Austrian Development Agency: Field Officer Vacancy
More information can be found here: https://www.staff.am/en/field-officer-6
Job description:
The Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC), is looking for a Field Officer (locally contracted, full time, f/m) for the project “EU Green Agriculture Initiative in Armenia” (EU-GAIA) to work in the three Northern Marzes in Armenia with duty station of Vanadzor.
The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) has been delegated by the European Union (EU) to implement a strategic project focusing on development of Green Agriculture in Armenia (EU-GAIA). The overall objective of the action is to contribute to the realization of shared and balanced inclusive growth in the Northern provinces of Armenia through boosting green agriculture and enhancing local value added by focusing on the following specific objectives:
Specific Objective 1: The policy, legal and institutional environment is conducive to green agriculture development;
Specific Objective 2: Selected agribusinesses have better access to infrastructure, green technologies, good agricultural practices and markets;
Specific Objective 3: Selected agribusinesses are more competitive through access to inputs, equipment, infrastructures and services;
Specific Objective 4: Selected organic agribusinesses are more competitive through access to inputs, equipment, infrastructures and services;
The project which is worth 11.7 Mio. Euros will be implemented over a period of 42 months. To support the ADC Office for Technical Cooperation in Yerevan (OTC) in ensuring a successful implementation of this project, ADA is recruiting an experienced Field Officer to work in Vanadzor office starting from April 2020.
Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) has a long-standing partnership with the Government of Armenia, which has been a priority partner country since 2012. The Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of the ADC, supports its partner countries in implementing programmes and projects and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ADA’s focus in Armenia lies on projects in agriculture and good governance.
Further background information and documents regarding ADC’s engagement in Armenia are available on our homepage www.entwicklung.at.
Job responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the EU-GAIA Project Team Leader the incumbent will be responsible for implementing and monitoring of all activities under the Specific Objectives 1, 2 and 4 as well as monitoring of Specific Objective 3 of the Action. The Field Officer will support value chain studies and market analysis, support identification of the beneficiary agribusinesses, liaise with local and marz administration, extension service providers and other local stakeholders. H/She will organize capacity development activities, training, demo farm visits and other events and serve as the resource persons conveying local context and interacting with the beneficiaries. The Field Officer will also assist the Project Manager and component leaders in terms of reporting on the project internal M&E indicators progress and data collection.
The position is based in the EU-GAIA Field Office in Vanadzor (North Armenia).
Specific Duties
- Support effective implementation of the Specific Objectives 1,2, and 4;
- Monitor the effective implementation of Specific Objective 3;
- Conduct identification of agribusinesses willing to participate in the project and organize capacity development measures in cooperation with the other team members;
- Support identification of the farmers and agribusinesses willing to be organic;
- Liaise with marz and local authorities, extension service providers and other local stakeholders to assure achievement of the project results;
- Support identification of the potential demonstration sites for introduction of the green technologies and good agricultural practices and maintain regular contact with the demo site owners to arrange visits of the farmers to the demo sites;
- Support identification of the partnerships with the post-harvest operators;
- Support exchange of experience and dissemination of the information among the farmers and other stakeholders;
- Constantly monitor the local environment and ensure data collection within assigned scope of duties ensuring compliance to gender safeguards, environmental and social standards;
- Support field visits from Yerevan office and project partners;
- Perform other duties as required by the Team Leader.
Required qualifications
- Education in agriculture, environment, agricultural economics, public or business administration, or equivalent work experience;
- At least 3 years of relevant working experience preferably in agriculture development projects; knowledge of inclusive market system development is an asset;
- Good knowledge of Armenian agriculture and local context;
- Understanding of international development cooperation principles and quality standards is highly desirable;
- Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, and an ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities;
- Good written and oral communication/reporting, presentation skills in English and Armenian are required;
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; ability to work in multinational and multicultural environment;
- Demonstrated gender, diversity and environmental competence, ability to integrate the gender perspective into tasks and activities;
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, especially Outlook, Word and Excel applications;
- Adherence to the highest standards of ethics and integrity;
- Good communication/reporting skills in English and Armenian are required;
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; ability to work in multinational and multicultural environment;
- Flexibility to adjust working hours to actual workload, as required;
- Ability to work under pressure and travel in the marzes up to 60% of the work time;
- Valid driving license category B with minimum 3 years of safe driving experience.
Required candidate level: Senior
Additional information
The assignment is scheduled to commence on 01 April 2020. The duration of the initial contract is for 12 months with possible extension subject to successful performance.
All applications are due by 8 March 2020. If you wish to apply for this position, please send your Cover Letter and CV, as well as other relevant documents to [email protected] with the subject line "Field Officer".
Women are particularly encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence and no application fees or information with respect to bank account details are required by ADA for our recruitment process. Please note that in the event of an invitation for an interview, ADA is unable to reimburse costs incurred. Candidates must expect that references from previous employers will be requested by ADA. No phone calls please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
ADA retains the discretion to re-advertise the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.
You can apply online via staff.am or follow the below application procedure.