Country: Jamaica
Region: North America
Partner: Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA)
Work sector: Agriculture; Community Economic Development
Language requirement: None
Positions available: 2
Projected departure: May 22, 2025
Duration: 12 months
Project description
The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in Jamaica has requested the support of a Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV) is needed to serve as a Water and Soil Specialist. Parish-level Extension Officers from the RADA are stretched to be able to adequately work with communities to build the organizational capacity and technical skills of community organizations focused on agriculture. The aim of this Response position is to enhance parish-level extension capacity for the RADA in water and soil.
The PCRV will support RADA to discover, design and adapt training materials aligned to build capacity of colleagues and farmers. The Water and Soil Specialist will visit a sampling of farmer groups and hold focus group discussions on areas of opportunity and need as understood by the groups, create and submit an initial findings report to their supervisor, do technical extension work, and with RADA staff colleagues, meet with relevant local, parish and national government, public and private sector entities to examine ways to collaborate and leverage partnerships for effective service provision. The overall goal of this assignment is to assist the PCRV’s assigned parish and also provide training of trainers and other training materials for two other parishes.
Candidates selected for this position will be arriving in Jamaica together as a group, so while the departure dates for the whole group could change, dates cannot be changed for individual candidates.
Required skills
• Master’s degree or equivalent in a field relevant to soil and water conservation
• 2 years’ experience in sustainable soil and water conservation and management practices and technologies
• 2 years’ organizational capacity development
• 3 years of international development experience in either national level or community-based
• Experience in assessment and report writing; training and facilitation,
• Working knowledge of qualitative research methodologies
• Ability to live and work under challenging emotional and physical conditions
• Excellent interpersonal skills with demonstrated flexibility in cross-cultural environment
• Ability to engage at all levels – community to policy
• High tolerance for ambiguity and high level of flexibility
Living conditions
Learn more about the Volunteer experience in Jamaica: Get detailed information on culture, communications, housing, and health/crime statistics in order to make a well-informed decision about serving.
Medical considerations
Before you apply, please review medical clearance and legal clearance to learn about the process.
