Agriculture and Livestock Specialist at ACE Human Resources Consulting

Overall Responsibility: The Agriculture and Livestock Specialist will join with other staff to conduct the planning process aimed to design the intervention areas. The A&L Specialist will work with the team to design, prepare and implement the new intervention, work toward strategic goals and milestones, and advise the Impact Manger in making impactful organizational decisions.

Furthermore, The A&L Specialist will foster organizational development, promote Client’s values and servant leadership culture, promote accountability and high performance, and encourage team creativity and innovation. S/he will ensure all intervention areas are helping the rural community realize sustainable meaningful choices in order to lift themselves out of extreme poverty in a sustainable way.

Duties and Responsibilities: The A&L Specialist will report to the Impact Manager and give key input to the design, creation and implementation of Client’s programming:

• Strongly contribute to the technical design of intervention programming and ensure activities are effectively and efficiently focused on Client’s vision and strategic objectives.
• Provide technical leadership and support as needed, and evaluate new opportunities for rural livelihoods in the Client operating area.
• Assist the Impact Manager in ensuring that  programs are designed, planned and implemented in a sustainable, accountable and transparent way.
• Establish and maintain successful relationships with Government Offices, community leaders, and other key stakeholders.
• Prepare high quality progress reports and ensure they are submitted on time.
• Ensure agriculture and livelihood interventions are effectively integrated with other impact program focus areas and collaborate with the rest of the Client team and specialists.
• Work with the Client Monitoring & Evaluation team to ensure that interventions are effectively monitored and evaluated in order to assess progress, increase impact, and guide scaling decisions.
• Apply analytical and critical-thinking skills to a wide range of development issues in order to design holistic, integrated, and impactful activities for the target community.
• Exemplify the servant leadership philosophy of Client Nigeria and work with other team members to build company culture around a service and farmer-first mentality.
• Integrate activities into the local environment including awareness of political, religious and economic aspects.
• Perform any other duties as required by and instructed by the Impact Manager.

Minimum Qualifications

Essential

• Minimum of Master’s degree in Agronomy, Animal Health, Agriculture or Animal Science, Rural Livelihoods, or other related field (Bachelor degrees will be considered with significant field and practical experience (6 - 10 years).
• Minimum of 4-6 years professional experience in the agricultural, livestock and/or agribusiness sectors OR 4-6 years managing a farm or agricultural activities in rural communities, in addition to Master’s Degree.
• Extensive experience developing agriculture OR livestock OR livelihoods projects and activities and/or managing agriculture or livelihoods programs (reference checks required).
• Experience working with Farmer Organizations/cooperatives/associations, including women’s groups (farmer-owned businesses of 100 or more members). Experience and extensive knowledge in establishing and running farmer organizations/associations preferred.
• Additional experience with Food Security and Nutrition programming desired.
• Knowledge of creating and updating training curriculum with proven experience planning and conducting formal training sessions on agriculture and livelihoods.
• Good understanding of community development, poverty cycle, rural livelihoods and NGO program cycle management.
• Demonstrated passion or interest for development work, focused on building community leaders and creating grassroots impact in rural areas.
• Excellent interpersonal communication, negotiation and problem-solving skills.
• Able to demonstrate servant leadership, a passion for improving the lives of others, and the ability to inspire team members to achieve organizational goals.
• Ability to use systems and organizational tools, while multitasking and supporting other team members under stressful conditions.
• Attention to detail, deadlines, and ability to follow procedures, and work productively both independently and collaboratively with team members.
• Ability and willingness to stay and work at the Local Government Area (LGA) in rural areas.
• High proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
• High level of integrity and honesty.
• Fluency in English and Hausa is required.

Desirable

• Experience with gender mainstreaming in programming, commitment to being gender sensitive in approaches and programming; ability to promote inclusiveness and respect diverse perspectives.
• Experience and knowledgeable with project-level Monitoring and Evaluation with Strong skills in monitoring, evaluation, research and conducting participatory community-led assessments.
• Experience with trauma-sensitive training or programming.
• Experience working with livestock.
• Experience with Nutrition and Food Security Programming.
• Experience with behavior change methods and measurement.
• Fluency in local dialects of Kamwe and/or Margi is desired.

Salary, benefits and conditions

• Salary is competitive depending on qualifications and experience.
• Positive atmosphere of dynamism and motivated team setting.
• Atmosphere of a forefront professional and flexible NGO with a unique new development approach.
• Annual, Maternity and Paternity leave benefits.
• Transport costs and communication allowance.
• Training and capacity building program and intensive mentorship by expat team.
• Life Insurance covering accident, disability and related benefits.
• Health Insurance covering employee and family.
• Pension benefits.
• Atmosphere of diversity committed to providing equal employment opportunity, forbidding discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national or ethnic origin, age and disability, with respect to policies and visions.
• Other Labour best practices apply.

Job Location: Michika, Adamawa State, Nigeria.