Afghanistan: Livelihoods Advisor

Apr 9, 2016 | Concern Worldwide
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Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in the world’s poorest countries. It works in partnership with the very poorest people in these countries, directly enabling them to improve their lives, as well as using its knowledge and experience to influence decisions made at a local, national and international level that can significantly reduce extreme poverty.

Job Purpose: To provide technical advisory support to Non-form Livelihoods Team in Concern Afghanistan Programme in all its livelihoods sector interventions.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

Overall:

  • Review existing livelihoods interventions in the programme and help develop a country livelihoods strategy that is consistent with Concern’s Understanding of Extreme Poverty and reaches both men and women effectively and addresses gender issues appropriately.
  • Provide appropriate technical advice, on the development and implementation of the non-farm livelihoods programme with specific focus on EC funded Projects (Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development -LRRD and Irish Aid Program Fund)
  • Provide technical and institutional support to the country team in the area of Non-farm livelihoods with specific focus on linking small producers to markets. Specifically strengthen the capacity of the District Teams to implement the livelihood components of each project in each district. This includes facilitating partnerships between the target communities and project staff with service providers such as technical institutions, producer and marketing institutions/agencies, financial institutions, other NGO’s and local and international research institutes, Food Security Working groups, and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), MoLSAMD and other line ministries and Private sector.
  • Contribute to donor relations in pursuit of funding opportunities and promote development of new livelihood projects within the umbrella of the country strategic plan and the livelihoods Programme Strategy.
 

Programme Design and Implementation

  • Design Livelihood surveys and assessment protocols that identify livelihoods, its patterns, constraints, opportunities and develop Livelihood Action Plans for rural poor and especially for women in the programme areas.
  • Initiate and lead market assessments (including community led market assessments), value chain analysis, sub-sector analysis, institutional analysis for value addition and product diversification suitable to market demands and consumer preferences.
  • Explore linkages with existing credit institutions and micro finance sector in Afghanistan to the institutions promoted through this project.
  • Provide timely and proper technical input and advice to District Managers and Technical Officers on implementation of activities that help increase production and value addition to off-farms and market based livelihoods appropriate to the programme area.
  • Facilitate the mainstreaming of cross-cutting themes (equality, HIV & AIDS, and DRR) and Concern programming quality principles into Concern’s livelihoods sector. As part of this task the Advisor will ensure that the underlying issues related to equality, risks and vulnerabilities are analysed during needs assessments, and include appropriate measures to address these issues in the project plans.
  • Design gender sensitive and tailored interventions that develop, support and expand small producers' capacity
  • Ensure that all livelihood interventions comply with the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) Certification standards in terms of transparency and accountability.
  • Contribute to the Preparedness for Effective Emergency Response (PEER) of the country programme by developing appropriate livelihoods sector interventions for the PEER plan
  • Work closely with health and nutrition section of PTSU on development interventions that result to the increase of family income and increase of nutrition food specially for target women, girls and young children to improve nutrition impact.
  • In close coordination with community development coordinator (institutional building unit) work to functionalize the community grain banks, enhance the capacity of community institution work of livelihoods sector such as SHG, grain and fodder bank committees, producer groups, and cooperatives.
 

PM&E & Learning

  • Facilitate programme reviews and evaluations as needed
  • Assist in conducting any research or studies to determine the most appropriate market based livelihood interventions in Afghanistan
  • Contribute to reports, case studies and focus group discussions– for both internal and external use
  • Follow research and technical developments in relevant subjects, as far as the working conditions allow, and brief colleagues on developments.
 

Capacity Building & Training

  • Develop capacity of staff on livelihood models, IGA selection, planning and management, etc and provide technical assistance to the staff and project participants on the rollout
  • Organize and facilitate presentations, reports and other documentation on related training events and field programme operations.
  • Undertake regular field visits to train programme field staff and to monitor activities on technical aspects.
 

Networking & Donor Liaison

  • Promote partnerships with international and national agencies working in the Food Security and Livelihoods sector including the development of a capacity development strategy and skills to ensure adequate partner support.
  • Collaborating with other organizations involved in food security and livelihood activities to share information learning and promote replication of innovative approaches.
  • Initiate and maintain relationships and collaboration with relevant national & International development, donor and research institutions
 

Other:

  • Concern considers responding to emergencies as a non-negotiable mandate in its work. As such all Concern employees are required to participate in any emergency preparedness and response actions as per the requirement of the situation. The Livelihoods Advisor agrees to take on such additional responsibilities as may be required by the management.
 

Work targets set for this post over the contract period:

  • Train the CDFs, and Livelihood Staff in conducting market analyses for income generation activities for men and women and the feasibility of initiatives, value chain analyses for different products.
  • Review the accomplishment of LRRD project together with LRRD Project Manager and determine the way forward and advise the Provincial Program Coordinators on areas of adjustment of their plan.
  • Strengthen and implement Concern’s Livelihoods programme activities in line with the CSP
  • Assist the team on how best we can utilize the Faizabad and Yawan nurseries for use of program participant and especially for our beneficiaries. Submit a written report to Country Management Team..
  • Review the livelihoods strategy in line with CSP, taking into account strategies to address inequality and vulnerability.
  • Anchor the market analysis for income generation activities and feasibility of initiatives
  • Develop value chain strategies for specific products in all target districts under IA and LRRD,
  • Develop training curricula and materials to support necessary livelihood training, including the training of market facilitators
  • Lead consultations and formal agreements with traders and institutions .
  • Support the development of training curricula and quality training materials in relation to Livelihood Activities.
Person Specification

Education:

  • Degree level qualification in Agriculture or Agro-Business, or Agro-Economy or Rural Development or Rural Management, Business management with Value Chains Development or related topic

Desirable Education:

  • Master’s degree in relevant fields; further education in relevant fields such as Rangeland Management, Livestock Production, Micro Banking, Rural Extension Services

Experience Required:

  • Minimum five years relevant programme experience in the development context and minimum three years field experience with an NGO in the areas of micro-enterprise development, business development, livelihood, value chain development, income generation and agriculture.
  • Proven work experience of agricultural and livelihood interventions integrated into a Watershed Approach in highly undulated fragile eco zones.
  • Direct experience of integrated programming.
  • Experience in monitoring & Evaluation systems and techniques
  • experience in designing and facilitating agriculture extension systems, training, mentoring and facilitation
  • Proven ability in report writing, research and documentation and experience in proposal writing including Log Frames
  • Excellent communication skills in English both written and verbal. Knowledge of local language Dari (Farsi) is added advantage 

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements:

  • Demonstrated ability to work independently
  • Ability and willingness to work as part of a team
  • Excellent interpersonal skills
  • Proven capacity in incorporating gender equality and participatory approaches in programming
  • Proven analytical and problem solving skills
  • Ability to work under pressure and to strict deadlines
  • Methodical and thorough
  • Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity
  • Empathy with organisational Vision Mission and Values
  • Computer competence (excel, word, power point)
  • Patience & a sense of humor

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net. CV’s should be maximum 4 pages in length.