District Field Technicians, EU Project Food Security Response (6 posts)

Overview

Coordinate project activities and support agricultural practices

You have:

• National of Ghana
• Diploma or bachelor’s degree in agriculture and any related discipline
• 3 years of experience in agricultural extension service delivery, with at least 1 year experience in the project locations and 2 years of relevant experience in agricultural development and/or project implementation
• Working knowledge of English (proficient – level C)

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-31 by supporting the transformation to More efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, for Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment and a Better life, leaving no one behind.

The FAO Representation in Ghana is the body in charge of ensuring liaison between FAO and the Government of Ghana and is the first port of call for analysing and appraising government assistance requests; identifying, formulating, implementing and monitoring all FAO programmes and projects; managing all phases of the project cycle for national projects for which operational and budget holder responsibilities have been assigned by the Technical Cooperation Department; identifying opportunities for collaboration, and mobilizing technical and operational support from the Regional Office, Headquarters and other funding sources as appropriate. The FAO Ghana Office has an Assistant FAOR responsible for coordinating all activities relating to programmes of the Office.

Global challenges to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition remain, and have been worsened by climate change while the combined effects of the COVID 19-pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and other factors are deepening the plights of households in many countries, including West Africa and Ghana. In Ghana, from the November 2022 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an approximately 19% of the analyzed population were found to either be under pressure, in crises or in emergency food insecurity situation. Overall, 6.2% of the population were identified to be vulnerable (food insecure) with smallholder farm households having been the hardest hit given their economic vulnerability.

Climate change could cause yield losses to most rainfed cereals, especially maize, up to 16 to 21 percent in 2050, compared to a baseline without climate change. Yields decrease due to climate change are also expected other crops like sorgum, millet, groundnut and vegetables while increase in the share of livestock affected by droughts is expected from 13 to 39 percent. Weak resilience to climate impacts lack of resources to acquire productive inputs are some of the causes of low productivity, and therefore low income and low availability of nutrient dense diverse foods at the household level.

As a response to the current situation and foreseeable future food security crisis, The Government of Ghana and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations with funding support of the European Union (EU) is implementing EU Food Security Response in Northern Ghana (GCP/GHA/040/EC) project (2023-2026) targeting at least 10000 households. The project is being implemented over three agricultural seasons to increase crop and livestock production, including 6 000 maize farmers who will be supported to produce 18 000 Mt of maize over three years in targeted districts; 2 400 millet farmers who will be supported to produce 5,184 Mt of millet; and 4 200 sorghum farmers to produce 8 517 Mt of sorghum over the three years in the targeted districts. In addition, farmers, especially women and youth, and value chain actors will be supported with capacity and access to post-harvest technologies along the groundnut, soybean and vegetable (tomato) value chains with farmers’ capacity on climate change adaptation among others enhanced.

An integrated approach to sustainable food production and the resilience of food systems has become all-time important than ever. The project will promote crop-specific, agro-ecological systems and approaches and support the sustainable development of maize, millet, sorghum, soyabean, groundnut, vegetables (tomato), poultry, piggery value chains. In selected project locations, direct agricultural inputs provision, accompanied by support to climate-adapted agricultural practices, provision of improved grain storage technologies, training on post-harvest practices, promotion of organic fertilizer use, provision of solar powered irrigation solutions and application of other climate sensitive and sustainable agri-techniques, promotion of integrated pests and diseases management approaches and facilitation of access to market as well as value addition for crops produced will help in resolving some of the production and post-harvest bottlenecks and contribute to achieving food security, and enhanced resilience to future shocks and disasters.

Reporting Lines

The District Field Technicians will be under the direct supervision of the FAO Representative to Ghana, and the direct technical guidance of the Technical Expert, in close collaboration with the Field Office Manager and the Assistant FAO representative to Ghana

Technical Focus

The District Field Technicians will work together with other technical team to contribute to FAO strategic framework in promoting Climate Change Mitigating and Adapted Agri-food Systems (BE1 and Resilient Agri-food systems (BL4) while ensuring Gender Equality and Rural Women’s Empowerment (BL1) through the project interventions. The project will seek to better the environment by promoting an agri-food system that mitigates climate change from climate smart agriculture approaches and practices while building resilience of farmers along selected commodity value chains. This will be achieved through promotion of organic fertilizer use, provision of solar powered irrigation solutions and application of other climate sensitive and sustainable agri-techniques such as through conservation agriculture and agroecological approaches.

Tasks and responsibilities

The District Field Technicians, working under the overall supervision and guidance of the FAO Representative to Ghana, the technical supervision of the Lead Technical Officer (LTO), and under the direct supervision Field Office Manager and AFAOR in charge of Programme and in close collaboration with the Technical Adviser and Project Steering Committee, will lead the coordination and management of the project, and will carry out the following duties:

• Identify the beneficiary communities of the project in close collaboration with District Agriculture Department and project team • Liaise between beneficiary communities, farmer groups, and project partners for the implementation of Project activities. • Coordinate with implementing partners the planning and execution of project activities at district levels. • Supervise the activities implemented by project partners, guaranteeing quality and transparency, according to the terms and conditions stipulated in project document and Letters of Agreements. • Contact community leaders, encourage farmers to become group members and train famers on good dynamics and cohesion • Participate in planning meetings, implement, follow up, monitor and evaluate project activities at district level in accordance with the project M&E strategy. • Undertake collection and processing of data for monitoring, surveys, assessments, yield measurement and other project needs. • Guide the establishment of FFS groups and FFS learning sessions; train partners and beneficiaries on production protocols of the project • Support to register beneficiary communities and farmer groups and keep database of beneficiaries and results achieved at district level. • Distribute, Monitor and Track inputs supply for project activities • Monitor project implementation activities at district level and submit bimonthly reports • Follow-up on implementation of Letters of Agreement with planned activities and provide technical assistance to implementing partners. • Perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• National of Ghana • Diploma or bachelor’s degree in agriculture and any related discipline • 3 years of experience in agricultural extension service delivery, with at least 1 year experience in the project locations and 2 years of relevant experience in agricultural development and/or project implementation in an area of FAO's activities in the country. • Working knowledge of English (proficient – level C)

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus • Teamwork • Communication • Building Effective Relationships • Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Experience working with smallholder farmers in northern Ghana will be an added advantage • Fluency with local language in the project locations will be added advantage • The position requires good technical knowledge of the climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana • Extent and relevance of experience in project management and coordination • Extensive knowledge and understanding of climate smart agriculture and resilience of especially small holder farming households • Extent and relevance of experience in management of computer programs such as Excel, Word, Power Point and statistical software. • The candidate must demonstrate high communication skills, both verbal and written, negotiation, leadership, vision, strategy, coordination and teamwork

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)
• Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
• For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 2 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: fao.org