Assistant Livelihoods Officer Job in Kenya

Assistant Livelihoods Officer – Samburu

The Position Summary 

The Assistant
Livelihoods officer will be a member of the USAID Nawiri
Resilient Livelihoods Team and directly responsible for implementing
nutrition-sensitive resilient livelihood interventions at sub-county
(prioritized wards) level. These include Climate Smart Agriculture (crop and
fodder) production, market systems linkages, private sector and financial
inclusion support. S/he will work alongside other USAID Nawiri team members in
layering interventions for collective impact at household and community level

Specifically, S/he will
be supporting small scale irrigated crops & fodder production for
diversified household access to nutrient-dense foods, private sector engagement
for access to farm inputs & finance, markets linkages, households economic
strengthening that aims at increasing sustained access to incomes (financial
inclusion), Climate smart agriculture technologies and improved ecological
practices that support Natural resources management. The position is based at
the USAID Nawiri sub-county (sub-office) office level supporting interventions
within the sub-county and prioritized wards – that continuously experience high
rates of acute malnutrition. S/He will work closely with relevant county
officials, CSOs and private sector players involved in livelihoods and food
security & nutrition within their areas of operation.

Essential Job Functions

VISION AND STRATEGY & ITS IMPLEMENTATION

• Facilitate
  community visioning process for resilient livelihoods using community
  participatory appraisal tools


• Coordinate
  with the Ward/ sub-county level of County Government to mobilize actions
  and ensure effective communication channels.


• Coordinate
  with community leaders to facilitate activity integration and targeting of
  participants/groups within selected irrigation schemes. 


• Coordinate
  with the County government to build capacity for poor HHs on appropriate
  crop production systems and relevant climate-smart agriculture approaches
  and technologies 


• Facilitate
  business-to-business linkages for targeted small-scale irrigation
  schemes/farmers associations/groups that include poor and ultra-poor for
  increased access to farm inputs, finance, and markets.


• Facilitate
  Increased access for poor and ultra-poor HH to productivity enhancement
  inputs, climate-smart agriculture, and post-harvest technologies


• Facilitate
  identification of youth and women agri-preneurs and lead support them
  establish interventions; i.e. establish fruit tree nurseries.


• Support
  small-scale vegetable production gardens utilizing home garden techniques
  (permaculture) to promote nutrition-dense vegetables for enhanced
  household consumption and income generation targeting poor households


• Participate
  in monitoring and evaluation of project activities 


• Coordinate
  with the livelihoods officer to develop activities work plans, directly
  implement and report for each activity undertaken


• Mobilize
  communities and support SBC initiatives for transformed practices at the
  household level


• Coordinate
  with public and private service providers (crop husbandry, inputs suppliers,
  aggregators, local financial institutions etc) to reach USAID Nawiri
  participants.


• Collaborate
  with Nawiri health and nutrition staff to integrate messaging into crop
  and livestock production training curriculum.

COMMUNITY AND COUNTY ENGAGEMENT 

• Mobilize
  sub-county and ward level meetings with relevant stakeholders.


• Lead
  community engagement and mobilization activities within the Ward(s) of
  operation 


• Support
  the facilitation of planning meetings and workshops with government, NGO,
  private sector, and community partners to revise and customize
  implementation plans.


• Conduct
  community mobilization and sensitization meetings with ward and
  community-level leaders to enhance investment in crop production. 

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION 

• Assist
  livelihoods and food security officer in activity coordination with local
  government and other implementers at the Subcounty level.


• Participate
  in planning meetings and workshops with government, NGO, private sector,
  and community partners to develop and deliver capacity building of farmers 


• Conduct
  himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to
  bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission

OTHER

• Promote
  and adhere to the principle and objectives of the project and Mercy Corps.


• Participate
  in other USAID Nawiri livelihoods program activities (Livestock and NRM)


• Other
  duties as assigned.

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 to Participants 

• Mercy
  Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward
  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.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• A
  Diploma in an Agriculture-related field (i.e., Agronomy, Agroecology,
  Horticulture, Dryland agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture
  Education & Extension).


• Advanced
  technical certificate holders from reputable institution plus proven
  experience of over 5 years will be considered.  


• Minimum
  2 years of direct implementation of agriculture development
  activities.  Experience working directly with small-scale
  irrigation is an added advantage. 


• Good
  spoken and written English required.


• Must
  be able to work independently once in the field and show initiative.


• Experience
  in farmers’ needs assessment and report writing.


• Demonstrable
  experience in farmers’ training and community mobilization


• Experience
  in community participatory appraisal tools


• Practical
  experience in partnership building and collaboration with government and
  other partners


• Computer
  and basic administrative and organizational skills is a plus.


• Willingness
  to travel extensively throughout the project area.

How to Apply

CLICK HERE TO APPLY