Country: Kyrgyzstan
Closing date: 16 May 2017
Background on ACTED
Since 1993, as an international non-governmental organization, ACTED has been committed to immediate humanitarian relief to support those in urgent need and protect people’s dignity, while co-creating longer term opportunities for sustainable growth and fulfilling people’s potential. ACTED endeavors to respond to humanitarian crises and build resilience; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; co-construct effective governance and support the building of civil society worldwide by investing in people and their potential. We go the last mile: ACTED’s mission is to save lives and support people in meeting their needs in hard to reach areas. With a team of 4,300 national staff 300 international staff, ACTED is active in 35 countries and implements more than 450 projects a year reaching over 11 million beneficiaries.
Country profile
ACTED has been active in Kyrgyzstan since 2000, and operates in the Jalalabat, Osh, Batken, and Naryn regions with a staff of over 150 people. ACTED in Kyrgyzstan contributes to poverty reduction by decreasing the impact of the world recession through adding value to labour migration, improving the food security of vulnerable people, supporting local initiatives for development, reducing the risks to natural disasters to decrease socio-economic damage and resolving cross border conflicts for stable socio-economic development.
In June 2010, a violent crisis broke out in the Ferghana valley, Southern Kyrgyzstan, whereby close to 1,900 houses were burnt and approximately 400,000 people were displaced. Following a year of providing predominantly emergency assistance, 2011 has seen ACTED Kyrgyzstan continue to give emergency aid while also assisting in the recovery phase of the country’s development. This has included involvement in health, education, and economic development – partly concerning food distributions and housing constructions for those whose homes were lost. Throughout, ACTED has supported the humanitarian agencies with REACH – an online interactive mapping tool that incorporates socioeconomic data and highlights potential sources of disputes.
Today, ACTED continues the shift from emergency and reconstruction towards peace-building, conflict mitigation, Disaster Risk Reduction and long term development working with local communities.
Position profile
1. Coordination
Support the development and maintenance of a coherent agriculture and rural development strategy across ACTED's areas of intervention in Kyrgyzstan.
Promote harmonization of approaches and methodologies across the different agriculture and rural development projects by developing and monitoring use of common tools, as well as creating opportunities for experience sharing and learning.
Brief Project Managers about main agriculture and rural development issues, and updating them on a regular basis.
Organize internal agriculture and rural development meetings on a monthly basis.
Along with AMEU, develop and oversee the implementation of appropriate data collection and analysis instruments, methodologies (e.g. survey questionnaires, focus group discussions, key-informant interviews) and data/information dissemination/utilization plans.
2. Technical Leadership
Define agriculture and rural development project implementation modalities and methodologies (including, but not limited to technical specifications, identification and registration of beneficiaries, distribution and sensitization).
Lead the development of all technical tools and technical advocacy related to agriculture and rural development projects (ToRs for consultants and evaluators, ad hoc reports, capitalization reports…).
Be a source of proposals in sectorial innovation and ensure the research and the documentary synthesis of (climate-smart) agriculture and rural development fields.
Analyse the appropriateness, adequacy and potential impact of all interventions in the agriculture and rural development sector based on known contexts and needs.
Provide technical support to the Project Managers and other agriculture and rural development staff to implement the ACTED agriculture and rural development projects to a high quality standard.
Liaise with agriculture and rural development technical staff on a regular basis to ensure technical assistance is provided to projects when needed.
Disseminate tools, research, best practices and lessons learned internally and externally through publications, networks, working groups, events, and conferences.
3. Staff Capacity Building
Participate in the recruitment and training of agriculture and rural development sector staff members.
In coordination with Project Managers identify individual training needs and ensure access to training and professional development opportunities appropriate to the skill gaps and needs.
Provide training to projects teams on ACTED activities and agriculture and rural development best practices.
Develop training material for different trainings to share within the agriculture and rural development project teams.
Develop capacity-building programmes for local actors (including partner NGOs and relevant local services providers) on agriculture and rural development.
4. External Relations
Act as key ACTED representative on agriculture and rural development in Kyrgyzstan.
Ensure external representation of ACTED in agriculture and rural development sector, vis-à-vis country and local authorities, other project stakeholders, donors and partners.
Participate in and report (internally) on agriculture and rural development technical and sectoral meetings, clusters and working groups involving all relevant stakeholders such as donors, NGOs, UN Agencies, inter-governmental institutions.
Ensure effective coordination and collaboration with key stakeholders and partners, i.e. NGOs, civil society organizations, community groups, and government counterparts who are working on agriculture and rural development.
Identify opportunities to collaborate and coordinate efforts with other organizations to ensure our activities build upon - rather than replicate - the work of others.
5. Project Development
Collect and analyse primary and secondary data related to the agriculture and rural development sector in Kyrgyzstan.
Analyse the activities in the agriculture and rural development sector and relevant stakeholders.
Identify the needs of the most vulnerable populations through regular visits and literature review, and through the design and implementation of relevant needs assessments in close collaboration with AMEU.
Lead agriculture and rural development project conceptualization workshops.
Provide technical inputs into proposal design and ensure new or adapted projects for the agriculture and rural development sector focus on maximizing efficiencies, impact and integrated approaches.
Qualifications
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in food security, agriculture, rural development, international development studies or a related field
• Fluent French (written and spoken), excellent writing and communication skills;
• Prior work experience with an INGO in the agriculture and/or rural development sector
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment;
• Good organisational and prioritisation skills;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office;
Conditions
EU Volunteer benefits include: subsistence allowances in line with EU Aid Volunteer daily allowances (330.02 euros per month), coverage of all accommodation in the ACTED guesthouse, travel costs, a luggage allowance of 100 kg, provision of medical, repatriation, and life insurance, reimbursement of visas and vaccinations costs and resettlement allowance.
How to apply:
Please send, in English, your cover letter, CV to jobs@acted.org
Ref : AGRI EUAV /KYR