Program Officer, Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Job Careers – Mercy Corps

Organisation: Mercy Corps
Duty Station:  Uganda
Reports to: TRAIL Senior Program Manager
About US:
Mercy
Corps is an international non-profit organization which implements
high-quality, analytical development programmes in very difficult places. Mercy
Corps has been operating in Uganda since 2006. It has and continues to
implement programs in Acholi and Karamoja sub regions. Mercy Corps is taking a
community-led, market driven approach to address poverty and food insecurity
needs through interventions that get to the root causes and contributing
factors of economic vulnerability. Donors include the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), the European Commission (EC), United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC).
About BRACED Programme:
Mercy
Corps works in collaboration with other consortium members in the
implementation of the multi-year project as part of DFID’s BRACED initiative
(Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters). The
36-month initiative is designed to build the absorptive, adaptive and
transformative capacities of more than 500,000 individual households in
northern Kenya (Wajir and Garissa) and northern Uganda (Karamoja).
Job Summary: The Program Officer, Agriculture and Natural
Resources Management works under the supervision of the Natural Resources
Management (NRM) Team Leader. The Program Officer, Agriculture and Natural
Resources Management will mobilize the BRACED processes for engaging
communities, governments and private sector actors in collective action
planning that support household and community access to and management of
natural, physical environment, improve livelihoods through agriculture
extension and the socio-ecological systems supported by it. This can include
increased and sustainable food production and access, access to land and water
resources for both human and livestock consumption; plus employing innovative
methods for land restoration, watershed and water resource management, energy
conservation and alternative energy solutions and climate-smart agriculture.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:  
  • Actively engage with remote communities to
    establish priorities for community-led natural resources management,
    provide sustainable agricultural practices and implementation of
    identified pilot opportunities for community NRM plan implementation and
    monitoring.
  • Identify opportunity areas and share them
    with the NRM team leader for alternative methods of climate-smart
    agriculture.
  • Work closely with Mercy Corps technical
    staff, Consortium members such as Makerere University, University of
    Nairobi and other local partners to establish locally appropriate pilots.
  • Work with private sector and line district departments
    and ministries to address environmentally harmful methods of extracting
    local natural resources.
  • Ensure support to policy formulation around
    sustainable methods, alternative energy mechanisms and water management
    and conservation.
  • Coordinate with counterpart agencies and
    organizations involved in conservation and climate change adaptation for
    information community NRM plans.
  • Identify community NRM needs and priorities,
    especially around land access and rangeland management for Karamoja and water
    resources for production as well as livestock watering.
  • Organizational Learning: As part of Mercy Corps’ agency-wide
    Organizational Learning Initiative, all team members are responsible for
    spending 5% of their work time in formal and/or non-formal professional
    learning activities.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:  
  • The ideal candidate for the Mercy Corps Program
    Officer, Agriculture and Natural Resources Management career vacancy should
    preferably hold a degree in a related field of expertise (e.g.
    Agriculture, NRM, pastoral livestock management, water resources,
    irrigation, agro-economy, conservation agriculture, environmental policy,
    etc).
  • A minimum of five years of technical and
    practical work experience in one of the required fields, with specific to
    agriculture extension;
  • Broad knowledge of various natural resource
    disciplines, including air quality, water quality, geomorphic and hydrologic
    processes, fire and vegetation management, fish and wildlife management,
    aquatic and terrestrial ecology, conservation biology and restoration
    ecology.
  • Knowledge and experience in either livestock
    or rangeland management, irrigation, water harvesting or water saving
    methods in arid lands.
  • Previous experience and proven track record
    in rural development and participatory appraisal.
How to Apply:
All
suitably qualified and interested candidates should send their E-mail
applications including a cover letter clearly stating the salary requirements,
updated CV (with three professional referees), and copies of academic
qualifications/certificates to the Senior HR and Legal Manager, Kampala Head
Office on 4th Floor Embassy Plaza, Plot 1188-1190 Ggaba Road. The E-mail
applications with cover letter should be sent to: mcjobs@ug.mercycorps.org
Deadline:  18th July 2016
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