FAO
Organizational Setting
The Scaling up Climate Resilience Agriculture Project in Agro-ecological Region I & II (SCRALA) project supports the Government of Zambia to strengthen the resilience to climate change risks of vulnerable smallholder farmers in the country’s Agro-Ecological Regions I and II. These regions are facing increasing risks as a result of climate change, primarily variability of rainfall and increased frequency of droughts, which have direct impacts on the agricultural production in these regions.
Within the two Agro-Ecological Regions, smallholder farmers in the five provinces (namely, Eastern, Lusaka, Muchinga, Southern and Western) will be directly targeted by the project, specifically including the following 16 districts: Mambwe, Nyimba, Chongwe, Luangwa, Chirundu, Rufunsa, Chama, Mafinga, Kazungula, Siavonga, Gwembe, Namwala, Shangombo, Senanga, Sesheke and Mulobezi. The direct beneficiaries will represent approximately 946,153 people.
The project aims to increase the resilience to climate change risks of smallholder farmers in target Agro-Ecological Regions. The project will make targeted interventions to capitalize on opportunities to strengthen and promote viable climate-resilient value chains relating to smallholder agriculture in the target regions, specifically targeting value chains that are gender sensitive and provide viable economic opportunities for women.
There three interrelated project outputs: 1) strengthening capacity of farmers to plan for climate risk; 2) strengthening resilient agricultural production and diversification practices (for both food security and income generation); and 3) strengthening farmers’ access to markets and commercialization of introduced resilient agricultural commodities.
FAO will contribute to the Output 2: Resilient agricultural livelihoods are promoted in the face of changing rainfall, increasing drought and occasional floods.
With better planning for and management of climate risk, farmers will be supported to be in an improved position to adapt to climate change by managing water more sustainably, introducing new agricultural practices, adopting new varieties of crops and pursuing alternative livelihoods.
This will be built on the successful model of farmer field schools, which provide local, context-specific centres where farmers can share experiences with other farmers and continue to receive technical support from extension workers and other experts. Learning centres of excellence will also be established at the district level to promote scaling up and enhance replication to other camps throughout the district.
Reporting Lines
Under the overall supervision of the FAOR, Technical supervision of the National Technical Coordinator and the technical guidance of relevant technical units in FAO and in close collaboration with the National Project Coordinator (NPC) of the Ministry of Agriculture, UNDP project Manager, District Agricultural Coordinators, FAO Lead Technical Officer (LTO) and other project staff and partner agencies.
Technical Focus
- (indicate the core activities of the project to be covered by this recruitment)
- Establish and/or strengthen existing farmer field schools in each of the target camps across the 16 districts
- Train trainers of trainers (extension staff) to facilitate experiential learning by communities on adaptive practices and
- Establish demonstrations for adaptation options to enhance experiential learning in each Farmer Field School and Centres of Excellence
- Establish and/or rehabilitate a learning Centre of Excellence in each of the 16 target districts
Tasks and responsibilities
The incumbent will perform the following:
- Provide the day to day management of the project for effective project activity implementation at field level including budget tracking.
- collect relevant primary and secondary data from the district and community levels as and when required;
- support implementation of the project activities at the district and community levels with a landscape approach;
- assist in organizing and conducting orientation workshops/meetings in each community to explain the project objectives and activities;
- initiate awareness creation process on climate change adaptation and support the project implementation team in awareness raising efforts at district and community levels;
- identify local partners/farmers groups/farmer field school/ individual households, including women and women’s groups, potentially interest to collaborate in the pilot demonstrations;
- promote and facilitate discussion between farmers, farmer groups and district task groups about selection of locally preferred/ acceptable climate change adaptation options for pilot testing;
- assist in organizing field demonstrations to test and familiarize viable adaptation practices;
- assist to implement and monitor the field demonstrations and collect periodical data for comparison and impact assessments;
- assist the district level officers in preparing easily understandable extension tools and methods for familiarizing “good practice” examples;
- assist in organizing district and community level workshops, training programmes, participatory discussions, brain storming sessions and training programmes;
- facilitate broader replication of successfully tested adaptation practices and technology options within the farming communities;
- liaise with the project team at the national level and district level implementation task groups on day to day activities and provide feedback to all necessary project partners, consultants and other project staff;
- Assist the National Technical Coordinator in the national level technical and administrative requirements for the project.
- Prepare periodical reports and submit to National Technical Coordinator and concerned technical units.
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
- Basic/undergraduate degree in agriculture/livestock/fisheries and/or related subjects together with field/on-farm experience on planning, implementation and monitoring of field demonstrations, climate change adaptation programmes/activities and Project management.
- Master’s degree with experience of conducting of field trials/demonstrations and field level project management is preferable.
- 3 years of relevant experience in conducting of field trials/demonstrations and field level project management is preferable for either Bachelors or Master’s Degree holders.
- National of Zambia.
FAO Core Competencies
- Results Focus
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Building Effective Relationships
- Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)
- Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help please contact: [email protected]
- Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted
- Only language proficiency certificates from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE, LRT) will be accepted as proof of the level of knowledge of languages indicated in the online applications
- For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
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
Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile.
We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.
If you need help, or have queries, please contact: [email protected]
FAO IS A NON-SMOKING ENVIRONMENT