Agronomist Consultant at Street Child

Location:  Maiduguri, with frequent travel across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States

Reports to:  NE Programmes Manager

Starting date:  01/06/2019

Contract duration:   4 months, full-time consultancy.

Purpose of Role
To provide support for the Street Child & WFP livelihood program, that is focusing on agricultural best practices among host communities in Jere LGA. The focus of the project is the creation of two school gardens, which includes; Irrigation, Rain Fall Farming and vegetable gardening. The school gardening aim is to promote community-based, sustainable support for education activities and needs to be adapted to the suite the specific needs of the communities involved. This will be done through community consultation. Integrating the school-based management committee’s (SBMC) into the school garden, and their ability to oversee that the tools and seeds are stored safely and prioritised for the school. Schools will be provided with a basic gardening kit which contains a variety of seeds and tools to garden. One school garden will get a basic rain water collection system, while the other will get a WASH borehole for irrigation. The consultant is also expected to train the gardeners on gardening practices including; preparing the ground, planting seeds and tending the seedlings

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and share agricultural best practice and facilitate training of school gardener and community members.
• Supervise the cropping under the livelihoods project Including facilitation of baseline surveys, needs assessment and conduct consultative meetings with the project stakeholders 
• Supervision of plot layout and bed design
• Lead in performing soil and seed germination rate test
• Prepare weekly/monthly narrative and progress reports 
• Other duties assigned by the supervisor and/or management 
• The post holder will be responsible for agricultural best practice in the Street Child & WFP livelihood project.
• The post holder is required to develop the community members he/she will be working closely with on best practices to effectively deliver the Street Child & WFP project.
• Ensure the proper follow-up of the beneficiaries and provide them with adequate technical support during activities
• Conduct training sessions among the beneficiaries and ensure day-to-day technical support
• Write up an agricultural how-to-guide for the establishment of school gardens.

Leadership Behaviour

• Good interpersonal, listening and communication skills;
• Ability to positively influence others and successfully reconcile differences;
• A self-starter with a strong results orientation and with high levels of integrity, credibility and dependability;
• An energetic team player who can effectively collaborate, and who can stand alone when necessary;
• Demonstrated ability to work and deliver under pressure and tight deadlines. 

Core values

• Commitment to Street Child mission, vision and values, and the ability to convey with enthusiasm Street Child’s role in accompanying and serving forcibly displaced people and in advocating for their right to protection and a life in dignity
• High integrity, honesty and confidentiality; ability to deal tactfully and discreetly with situations, people and information;
• Acceptance of diversity and inclusion as a core value.
• Willingness to work in flexible, sub-optimal, stressful and unstable environment. 
• Willingness to travel among the country in different states

Qualifications and Experience:

Education

Minimum university degree in Agriculture or related field

Experience

• A minimum of 5 year work in a relevant field. At least 2 with NGOs
• Proficiency in MS Word, MS EXCEL, AUTOCAD, or other computer aided design packages, email/internet communication, etc.
• Ability to work under difficult circumstances in remote locations with limited supervision

Language 

Fluency in English and Hausa (written and spoken) and excellent writing skills.

Kanuri is a great advantage

Technical Skills

• Strong analytical, reporting, strategic thinking and planning skills.
• Strong monitoring and evaluation skills/experience
• Knowledge of project cycle management.