Agriculture Officer at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is a leading international organization helping children in need around the world. First established in the UK in 1919, separate national organizations have been set up in more than twenty-eight countries, sharing the aim of improving the lives of children through education, health care and economic opportunities, as well as emergency aid in cases of natural disasters, war and conflict.

In Nigeria, Save the Children has been working since 2001. The early focus was on getting children actively involved in shaping the decisions that affect their lives. Today, Save the Children is working in seven federal states – Zamfara, Yobe, Jigawa, Katsina, Kano, Bauchi and Kaduna – focusing on providing basic healthcare and protecting children.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Agriculture Officer

Job ID: 190000VQ
Location: Yobe
Employee Status: Fixed Term

Introduction

• Save the Children International is a ‘dual mandate’ organization and as such equal priority will be given to both humanitarian and development work.
• This is the only way we will be able to ensure that some of the fundamental rights that we believe children have, such as survival, safety and constant access to protection and education can be guaranteed

Role

• To support implementation of the agriculture component of the project.

Main Responsibilities
Programme Support:

• Support the development  and roll out of the agriculture and livestock training guidelines/curriculum
• Facilitate the government extension staff to train Community Agriculture Mobilisers (CAMs) on GAP, storage technique
• To organize farmers training at village level.
• Facilitate the training of  farmers on financial management, linkages to  micro -finance institutions, techniques for using more drought-tolerant or faster-maturing crop varieties, improved animal husbandry practices, dryland farming, environmental conservation, use Water Use Efficient technologies, post-harvest handling and value addition
• Support the vulnerable host families, returnees and IDPs with agriculture inputs (seeds, tools and fertilizers) to restart farming.
• Facilitate direct links between farmers, suppliers, and buyers through radio programs, seminars, visits and use of digital platform to provide up-to-date market information to farmers.
• Strengthen/create farmers into cooperatives and link them to the available digital agriculture platforms to improve their farming and marketing skills.
• With support from the Monitoring & Evaluation team support the M & E plan implementation within the FSL projects, ensuring this links to reporting requirements, and capacity build technical field staff in carrying out the work.
• With support from the Accountability Lead ensure accountability is enforced in all project activities as well as ensuring that feedback from children and their families is considered in project design/implementation
• Work closely with partners and their staff to ensure project activities are implemented in time and within the stipulated quality.

Capacity Building:

• Identify learning and training opportunities for partner staff and communicate this to the FSL coordinator.

General:

• Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.

Core Behaviours
Achieving results effectively:

• Ensures efficient and transparent use of resources in accordance with internal controls
• Continuously provides feedback and updates to achieve improved results
• Coordinates with stakeholders to avoid duplication and maximize resources
• Documents lessons learned and applies them to future projects

Maintaining and developing collaborative relationships:

• Actively listens to different perspectives and experiences of stakeholders
• Actively participates in networks to access and contribute to good practice
• Establishes and maintains clear communication and dialogue with disaster and conflict affected people and other stakeholders
• Establishes clear objectives with teams and individuals and monitors progress and performance

Operating safely and securely:

• Identifies and communicates risk and threats and minimizes these for oneself and the agency
• Takes measures to do no harm and to minimize risks for partners and the communities
• Reduces vulnerability by complying with safety and security protocols set by the organization
• Demonstrates an understanding of wider UN/NGO security coordination and how the organization can benefit from, and contribute to, those mechanisms

Managing yourself in a pressured and changing environment:

• Helps team members to practice stress management through prioritization of workloads and modelling of appropriate self-care
• Remains effective and retains perspective in the face of difficult or demanding situations
• Demonstrates personal integrity by using one’s position responsibly and fairly
• Maintains ethical and professional behavior in accordance with relevant codes of conduct
• Plans, prioritizes and performs tasks well under pressure
• Takes responsibility for own work and for the impact of own actions
• Makes positive statements about work

Qualifications & Experience
Essential:

• Substantial experience of working in agricultural development and extension services in NE  Nigeria
• Education to BSc/ level in agriculture, rural development, a relevant subject or equivalent field experience
• Experience of and commitment to working through systems of community participation and accountability
• Knowledge of monitoring and evaluation
• Experience of training and capacity building staff
• Ability to write clear and well-argued assessment and project reports
• Excellent communication  and strong influencing skills
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy
• A high level of written and spoken English
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of SC. In particular, a good understanding of the SC mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support

Desirable:

• Knowledge of livelihoods analysis tools
• Familiarity with FSL and nutrition surveys
• Experience in gender mainstreaming within FSL programming.
  

Application Closing Date
12th April, 2019.

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