Project Officer – Agriculture & Livelihood, Nyamira

ABOUT PRACTICAL ACTION

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience, and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK-registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company, and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living.
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimizing their impact on lives and livelihoods.

PRACTICAL ACTION IN KENYA

In Kenya, Practical Action has a long history of addressing systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that transforms their lives, helping communities and government make cities healthier and safer, making agriculture and markets work better for smallholder farmers and supporting communities and government to become more resilient. We use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy services with shapers of policy and practice to achieve our aims.

Practical Action has commenced a five-year project implemented in Kisumu, Homabay, Siaya, Migori, Nyamira, Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia and Vihiga Counties. The project aims to make agriculture an attractive and resilient employer for young people by promoting agricultural livelihoods for the youth underpinned by agroecological principles and practices. The project aims to break the cycles of low productivity and increasing rural poverty, through a holistic approach that will enable young men and women to increase their income through agri-business.

The Project Officer will coordinate the field-level activities in the project intervention areas with the primary responsibility of promoting agribusiness activities among youth ages between 18 – 35 years. The function involves directly supporting young people to start and/or grow their agribusinesses while earning an income to support their livelihoods. This will include supporting the young people’s access to skills and knowledge, finance, and markets as well as working with different stakeholders to ensure an enabling markets and policy environment that supports the growth of youth-led agribusinesses. The role works closely with the technical staff both in the Kenya and UK offices.

The position holder will be expected to directly support the enhancement of personal and economic development of the youth and work with technical experts based in Kenya and the UK to ensure that young people generate a livelihood from agri-business and attain skilled-based education and training; agricultural extension and related services as well as an increase in access to financial services (e.g., financial literacy, generating savings, and access to credit).

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Leadership and Strategic Alignment

• Play a role in contributing to Practical Action’s change ambitions and the Strategic Business Plans.
• Apply agroecological and market systems-focused lens to analyse the nature, causes and scale of the problem we want to address, using a systems approach.

Strengthening Profile, Generating Funding, and Managing Relationships

• Represent Practical Action in the Project area to local government, local communities, NGOs, and other actors when requested to do so.
• Participate in local coordination / networking meetings as required.
• Support effective lesson learning, information management and lesson sharing within
• Practical Action and externally through different medium.
• Develop and maintain professional links with development agencies, government bodies,
• county governments, technical and economic specialists, universities, and other professional
• institutions as required by the project.
• Develop informal networks to assist in the planning and review of work as appropriate.
• Support fundraising initiatives for Practical Action in the agriculture change ambition.

Delivering Quality

• Directly implement the project interventions and ensure the active and meaningful participation of young men and women in agriculture, particularly, youth participation.
• Support the formation of youth-led initiatives and groups and ensure the timely, quality delivery of activities designed and delivered.
• Support the capacity building, training and empowerment of the youth in the project location areas ensuring that support to the youth is timely and as per project expectation.
• Support the production of clear and quality reports that demonstrate good accountability.
• Work effectively with the Senior Project Manager and other teams to ensure that the project is implemented according to contract (in terms of budget, activities and time frame) and that any amendments are cleared in a timely manner.
• Support the project’s effective and systematic monitoring and evaluation and ensure findings are recorded and escalated to guide the continued successful implementation of other projects and inform the development of other new initiatives.
• Ensure sharing between team members, colleagues and peers – both internally and externally thus ensuring that the project is contributing access to relevant knowledge and lessons learning.
• Support the identification and analysis of trends, threats, and risks in youth and livelihoods, building this into research and learning from the project.
• Engage the community and stakeholders during reflections, reviews, and evaluations (using PLA tools), ensuring the voices of the most vulnerable are heard.
• Actively participate in team reflections, identifying learnings and challenges and contributing ideas for adaptive for increased impact.
• Support accountability with communities and stakeholders including the running of feedback and response mechanisms.
• Work with partners (and at times build their capacity) to implement the activities.
• Adhere to and ensure that the principles of safeguarding are embedded in all project planning, implementation, and reporting and that project staff and other stakeholders receive regular sensitization on the same.

PERSON PROFILE

To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

Experience & Knowledge

• Graduate in Agriculture/Agribusiness/Natural Resource Management/Social Science/Development studies or any other relevant subject from a reputable university. Over five (5) years of working experience where at least three (3) years’ experience in a rural development field.
• Proficient in communicating with different stakeholders i.e. youth of rural communities, urban youth, government representatives etc.
• Ability to work with young people and create space for youth leadership.
• Experience working with multi-faceted teams both directly and remotely providing timely support when required.
• Experience in engaging with stakeholders including government, donors, partners, and multilateral agencies and supporting influencing work
• Commitment and understanding of reducing the risk of safeguarding incidents
• Experience leading market-based agro-enterprise initiatives in resource-challenged contexts.

Essential Skills

• An excellent understanding of low input systems and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
• Significant knowledge and understanding of the agricultural sector and climate resilience.
• Strong experience in doing activity planning and implementing in a way that ensures gender and inclusion are embedded strongly.
• Ability to innovate, initiate, and accept change and challenges.
• Good report writing skills.

Desirable Skills

• Existing strong relationships and networks within the change ambition area of interest.
• Knowledge of monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategies.
• Knowledge of gender and safeguarding best practices.

A detailed Job Profile can be accessed from the download section on our website: https://practicalaction.org/careers/vacancies/project-officer-agriculture-livelihood/