of the region concerned.
  • Proficiency in local language(s).
  • Strong cross-cultural skills and experience working with people from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds
  • Proven ability to multi-task and meet deadlines
  • Proven ability to develop proposals and write reports meeting donor requirements
Additional Skills & Competences
  • Communicational skills (written and spoken)
  • Organisational and managerial skills
  • ICT speciality (email, Spread-sheets, MS-word, Databases, job-related software, etc.)
  • Team-work and participation
  • Level of self-supervision and ability to take initiative
  • Degree of accuracy and attention to detail
  • Technical side of the job (numeracy, report-writing, critical thinking, leadership, etc.)
  • INGO experience and understanding of humanitarian sector
  • Commitment to and understanding of AAH-I’s vision, mission, and values.
Application Instructions

Interested candidates should email application letters and CVs (with 3 referees) addressed to recruitke@actionafricahelp.org to be received by Monday, 5th January, 2015 at 5:00 pm. 

The email Subject Line must show the job title of the position applied for.

AAH-I is an equal-opportunity employer.


Only those selected for the interviews will be contacted.