Rural Institutions Development Coordinator (RIDC) at Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development

Location: Port Harcourt, Rivers
Job Type: Contract (1 year)
Unit/Office: Project Coordination

Main Responsibilities

• The Rural Institution Coordinator will facilitate and strengthen the understanding of community members and target agri-enterprise groups and commodity apex development associations (CADAs) to fit properly into the project framework.
• The aim of the position is to improve the knowledge of enterprise groups, incubators and CADAs to adopt agriculture as a business using a market-led approach.

Specific Duties

• Develop activities for the formation, strengthening and sustainability of relevant rural institutions for the annual work plan and budget (AWPB).
• Sensitize existing CADAs, enterprise groups, traditional rulers, opinion leaders, youth and women leaders, civil society and influential community members to foster understanding on the new direction of the project.
• Assist the enterprise groups to form CADA from elected representatives of each of the groups formed.
• Assist the CADAs to form Federated CADA at the state level from representative of each of the CADAs formed.
• Once a CADA is formed, ensure that there are implementation/functional committees in the CADA and take initiatives to strengthen the committees.
• Provide guidance for the annual group/CADA appraisal exercise to identify capacity gaps and assist in the strengthening of all groups/CADA.
• Develop a flexible training curriculum/manual to address identified gaps in developing and strengthening the CADAs in consultation with the keystake holders.
• Organize training for all enterprise groups on group participation and formation, group leadership and dynamics. The activities would strengthen skills and competencies in financial and business management, market information, product marketing strategies, bulk procurement, distribution of critical inputs and advocate to improve enabling policy environment.
• Develop specific training for enterprise groups, group leaders, CADAs, commodity committees on producers cluster arrangement, contract farming, operations of out-growers scheme in working with off-takers/processors.
• Continuously update the developed curriculum and training based on feedback to ensure that it is tailored to the needs of the groups and CADAs.
• Organize cross-visits annually amongst the CADAs to facilitate the sharing of experiences between CADAs on best practice.
• Consolidate state progress reports and contribute to the drafting of periodic progress reports of the RPCO.

Reporting and Location

• The position will be in the RPCO located in Port Harcourt. The RIDC will report directly to the PC.

Qualification and Experience

• Advanced degree (MSc or higher preferred) in Extension, Rural Sociology, Agriculture or other discipline with appropriate applied social science and agricultural experience
• A minimum of 10 years working experience with rural communities in a participatory community development role.
• Proven skill in organizing group training and learning exchanges.
• Experience working with IFAD projects in Nigeria.
• Excellent written and spoken English.