Vacancy title:
Technical Manager for Livestock

Jobs at:
Farm Africa

Deadline of this Job:
Tuesday 2nd January 2018 by 9:00am

Duty Station:
Flexible: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda, with frequent travel
Job details:
Reports to: Head of Programme Design and Support
Salary: £39,000 - £41,000

Farm Africa is an international non-governmental organization working to end hunger and bring prosperity to rural Africa. We work to increase the incomes and improve food security of smallholder farmers, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and forest dwellers in East Africa. A core part of our strategy is to ensure that our interventions are both economically sustainable and scalable. The systematic integration of market linkages in implementing programmes is crucial to our ability to scale our interventions cost-effectively.

Job Summary: The Technical Manager for Livestock will produce knowledge that will help to shape both Farm Africa’s and our partners programme of work, this knowledge will also support technical excellence within our work through the development of our approach, people, tools and learning.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Oversee the technical and operational delivery of Livestock for Livelihood Project (DfID, Uganda and Ethiopia) – 60%

•   Act as the primary contact person to the Fund Manager for the L4L project
• Responsible for raising any issues that may impact on the timely and compliant delivery of the project to the Country Directors and Head of Programme Support in a timely fashion
• Responsible for developing the methodologies for the livestock interventions within the L4L project, ensuring they are designed for the specific contexts of Uganda and Ethiopia
• Supporting in country teams in Uganda and Ethiopia to develop realistic activity plans for livestock interventions and associated budget for the L4L project
•  Supporting in country teams (Programme Managers) on regular reviews of livestock interventions within the activity plans, helping them to take corrective action where necessary ensuring the project is delivered on time and on budget
• Takes lead in the Consolidation of narrative and financial reports to the correct standard and synthesising these into periodic reports according to a the schedule determined with the donor
• Inputs into joint quarterly reviews of the L4L project and the specific livestock interventions (as measured against log frame)
• Regular visits to project sites in Ethiopia and Uganda to check quality of livestock interventions and to make recommendations on how interventions can be improved
•  As and when required attends donor meetings to represent the L4L project in UK and in Uganda and Ethiopia
•  Ensure that key learning for delivery is captured and accommodated by project teams across both sites.
•  With the Country Directors in each country monitor budget expenditure and agree adjustments between country-level delivery plans.
•  Oversee the production of cross-country standard operating procedures, protocols and training or BC materials e.g. on pastoralism, nutrition.
  Over time develop Farm Africa’s Livestock thematic area and embed technical excellence within Farm Africa’s market intervention delivery - 30%
•  Work closely with the Farm Africa Country Teams and Director of Programmes on projects with Livestock elements through:
•  Best practice: Feeding into the pastoralist component of Farm Africa’s Approaches; developing ToC around livestock interventions, livestock assessment tools for baselines, best practice interventions particularly linked to resilience, natural resource management and market engagement
•  Information and insight. Input into Farm Africa’s knowledge hub on recommendations to maximize production. This will include for cattle, small ruminants and camels;
•  Information on local breeds and breeding programmes for each country
• Rangeland management
• Animal health provision
•  Evidence: Work with the Quality and Impact Teamto coordinate sharing of evidence-based learning of effective pastoralism and livestock interventions.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Work with the Quality and Impact team in the design of livestock specific indicators within the monitoring framework.
• Proposal design: Based on best practice, information and insight and learning, feed into design and development of proposals focused on livestock intervention and provide quality assurance for project design
• Recruitment: In line with Farm Africa’s growth in the thematic area, lead in the recruitment and management of expert livestock staff and recruitment of consultants to build the deployable technical capacity of Farm Africa.
•  Community of Practice: Identify within existing and new Farm Africa staff, a livestock community of practice to share expertise across the portfolio
• Build Farm Africa’s credentials on livestock programming with donors through meetings and knowledge sharing
• Regularly visit field sites to assess quality of Farm Africa interventions and advising on corrective action where required
•  Work with other technical teams and personnel to ensure cross-dissemination of learning and future design initiatives between livestock, agriculture, market engagement and natural resource management.
•  Coordinate with other technical leaders in the organisation to support the overall development of Farm Africa’s technical capacity
  Over time building partnerships with the private sector and other not-for-profit actors in the Livestock sector - 10%
•  Work in close coordination with the Country Management Teams and External Relations UK, identify and engage with key Livestock sector players to improve Farm Africa’s network of African and international agri-businesses and service providers.
•  Identify and develop opportunities for partnerships between Farm Africa and local, national and international input providers.
• With the Technical Manager (MVC) Identify and develop opportunities for partnerships between Farm Africa and local, national and international agri-businesses and for-profit organisations within Livestock value chains to coordinate into Farm Africa’s existing or prospective value chains.
•  Link with other NGOs working in livestock sector and share lessons, approaches and identify potential for collaboration.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The applicant should preferably hold a Post graduate qualification in Livestock or related field. Possession of a PhD in a related field is an added advantage.
• Publication history in the thematic area is desired.
•  Significant-in depth experience of working at an operational and strategic level in Livestock with an NGO.
• Proven track record as a thought-leader and influencer in livestock-related research
• Design and delivery of training courses Experience in the private sector
• Evidence of research experience.
• Detailed and in depth knowledge of global best practice and cutting –edge development thinking in
• Livestock as applies in more than one country of Farm Africa operation, particularly East Africa and drylands contexts
•  Understanding and experience of resilience, natural resource management as related to livestock production
•  Understanding and experience of conflict analysis and mitigation within a livestock project

Job application procedure
All suitably qualified candidates are encouraged to send an updated CV and a cover letter that explains how your experience fits this role to recruitment@farmafrica.org