Agricultural Specialist – IRC Zimbabwe

Agricultural Specialist At The International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and is at work in over 40 countries. The IRC has been working in Zimbabwe since 2008 implementing programs in Economic Recovery and Development (ERD) , Health, WASH, GBV and Capacity Building. The IRC’s Economic Recovery and Development work in Zimbabwe has assisted thousands of smallholder farmers with training, market linkages and access to inputs and finance.

In anticipation of a multi-year livelihoods and food security program, the IRC is seeking an experienced professional to lead the program’s Agricultural activities. The Agricultural Specialist will report directly to the IRC ERD coordinator who is responsible for the overall delivery of economic programmes including the agricultural value chain and youth and women employment initiatives. The Agricultural Specialist and team will provide support to rural farmers in Zimbabwe to facilitate market linkages, sustainably improve yields, increase farmers’ income, reduce malnutrition and sustain land and water use. The candidate should be experienced in and aware of approaches that address inequitable allocation of agricultural resources within rural households especially those which occur between women and men.

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience in managing agricultural initiatives, understanding the need to comprehensively address production and environmental conservation to improve livelihoods in a sustainable and equitable manner. The Agricultural Specialist will work with the IRC’s HQ-based agricultural advisors to design and implement interventions appropriate to the Zimbabwe context in both agricultural and agro pastoralist systems and in particular those which look at improving opportunities and decision making within households over use of resources (land, inputs and credit). The candidate will need to take a long-term view to ensure that the methods promoted to and devised with program beneficiaries will lead to improved production without resorting to unsustainable practices that cannot be maintained beyond the life of the funding. Links with research agencies as well as private companies that promote and practice sustainable agriculture are encouraged. The candidate will be required to manage teams and budgets under the leadership of the ERD coordinator and senior management in the country program.

Major Responsibilities:

Technical responsibilities

• Design surveys and assessment protocols that identify agricultural constraints and opportunities for rural populations and especially for women, girls and young men in Zimbabwe.
• Provide timely and proper technical input and advice to field-based Project Manager and Technical Officers on agronomic implementation and on essential activities including conservation agriculture, water harvesting, watershed management erosion control, pasture conservation etc that are appropriate to environmental conditions in Zimbabwe,
• Design gender sensitive and appropriate interventions that develop and support farmers’ capacity (especially women, girls and young men) to access and effectively use agricultural information, resources and inputs.
• Supervise community mobilization and provide guidance and capacity-building tools to strengthen farmers or community groups
• Ensure that disaster risk reduction principles are mainstreamed across all agriculture projects
• Liaise and closely work with the nutrition specialists on agricultural activities that can improve the access and availability of nutritional food especially for targeted women, girls and young children
• Supervise regular field monitoring visits and report findings efficiently
• Take the initiative in respect to agricultural related issues in the target areas during the course of the program by responding rapidly with solutions (e.g. threats caused by crop diseases or pests or harsh weather conditions etc).

Strategic Planning and Program Development

• Participate in the development of the IRC Zimbabwe program strategy, by providing inputs for any agriculture component and informing the ERD coordinator of relevant national and or district policies and bylaws
• Support the ERD coordinator in determining resource requirements for agricultural programming (human resources, equipment and materials, funding)
• Facilitate strategic decision making with the ERD coordinator and other technical specialists on critical design issues including village/community selection, beneficiary selection criteria, and modalities suitable varieties of crops, breeds of animals etc for the farmers in the selected locations.
• Produce/update program documentation (e.g. consolidated work plans, budgets, responsibility matrixes, progress reports), for the ERD coordinator
• Oversee collection, analysis and reporting of agricultural technical information (as well as project indicators) and the capacities of sub contractor institutions in close coordination with M&E Coordinator and the other specialists
• Identify and facilitate external staff, institutional, and community access to resources, advice, expertise, assistance, and materials that will lead to high-quality activities

Management and Administration

• Coordinate and supervise all agriculture activities in IRC Zimbabwe’s portfolio and ensure that they are implemented according to agreed guidelines, quality standards and schedule
• Provide guidance to the ERD Coordinator and technical specialists on administrative matters relating directly to agriculture activities (procurement, logistics, required paper-work, liaison with finance department) and facilitate functional cooperation between personnel and systems at all levels
• Oversee budget management for all agriculture activities
• Collect and provide information on agriculture activities as requested by the ERD Coordinator and senior IRC staff

Procurement and sub-contracting

• Liaise with logistics in the identification of appropriate suppliers for supplies, materials and assets for agriculture projects, establishing quantities and quality of tools and inputs
• Lead the establishment, through consultative processes and in collaboration with relevant admin staff, of Memoranda of Understanding with implementing agricultural partners and partner communities

Coordination

• Serve as IRC Zimbabwe focal point for all agriculture-related activities
• Participate in the interagency coordination efforts (e.g. development of standards, guidelines and other context-specific tools) as well as inter-sector IRC meetings and coordination, as required
• Coordinate with the other IRC specialists especially the nutrition specialist to ensure cross-programming synergies and coherence.
• Communicate and liaise with other NGOs operating in the region with regards to the agricultural assistance that they are carrying out and using this information to assist with the development of IRC’s own program
• Build and maintain relationships with other major national and local-level stakeholders relevant to the agriculture sector and project activities

Monitoring, Evaluation and Control

• Ensure transparency in accounting, reporting and documenting agriculture activities, and ensure compliance with standards and donor policies
• Coordinate with the M&E team to identify appropriate agriculture-related indicators and elaborate monitoring plans, procedures and templates
• Coordinate and supervise the collection and analysis of data to measure indicators and ensure reliability and completeness of information
• Coordinate the production of periodic reports to track performance and progress, according to templates established with the M&E team
• Discuss with the ERD coordinator and field project staff about challenges encountered by the projects, and take timely final decisions on issues to be tackled
• Keep the ERD Coordinator, the Programme Coordinator and the M&E team informed of changes
• Ensure that the changes are enforced and that appropriate resources and time are allocated to operationalise them
• Ensure the regular documentation and dissemination of lessons learnt

Location and Expected Duration:

Zimbabwe (field and HQ), 5 years

Required Qualifications:

• At least 10 years of relevant experience in similar contexts;
• Preferably Masters degree or equivalent in agriculture/ natural resource management
• Demonstrated experience in designing and managing agricultural programs for the rural communities in sub Saharan Africa particularly southern Africa
• Excellent knowledge of English. Working knowledge of Shona/Ndebele is an advantage.

Zimbabwean nationals and qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. This will be a rolling application, with no set deadline.

This position is contingent on the IRC being awarded funding.

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