Mercy Corps Senior Agriculture Specialist

The Technical Support Unit provides technical expertise to Mercy Corps field programs to support program development and program quality in several technical areas, including food security, agriculture, natural resource management and climate change. The TSU enhances the ability of Mercy Corps to influence thinkers, donors and practitioners, helping capture key program-related innovations and lessons throughout the agency, ensuring these are applied and publicized internally and externally. While seconded to the TOPS program management team, the Senior Agriculture Specialist will be housed within the Mercy Corps TSU and will support the achievement of TSU goals.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Agriculture Specialist will work within the Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) program, a global Leader with Associates (LWA) agreement from USAID’s Office of Food for Peace, led by Save the Children. The objective of TOPS is to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the USAID’s Office of Food for Peace development and emergency food aid programs by improving the technical knowledge and operations and promoting food aid and commodity program best practices through coordination and delivery of institutional strengthening and capacity building support for current Title II awardees and prospective awardees worldwide. The Senior Agriculture Specialist will manage Mercy Corps’ contribution to the TOPS consortium, providing leadership and technical expertise for agriculture and natural resource management sector activities.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Develop and implement a knowledge management and program learning strategy around the issues of agriculture, livestock and natural resource management, centering on a set of core competencies that field extension staff need for effective food security programming.
• In conjunction with Mercy Corps and TOPS technical staff and other stakeholders, design and/or facilitate technical training workshops and other learning activities domestically and internationally. Facilitation may include planning, establishing logistics arrangements and leading sessions as needed.
• Facilitate the TOPS Agricultural Task Force and establish/ maintain communities of practice of subject matter experts and practitioners in food security programming in order to create, share and expand tools, best practices and trainings that will increase the capacity of Title II grantees and others in core competency areas.
• Identify areas of complementarity with other TOPS technical areas, including nutrition, knowledge management, social and behavioral change, gender and monitoring and evaluation, and work with other members of TOPS management team to explore and promote integration between sectors.
• Facilitate analysis and synthesis of lessons learned and document successful program approaches for improving Title II programs through written documentation and new media.
• Together with other TOPS representatives, technically evaluate concept papers and proposals submitted as part of the TOPS Small Grant Award program.
• Facilitate TOPS leadership in emerging themes in food security programming, such as resilience, and enable practitioners to access the latest policy and best practice materials on these themes for agriculture and NRM.
• Ensure field perspectives are reflected in all project results, activities and materials.
• Work with TOPS team to complete high quality deliverables in a timely manner.
• Coordinate with Mercy Corps’ Technical Support Units and field programs to enable organization’s technical capacity to inform TOPS implementation, ensure the agency understands and benefits from TOPS activities, and strengthen the performance of Mercy Corps’ field staff in Title II and other food security programs.
• Participate in larger agricultural, NRM and food security networks to disseminate products and project learning.
• Establish and maintain professional connections with USAID representatives in the US and abroad, in particular technical experts in agriculture and NRM.
• Other duties as agreed with Mercy Corps and TOPS Program.

Accountability

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Organizational Learning

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve - we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

ACCOUNTABILITY:

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Chief of Party, Save the Children; Food Health and Nutrition Director, Mercy Corps

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Technical Specialists in Nutrition, Knowledge Management, Behavior Change, Gender, M&E and Commodity Management participating in TOPS Management Team; Members of Mercy Corps’ Food, Health and Nutrition Technical Support Unit and other Technical Units

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• Advanced degree at Masters level or above (M.A., M.S., MPP, MPA, MBA, or Ph.D.) or at least 8-10 years of work experience.
• A minimum of 5-7 years of experience leading agriculture activities (including training) for international development and emergency projects, preferably complementary to food security and food aid commodity programs.
• Expertise in natural resource management, behaviorial change methodologies, and monitoring and evaluation of agriculture activities to improve data collection and analysis along with reporting preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to function productively within a consortium.
• Demonstrated ability to provide capacity building within teams and/or with government partners, such as ministries and NGOs so that the team is better able to achieve agriculture results.
• Experience working directly with USAID.
• French and/or Spanish fluency preferred.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

The successful applicant will possess in-depth technical expertise in the agriculture sector combined with experience working within food security programs. Experience with USAID Title II programs is a plus. He/she will have experience developing implementation tools, managing inter-organizational coordination, and leading training or learning events. He/she will be self-motivated and able to think creatively about achieving capacity-building objectives for a global, multi-organizational target audience. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

LIVING CONDITIONS/ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS:

This position is preferably based in Washington DC, with time spent in both Save the Children and Mercy Corps’ offices. The position will entail up to 30 percent travel to field locations, which may include program areas of sometimes high security risk.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Staff are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

How to apply:

Apply online at our website:
http://mercycorps.silkroad.com/epostings/submit.cfm?fuseaction=app.dspjo...