Cluster Coordinator US Non-profit Careers – Heifer International
Job Title: Cluster Coordinator
Organization: Heifer International
Duty Station: Uganda
About US:
Heifer International, an international not-for-profit organization founded in 1944 in the United States of America, works with resource constrained families in 125 countries worldwide to develop innovative solutions to the underlying causes of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation.
Job Summary: The East Africa Youth Inclusion Program (EAYIP) Cluster Coordinator, under the guidance of the EAYIP Social Capital and Cluster Manager, will provide leadership on hub business and technical guidance to the business operations of the agricultural value chain enterprises in the Cluster for the EAYIP. S/he will ensure increased production and productivity in the agribusinesses which are the key outcome of the project. Leading and working through a team of Cluster personnel and other consortium Staff. S/ he will provide technical guidance and support to producer organization boards, staff and farmers on Agricultural enterprise production and productivity issues.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Program Effectiveness (50%)
- Lead the Cluster team including consortium staff to develop practical strategies to increase income production and productivity within the respective cluster through use of relevant input on poultry, horticulture, staple crops, animal health & husbandry, feed/nutrition, water management system etc.
- Lead the development of a farm business model as a profitable sustainable and growth proposition to smallholder farmer, which could be used to replicate and advise interested farmers particularly youth to adopt dairy, poultry, horticulture, staple crops farming.
- Lead and support the Cluster team in designing a system and implement plans to support Producer organizations to setup robust business leadership extension systems and link producer organizations to input and service providers.
- Support the design and implementation of appropriate curricula to help the cluster office plan and implement training programs that relate to the poultry, horticulture, staple crops farming and dairy enterprise management.
- With the guidance of the Social Capital and Cluster Manager, design and lead systems to streamline gender and youth activities which promote production and productivity within the cluster.
- Lead the Cluster team in designing a program that can select and support the development of model farms and put in place strategies to upscale adoption of productivity enhancement technologies.
Management and Compliance (30%)
- Working closely with the Regional Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (MLE) Manager: and MLE Officer to create, execute and monitor action plans to support Cluster office value chains namely poultry, horticulture & livestock data bases at youth farmer business associations with a view of the enterprises to use the data for improving management and profitability of the enterprises.
- Ensure compliance with contractual obligations and procedures of donor.
Partnership and Engagement (20%)
- Coordinate cluster team and external partnerships to bring best farm practice to the project.
- Provide leadership to the Cluster team in strategy development and creative initiatives to nurture and build linkages between producer organizations, local governments, private sector Business Development Services (BDS) providers and other development players.
- Represent EAYIP in various local stakeholder meetings, workshops, conferences and shared learning events.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant must hold a Bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Animal science or other related field, with five (5) years’ managerial experience in Entrepreneurship development, Business Development and management, Agricultural production, Agricultural value chain management, agriculture development with at least three (3) years’ experience of how cooperatives work.
- Master’s degree in Agriculture Economics, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Development or other related field or a related field, plus at least five (5) years’ experience in value chain competitiveness, crop and/or Livestock production management with a background in Agricultural enterprise development and management.
- Experience in developing private public partnerships especially at country level working in matrix reporting environment.
- Possess the experience and ability to articulate Agriculture as a financial viable business proposition at both the farm and producer organization.
- Clear understanding of the Agricultural value chain and Heifer’s Value based model.
- Proven team leadership, project management, motivational and supervisory skills with ability to train and work cooperatively with a diverse staff.
- Demonstrated knowledge of the latest developments in advancing good/best practices in Agricultural value chain development that reaches youth, and underprivileged.
- Demonstrated creativity, ability to think systematically, willingness and ability to incorporate innovative solutions and design catalytic activities within the production dairy value chain (e.g. the concept of business development services provision).
- Demonstrated experience in setting robust and sustainable extension systems for producer organizations. This requirement is in line with the need to have built-in exit strategies within the project as a measure of ensuring that there are self-sustaining businesses by project’s end.
- Having a business approach to dairy farmer with a passion for farmer development and being completely farmer centric.
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience in facilitating development of farm-level business plans and feasibility studies including the computation of the associated key financial ratios and benchmarks.
- Experience in implementing supply promotion/ stimulation strategies in the context of dairy sub-sector and other agricultural sub-sectors
- Computer literacy, including facility with Word, Excel, and other relevant Microsoft Office Suite applications, as well as any other databases.
- Proficient in communicating in English and local languages in Eastern Uganda, oral and written.
How to Apply:
Persons who meet the specific job requirements for the position above should send their cover letter with a Curriculum Vitae (CV) indicating two professional referees to: heiferuganda@heifer.org
Deadline: 18th February 2019 by 5.00pm
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