Agriculture and Natural Resource Adviser

Job Description

Job Title: Agriculture and Natural Resource Adviser

Reports to: Senior Nutrition Adviser & Resilience Team Lead

Liaises with: Other units in the Strategy, Advocacy and Learning department, Country Offices, International Programmes and Emergency Directorates.

Job location: Dublin (or possibly London). Substantial (30%) overseas travel is a part of this role.

Pay Band: 5(€41,747 - €49,114)

Contract: Approximately 9 months (maternity cover)

Job Purpose:

To support effective programming to promote resilience in disaster-prone, fragile contexts through the provision of technical and strategic support to country programmes on climate-smart agriculture and natural resource management and through the documentation of learning on best practice.

Focal countries are likely to include Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Niger, and Central African Republic, but are subject to change.

Key Responsibilities:

· Provide technical and strategic support primarily on climate-smart agriculture, livestock and natural resource management to country teams to ensure programmes are designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated to ensure optimum impact on the extreme poor;.

· Build the technical capacity of Concern country teams through formal training, webinars, remote mentoring, and production and sharing of key technical resources.

· Synthesize and document practical learning from our programmes; identify ways to apply it in a timely fashion to improve policy and practice within and beyond Concern.

· Support and develop relationships with other agencies, including research institutes, technical working groups and represent Concern in national, regional and international fora as required;

· Support Fundraising to develop relationships with donors and support the development of new proposals in line with the organizational strategic plan.

· Support the Advocacy unit to feed into international policy discussions related to resilience, agriculture, climate change and pastoralism.

· Support the prioritization, design, implementation and dissemination of operational research undertaken within Concern programmes – in collaboration with field teams and research partners.

· Support the recruitment of country programme staff, support development of programme proposals and engage in multi-sectoral/ inter-departmental initiatives such as staff induction, M&E guidance, etc.

· Potentially be deployed to support emergency responses for up to six weeks

Skills and Experience Required:

Essential:

• A postgraduate degree in agriculture, crop science, animal production, veterinary medicine, soil science, natural resource management, environmental science or related field
• A minimum of five years’ experience working in the area of agriculture in an NGO, development agency or the private sector, three of which should have been based in a developing country in Sub Saharan Africa or Asia
• Strong understanding of how agriculture, livestock and natural resource management fits within the wider framework of promoting resilience and positive climate change adaptation, particularly in drought-prone contexts.
• Strong understanding and experience working on nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions and approaches.
• A strong understanding of gender issues in relation to agriculture and livelihoods programmes and practical ways to promote gender equality within them;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work well as part of a multi-disciplinary team;
• Excellent organisational skills;
• Ability to work in French;
• Excellent verbal and written English skills;
• Ability to engage with researchers to steer research towards relevant and practical outputs

Desirable:

• Experience in dryland agriculture, soil and water conservation and rangeland management.
• Experience working with research institutions, including CGIAR institutions and relevant national agriculture and livestock institutions.
• Experience working in integrated, multi-sectoral programmes; A specialization in livestock production and animal health; and experience or knowledge of issues facing pastoralists.
• Experience in livelihoods analysis, field surveys, use of PRA tools, and GIS / mapping software.

Candidates must be legally entitled to work in Ireland/UK at the time of application.

Concern is an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all section of the community.

Concern has a Programme Participant Protection Policy and an organisational Code of Conduct which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organisation, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organisation to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List).

Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will only be made following a successful clearance check being conducted on the applicant. For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

By submitting a formal application for paid or voluntary employment to Concern, you agree to Concern carrying out a clearance check as outlined above and that Concern will not proceed to recruit you should your name appear on any of the aforementioned lists

To apply: CVs should be submitted through our website at www.concern.net/jobs by closing date: 18^th February, 2018.