Agriculture and Livestock Senior Program Officer at Mercy Corps

General Position Summary

The Senior Program Officer – Agriculture & Livestock provides field-level managerial and technical oversight to the day-to-day implementation, coordination, supervision and provision of technical support including capacity building to the program team, He/She will work closely both with management and support staff (including finance, operation, MEL, CARM, Protection and program) in Gwoza, Dikwa, Damboa and Maiduguri to ensure the day to day activities are implemented according to schedule, budget and required quality.

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Collaborate with other team members for effective integration between other services like Food assistance, MPCA and Nutrition services.
• Collaborate with Local authorities and other partners to harmonize different efforts for better impact and sustainability.
• Able to learn and update his/ her information or knowledge to adapt to the changing situation and context.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Manage the Livestock and agriculture activities implemented in assigned LGAs and ensure that staff are effectively engaged in their tasks.
• Train targeted beneficiaries on Permgardening methods & / climate-smart agriculture and Livestock production through formal training, on-job mentorship and supportive supervision to ensure that it is adopted and practised during the dry and wet seasons.
• Supervise day-to-day field-level implementation of planned Livestock / agricultural activities i.e. distribution of Small ruminants, Arable crops, Kitchen gardening and backyard poultry farming.
• Coordinate and or supervise community mobilization and Agriculture and Livestock activities that promote increased consumption of nutritious diets.
• Ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria.
• Raise procurement requests to initiate procurement process following MC policy and periodically evaluate and update project procurement and supply needs.
• Draft monthly financial forecast and quarterly financial need forecast in line with the detailed project activity plan / Monthly activity plans and send it to Program Manager
• Consolidate and submit quality Livestock and agriculture and related activity reports (including success stories and lessons learned reports).
• Closely collaborate with other sector teams at the field level to ensure an integrated Agriculture approach internally with MC sectors and externally with complementary activities implemented by other nutrition actors.
• Discuss and follow up on any technical problems related to agriculture and livestock programming and brainstorm solutions.
• Ensure sound monitoring and joint supervision of program activities in close collaboration with the LGA Agriculture and Livestock Office.
• Actively participate in area-level Agriculture and Livelihoods and food security sector meetings.
• Serve as technical focal person for all field-level engagements.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Track project teams’ daily attendance and validate monthly attendance for supervisees.
• Communicate with HR for necessary staff meetings, performance reviews, appraisals.
• Work with the team to develop a detailed project implementation plan and orient the project teams on their roles and responsibilities
• Identify specific technical gaps in project implementation teams and in liaison with the Technical Advisor organize internal training for them.
• Organize LGA-level weekly nutrition team meetings and provide feedback on improvements, gaps and standardization of the service provision and reporting.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Train and support Village Agents and Agriculture Extension Workers and make sure they transmit/convey messages clearly to targeted participants.
• Creates and maintains the relationship with local Agriculture, Nutrition and other authorities to link services with the existing LGA structure smoothly,
• Always upholds the image and values of Mercy Corps.

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Knowledge and Experience

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in agriculture or other related fields, a relevant master’s degree is a plus.
• Minimum (4) years experience in nutrition-sensitive agriculture, Livestock programming and/or food security and livelihood programming, policy or research, with 2 years experience in a resource-challenged setting. Substantial hands-on experience in social and Behaviour change programming is required.
• Familiarity with the intervention areas.
• Knowledge of Agriculture and Livestock assessments and or surveys is a plus.
• Microsoft Office Skills (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word).
• Excellent analytical, written and oral communication skills.
• Willing and able to be based within remote areas, where services are limited.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team, including cross-cultural teams.
• Fluency in Hausa, Kanuri, English and or Marghi