The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government Institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions to be the leading center of innovative solutions for the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030.

The Institute focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (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, Sidama, South-West, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

POSITION SUMMARY:

ATI is currently in the process of launching a regional supporting modality in Oromia National Regional State Bureau of Agriculture to directly support them on their work on the Agriculture Commercialization Cluster (ACC) and the Transformation Agenda Deliverables (TAD) and other ATI projects. This support will play a critical role in accelerating the execution of development initiatives in the region. This supporting modality will be jointly overseen by the Regional BoA and ATI management.

The supporting modality will be active in several key areas:

• Support enhanced planning, project management and reporting to track and report on the progress of priority activities.
• Support the development of robust targets plans and budgets by initiative owners.
• Support execution and day-to-day project and activity management of the regional prioritized initiatives.
• Support proactive identification of key issues in specific activities or overall initiatives, analytical and technical problem-solving on these issues, and escalation for senior decision-making.
• Provide an independent view of the progress being made in key priority areas.
• Ensure staff catalyzes a transformational mindset as opposed to status quo mode of operation.
• Provide timely reporting support to the Regional BoA Head and the reporting lines.
• Provide light analytical problem-solving support to senior leadership on high priority requests, such as analysis of trends, strategic planning, or policy analysis.
• Facilitate provision of or directly provide technical advisory and input, contributing to ToRs, concepts notes, studies and workshops and develop training materials on specific topics.
• Support linkage and coordination across key regional implementors on priority areas supported by the Delivery Unit.
• Support to create coordination between MoA and the Regional BoA for the follow-up and coordination of ‘Transformation Initiatives’.

The Project Management Specialist is responsible for overseeing the management, development, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the regional initiatives. He/she will be responsible to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the regional initiatives as well as manage the TADs. The Project Management Specialist is expected to have the technical expertise and to provide thematic advice and support to the implementation of the regional initiatives and TADs against mutually agreed targets and performance indicators, monitoring the programme financial situation to ensure adherence to delivery rates and utilization of resources to meet agreed upon targets and results, reviewing, and developing partnerships and leading knowledge management efforts.

ACCOUNTABILITY:

The project management specialist is expected to deliver the following functions.

1) Operational Management and Implementation of the Regional initiatives.

2) Policy support and substantive support on regional priorities.

3) Light analytical support.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities for the project management specialist include, but not limited to: –

Operational management and Implementation of the regional initiatives:

• Introduce, implement, and enhance Project Management systems
• Support the regional office to enhance the successful delivery of the regional sector initiatives & TADs in the Region
• Lead project identification and design in the region
• Support project Set Up (Establish the Project Governance Structure, officially authorize the start of the project and communicate the project launch)
• Builds the capacity of staff of the region with respect to project management.
• Facilitate end-of-project transition
• Leads the monitoring of the performance of all projects that are implemented in the region.
• Ensure mainstreaming CCI issues in all projects and report accordingly.
• Ensure projects are implemented in alignment with government procedures and regulations.
• Analyze and ensure alignment of project budgets with logical framework matrices and work plans.
• Take forward day to day planning, implementation and monitoring aspects of the project operations and personnel.
• Organize quarterly progress, mid-year and annual reviews.
• Support the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical reports, briefs and required documents, including donor reports.
• Manage program quality control and identification of potential challenges.
• Identify, build and manage relationships with regional partners.
• Organize the Project Board meetings on the status of the implementation of the projects.

Policy support and substantive support on regional priorities.

• Develop strategies and plans to provide clear direction to all concerned teams of the initiatives.
• Provide strategic guidance, help solve problems, manage, and review progress and performance to ensure the intended impact.
• Perform results-focused stakeholder management to build collaborative relationships with key internal, federal, and regional stakeholders.
• Contribute to the negotiations in establishing such partnerships, drafting of agreements and monitoring their implementation.

Light analytical support.

• Conduct analysis of data, case evidence and research findings to distill relevant lessons from projects and programs to support policy development.
• Provide technical expertise on content development for regional knowledge products through the analysis of data, case evidence, and research findings to the standards.
• Participate in developing concept note, and proposal for resource mobilization.

Others : The Regional project management specialist is also responsible for additional tasks/assignments given by the Senior Advisor and Regional Bureau Head.

Job Requirements

• MBA/MSC in project management, management, agricultural economics, business administration, economics, agricultural science, Natural resource, public administration, and other relevant field of study.
• At least six years of work experience with a proven track record of project management and project team experience working with regional organizations, national government, private sectors, CSOs, NGOs, and other key stakeholders.
• Experience in guiding and supervising multi-disciplinary project teams;
• Experience in leading communication efforts of programs entity with a special focus on the agricultural sector
• Ability to plan, organize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals.
• Ability to capture, develop, share, and effectively use information and knowledge.
• Strong understanding of public and development sector issues and organizational culture, and ability to effectively liaise with senior and mid-level leadership in government organizations.
• Understanding of the Agricultural Sector and its various challenges and possibilities with a broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how public, private and non-government organizations operate.
• Good experience of working at regional government offices and civil society or private sector sectors.
• Self-starter with strong motivation, vision, ownership, and commitment to drive delivery.
• Exhibits an innovative and high-performance mindset and culture, and can perform at a high level under pressure, with a high workload and in challenging environments.
• Highly results-oriented and delivery focused, with the ability to strengthen the accountability of others.
• Promotes data-driven and evidence-based problem-solving, and timely, effective decision-making.
• Can act as a champion for change and can effectively support change management efforts.
• Strong team player with excellent relationship building skills, ability to promote dialogue and communicate clearly and confidently.
• Proactively seeks and acts on feedback to drive own development and contributes to others’ development through active coaching and sharing knowledge and best practices.
• Strong knowledge and skills in Microsoft Office Suite, and various program/project management and data and reporting systems.
• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service
• Working in Regional Agricultural Transformation organization will be encouraged.
• Fluency in English and Regional working language required.