VACANCY TITLE Program Officer for Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security (Policy)

LOCATION Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire or Rotterdam, The Netherlands

INTENSITY Full time 

ANTICIPATED START DATE As soon as possible

APPLICATION DEADLINE 31 01 2022; 5pm CET

ABOUT GCA

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to catalyze action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector, to ensure we learn from each other and work together for a climate resilient future. Adapting to impacts of climate change provides a “win-win” for health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth. The work of the GCA elevates the visibility and political importance of climate adaptation and facilitates solutions, such as smarter investments, new technologies and better planning to become more resilient to climate-related threats. GCA is a rapidly growing organization with offices in Abidjan, Beijing, Dhaka, Groningen, and Rotterdam.

The GCA has an ambitious 2020-2025 business plan with three pillars:

• Programs: GCA’s Programs include: Food Security; Using Nature for more resilient infrastructure; Water for Urban Growth and Resilience; Climate Finance; Youth Leadership
• Knowledge: Building adaptation knowledge globally and in countries through cutting edge knowledge products such as the State and Trends in Adaptation Report; Data and Knowledge Platform
• Advocacy and Awareness: Formulating policy messages to move adaptation agenda forward globally and in countries.

GCA’s work program in Africa is of paramount importance. All of the components of GCA’s Business Plan must succeed to support changing the momentum and pace of adaptation in Africa. Guiding GCA’s program in Africa is the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), co-created with the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) to implement the vision of the Africa Adaptation Initiative to support African countries on key adaptation initiatives.

The AAAP is contributing to closing Africa’s adaptation gap and supporting African countries to make a transformational shift in their development pathways by putting climate adaptation and resilience at the centre of their critical growth-oriented and inclusive policies, programs, and institutions. It is scaling up successful initiatives fundamental to African nations’ economic development, and prosperity for women and men. The four pillars of the AAAP are: Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security, the Africa Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator, Empowering Youth through Jobs and Entrepreneurship, and Innovative Financial Initiatives for Africa.

The Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security pillar of the AAAP has as its objective, to scale up access to climate-smart digital technologies and associated data-driven agricultural and financial services to at least 30 million farmers in Africa, supporting food security agriculture and food security across 26 countries. It will provide support to the African Development Bank’s investments in African agriculture by supporting the integration of smallholder farmers into digitally enabled agri-food systems. It will launch a blueprint to scale up Digital Climate Advisory Services (DCAS) to empower millions of farmers and local agribusinesses to become more resilient. In parallel, it will implement proof of concepts in several countries to demonstrate how advisories and associated services can be scaled up to benefit millions of farmers as primary users

ABOUT THE ROLE

Profile

GCA seeks a dynamic individual to fill the role of Program Officer as a core member of the Food Security and Rural Well-Being team to drive forward the Global Center on Adaptation’s role as a solutions broker in the field of adaptation. The individual will actively engage in and provide leadership on policy advocacy for adaptation in food systems and provide technical, content-focused support to advance GCA’s overall policy and advocacy work. This person is responsible for cultivating and managing relationships with external partners and parties including the AfDB and other partners on the AAAP and supporting the team’s ongoing work around implementation of a digital climate smart agriculture strategy for adaptation. Under the oversight of the Regional Director for Africa and, directly reporting to the Program Lead, the incumbent will carry out the following:

GCA seeks a dynamic individual well versed in the agriculture policy space in Africa, to fill the role of Program Officer Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security. The Individual will work as a core team member to drive forward the Global Center on Adaptation’s role as a solutions broker in the field of adaptation action. The primary focus of this work will be in Africa.

The Program Officer Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security will report to the Program Lead while working closely with other members of the Leadership Team, thematic leads and colleagues. S/he will play a key role in positioning the GCA as the foremost international organization specialising in climate change adaptation

Areas of responsibility

The areas of responsibility of the Program Officer for Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security (Policy) include:

Programmatic Support

• Prepare concept notes and reports outlining the role of policy for scaling data-enabled and digital technologies in agriculture value chains
  
• Provide Technical Support on policy-related issues in the development of AAAP projects and programs
• Supporting the effective management of grantees within the Pillar.
• Engage with AAAP partners on implementation;
• Represent GCA at country, regional, and global policy engagement fora
• Supporting overall program implementation

Advisory:

• Provide advice to countries to facilitate enabling environment for the scaling up of digital and data-enabled adaptation solutions

Events and Logistics Support

• Support in organizing meetings, events and workshops pertaining to the Pillar - from the inception to the closing phases, including providing key research to inform the design of the meeting, administrative support to meeting participants contributing to meeting reports
• Perform any additional tasks as assigned