Job Posting: 23/May/2025
Closure Date: 06/Jun/2025, 11:59:00 PM
Organizational Unit: FRETH – FAO Representation in Ethiopia
Job Type: Non-staff opportunities
Type of Requisition: NPP (National Project Personnel)
Grade Level: N/A
Primary Location: Ethiopia-Addis Ababa
Duration: Six months with possibility of extension
Post Number: N/A
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device
- FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture
- Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply
- Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO’s values
- FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination
- All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
- All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
FAO’s commitment to environmental sustainability is integral to our strategic objectives and operations.
Organizational Setting
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the 2030 Agenda through its Strategic Framework, promoting efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, nutrition, environment, and life, leaving no one behind.
FAO Country Offices, guided by the Strategic Framework, provide policy advice, technical assistance, and core services to countries in FAO’s mandated areas. These offices implement country-specific priorities outlined in their Country Programming Frameworks (CPFs) and aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), ensuring efficient operations with adequate human and financial resources.
FAO Ethiopia country office works in close collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and other relevant government institutions implements a various intervention aimed at promoting sustainable crop production systems, providing related technical assistance and policy advice, enhancing access to knowledge and technology, promoting seed systems and genetic resources and supporting appropriate and timely response to food security challenges and emergencies.
Reporting Lines
Under the overall supervision and guidance of the FAO Representative in Ethiopia (FAOR) and the direct supervision of the Better Production Team Leader, in close collaboration with the FRETH Programme implementing teams, the Crop Production and Irrigation Team Leader will provide technical advice and input to the Country Programme Framework (CPF) development and implementation for efficient, cost-effective and impactful interventions of FRETH crop production and irrigation programmes and projects ensuring alignment to the needs of the country. Furthermore, the incumbent will provide leadership to the crop production, plant protection and irrigation specialists in line with the CPF and FAO’s Four Betters.
Technical Focus
The technical focus areas for the incumbent will be: (a) Identifying bottlenecks in the country’s crop production, plant protection irrigation development programs and come up with appropriate and innovative solutions; (b) Participating in crop production forums and events as FAO crop production technical advisor; (c) Supporting the establishment of appropriate community level FAO supported sites to demonstrate crop production best practices (d) documenting FAO supported crop production and irrigation success stories and lessons learned.
Tasks and responsibilities
In particular, the incumbent will be responsible for fulfilling the following specific tasks:
• Provide overall leadership, guidance and oversight to Crop Production, Irrigation Management, Plant Protection and agricultural extension interventions
• Coordinate the identification and documentation of constraints and challenges in crop production, irrigation management, agricultural extension and plant protection and development of innovative sustainable solutions to the impediments.
• Oversee the formulation of innovative intervention ideas to guide crop unit project proposal development in line with FRETH CPF, UNSDCF and FAO’s global corporate level strategic objectives.
• Guide the formulation and submission of crop unit project proposals to funding partners.
• Provide leadership and guidance on the formulation and implementation of crop unit project workplans including documenting project results and lessons learned in line with project reporting and visibility requirements.
• Provide technical support including expert advice to relevant government, private sector entities and other development partners on crop production, irrigation management, and plant protection towards attainment of country food and nutrition security targets
• Coordinate the provision of FAO technical support to the government on collection and maintenance of crop production and irrigation development data to facilitate performance monitoring toward attainment of set targets and sharing of customized information with relevant stakeholders.
• Provide technical support and for regular review of the national seed system and to the designing of intervention to address bottlenecks and challenges in a sustainable manner.
• Provide support on policy review to foster sustained improvement of operating environment that allow farmers and other value chain players to contribute to the overall performance and competitiveness of the Ethiopia agriculture sector.
• Provide leadership on gender mainstreaming during crop production and irrigation development project formulation and implementation as well as generation of data to track progress.
• Coordinate the identification of relevant R&D topics that can facilitate unlocking Ethiopia’s agriculture sector and share ideas with relevant agriculture sector R&D partners / platforms.
• Participate in the preparation and review of FRETH field programme/project and thematic work plans to ensure technical consistency.
• Perform any other duties as required
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
• Candidate should be a national of Ethiopia.
• Advanced university degree in Agriculture or related fields
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in crop production programme management.
• Working knowledge of English and working knowledge of the duty station language (Amharic).
FAO Core Competencies
• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
Technical/Functional Skills
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work
• Extent and relevance of experience in crop production
• Extent and relevance of experience in crop production
• Familiarity with Ethiopia agrifood systems transformation program
Selection Criteria
• Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge on crop production and protection
• Extent of experience and knowledge on crop production project implementation
• Extent of knowledge and experiences in working with various stakeholders, including UN, Government, NGOs, private sector, academics, and others
• Extent of experience in doing similar work/ assignment
• Experience with donor relations will be considered an asset.
• Familiarity with FAO’s work in Ethiopia and African region will be considered an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in working with government partners, UN Agencies and other stakeholders dealing with health-related matters.
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.
FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.
HOW TO APPLY
• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.
If you need help or have queries, please create a one-time registration with FAO’s client support team for further assistance: https://fao.service-now.com/csp
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