Position:                          Senior Horticulture Specialist

Term of Employment:   Full time

Duty Station(s):              Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Required Number:         One

Salary & Benefits:           Competitive

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sectors partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results.

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Horticulture specialist is a highly qualified expert who closely works with a Senior Project Officer as a counterpart.  The position holder focuses on exploring and adapting international best practices and experiences in Horticulture value chains through sound integration with the latest national research recommendations (outputs) and local practices. Focussing on the ACC’s prioritized five horticultural commodities (avocado, mango, banana, tomato, and onion), she/he is required to develop/prepare a roadmap for the Ethiopian Horticulture Sub-Sector development based upon the existing horticultural strategy of the country. After endorsement of such a roadmap by the concerned Ethiopian authority, he/she is also expected to design implementation modalities for the selected commodities covering the value chains of each, (input supply, technology generation, production, processing, marketing …) within the context of linking smallholder farmers with large scale modern horticultural farming in the country.

The horticulture specialist supports and guides the implementation of national horticulture strategy with other national priorities such as the Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks (IAIPs). He/she identifies risks and mitigation strategies to implementation and impact and ensures that the ACC/Horticulture Farmer Production Cluster (HFPC) projects, (which are clusters of smallholder farmers in a large contiguous area working towards producing the selected commodities) are planned and implemented as per the concept of clustering approach and are in the right track to achieve strategic goals set within the overall Horticulture sector.

The specialist reports to the ACC Director and to the Senior Director of the ACC.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Support the management of end-to-end horticultural value chain activities of the selected five commodities to meet international standards.
• Review and document international best practices across the value chains of the selected five commodities (mentioned above) as may be relevant to the Ethiopian situation and advise the ACC Director, Senior Director, Farmer Production Cluster, (FPC) team and regional experts for consideration and implementation.
•  Assess existing practices and initiatives and develop solutions for technical and operational challenges in the horticultural sector with special emphasis on the selected five commodities
• Provide high-level technical/expertise support to the horticulture value chain and Horticulture Farmer Production Cluster activities in the four regions (mentioned earlier) through providing strategic and professional advice to the federal and regional technical teams.
• Support on the management of stakeholders to get prioritized support from the government, private sector, and other implementers for effective implementation of ACC/HFPCs.
• Proactively participate in facilitating all relevant types of training to be carried out at the regions and federal level and other collaborating organizations or key stakeholders.
• Design strategies and methodologies to introduce new horticultural technologies and farming systems, participatory planning of production and marketing activities, improved market information and targeted business development services.
• Collaborate with the federal and regional agribusiness promotion/market linkage experts to map and develop market linkages for clusters with national, regional, and international potential markets and market channels identified.
• Assist partners working on promoting horticulture value chain activities through creating proper alignment channels and services.
• Prepare and submit reports of his assignment timely.
• Carry out related assignments as may be demanded by ATA leadership.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Ph.D./MSc in Horticulture Development, Agricultural Marketing, Agricultural Economics, or related fields with proven experience on horticulture value chains.
• A minimum of 8 years or 10 years’ international experience in value chain development and agricultural marketing for Ph.D. and MSc qualifications respectively.
• Familiarity with Ethiopian Agricultural, Trade and Industrial policy and regulatory framework including horticulture development and marketing strategies.
• Understanding and practical experience in agribusiness, and international market, and trade development.
• Exceptional ability to communicate consistently, clearly, and effectively with a range of stakeholders in a cross-cultural environment.
• Broad perspective and knowledge of tropical horticulture development and marketing sector
• Experience in prioritizing and sequencing both programmatic and operational activities.
• Experience with program design, learning systems and monitoring & evaluation.
• Experience in providing solutions to categorical problems in the spheres of horticulture development and marketing.
• Knowledge of analytical methods of agricultural statistics.
• Practical international experience in developing linkages between producers and markets and working across value chains of horticultural crops.
• Practical experience in testing and scaling up relevant solutions
• Experience in carrying out practical demonstrations of modern practices of production of horticultural crops in the context of smallholder farmers
• Ability to thrive in a fast-moving, start-up environment, with an emphasis on high-performance, teamwork, accountability, and results.
• Proven ability to undertake and oversee analytical studies, problem-solving and policy analysis, and willingness to innovate, design and plan catalytic and implementable interventions.
• Understanding of private sector, commercial farming, food processing and marketing
• A broad perspective on how the entire agricultural system in Ethiopia operates and how public, private, and informal actors operate within the system.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Highly facilitative and collaborative leadership style.
• Excellent computer skills (MSOFFICE).
• Excellent skills in data gathering and analysis through the use of statistical software,
• Excellent oral and written English language communication skills.
• A strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service.
• Experience in developing and building relationships between the public and private sectors.
• Ability to work under pressure and in a constantly evolving and challenging environment.
• Self-starter and self-motivated person.