About This Role

The position aims to enhance sustainability, provide technical support to ensure Agriculture & Climate related interventions are increased. The role will involve technical leadership and strategic guidance in Agriculture, Climate resilience, Promotion of technologies that support youth and smallholder farmers to be resilient to climate change while sustaining productivity in all the agriculture food system. Safeguard agricultural livelihoods and food systems of the most vulnerable and at-risk communities while also addressing the underlying vulnerability factors driving risks, disasters, and crises. Enhancing the capacity of young people by promoting the adoption of climate resilient activities that are eco-friendly in Urban and Peri-urban areas.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Ensure all agriculture interventions in Zambia are aligned to national agriculture polices & frameworks (such as the Comprehensive Agriculture Transformation Program).

2. Support LKCD and other local partners in capacity building of agronomic practices that promote increased productivity while maintaining the natural resources (including soils, water and biodiversity) around cropping & grazing lands.

3. Promote Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) using approved models such Regreening, Agro forestry, hydroponics techniques.

4. Ensure compliance with environmentally friendly & sustainable agronomic practices & regulations.

5. Ensure close working relationships with relevant government departments (Ministry of Green Economy, Agriculture, Livestock & fisheries) at national and sub national level.

6. Provide technical support and leadership to LKCDA and local Partners in the Agriculture Production, Climate adaptation & resilience to ensure that parents and care givers produce nutritious foods that meet the dietary needs of children.

7. Work closely with M&E to ensure data on production trends and hectarage is captured and used for adaptive management

8. Support the development of localized climate risk assessments to inform program design and implementation.

9. Working closely with communications department to ensure agriculture & Climate information, education and communication (IEC) materials are in place for effective implementation.

10. Identify and support opportunities for smallholder farmers and youth to access finance and green technologies.

11. Work in an integrated manner with other Thematic leaders to identify Green job initiatives, nutrition sensitive crops/value chains, Productive uses of water, support Production Units / Environmental clubs in schools respectively.

12. Build capacity of local agriculture partners / CBO for effective implementation of agriculture production & climate related intervention in urban and per-urban areas.

Required Experience and Education

• Degree in Agriculture Science, Agricultural economics, Climate Resilience or any other related field with minimum of 7 years’ experience in the relevant field

• Master’s degree in agriculture sciences (Crop Science) or its equivalent is an added advantage with minimum 5 years’ experience

• Experience in Program Management in a complex, international organization preferably NGO context

• Must have Strong agriculture & climate resilience skills with practical experience in CSA, Disaster Risk Reduction / shocks, vulnerability and capacity assessments

• Experience in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and report writing essential

• Should have excellent communications, interpersonal, analytical, decision making, conflict management, negotiation, networking, liaison and donor engagement skills

• Computer literate in Word, Excel, PowerPoint

• Capacity to function well in a team and contribute effectively to team efforts.

Required Competencies

• Support research/Studies on agriculture & climate related topics and produce technical briefs for sharing with key stakeholders.

• Participate and review data collection tools in conducting research/studies to generate lessons learnt for agriculture production & climate resilience intervention.

• Utilize and adapt learning from monitoring and evaluation processes to inform programming.

• Consolidate and review monthly, quarterly and annual agriculture reports for timely submission.

Core Competencies

• Teamwork: the ability to work effectively and collaborate with others; values and respects individual differences.
• Communication: demonstrates empathy and tact when communicating with others and uses a storytelling approach when appropriate.
• Results orientation gets things done; takes proactive steps to achieve organizational goals and quality standards.
• Decision making uses good judgement, critical thinking, and non-traditional ways to evaluate problems and opportunities; reflects and innovates to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Resilience: thrives and grows in rapidly changing, demanding, and complex environments.

Other Required Competencies

• Proven language proficiency in written and spoken English.
• Computer literacy in MS-Word, Excel.
• Interpersonal communication skills
• Sound judgement and ability to work effectively with others at all levels.
• Firm belief in teamwork, gender equality, participatory approach and sustainable development.