Business Development Officer – Livestock for Livelihoods UK NGO Jobs – Farm Africa

Job Title:           Business
Development Officer – Livestock for Livelihoods

Organization: Farm
Africa

Duty Station: Moroto,
Karamoja, Uganda

Reports to: Project
Coordinator – Livestock for Livelihoods

About US:

Farm Africa, founded
in 1985, is an international non-governmental organization working in Uganda,
Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. We drive agricultural and environmental change to
improve lives. Our strategy has three pillars: agricultural expertise, management
and preservation of ecosystems, and the power of business to drive prosperity.
We believe Africa has the power to feed itself and are helping make this happen
by establishing and spreading the best farming and forestry techniques so that
poor farmers and herders have more food to feed their families and to sell. We
help smallholders manage their natural resources sustainably so that they can
withstand climate change challenges and shocks and ensure their families have
enough food in the future as well as now. Farm Africa works in partnership with
communities, government, local and international organizations, and the private
sector to innovate, learn and share best practices for maximum impact of our
projects.

About Project:

Farm Africa has the
ambition to be the leading European NGO specialising in Agriculture, Natural
Resource Management and Market Engagement. Farm Africa is mid-way through
delivering our £5m Livestock for Livelihoods (L4L) programme in Uganda’s
Karamoja sub-region and Ethiopia’s South Omo zone funded by the UK government
(UK Aid). Under this programme Farm Africa is working with local civil society,
SMEs, cooperatives and farmer organisations to develop market systems that
support livestock services and enterprises for 21,000 women, contributing to
women’s economic empowerment, reduced poverty and improved nutrition of women
and children. The project is addressing market failures in animal health and
breeding services to improve livestock productivity, building capacity and
assets of herders, establishing trade and enterprise opportunities and
improving household nutrition practices through behavioural change. It will
also demonstrate how nutrition interventions can build on women’s economic
empowerment to contribute to both increased income and improved household
nutrition.

Job Summary:  The Business Development Officer – Livestock
for Livelihoods (BDO) will be responsible for building the business and
commercial capacity of a wide range of stakeholders engaged in the L4L project.
These stakeholders will include, amongst others, agrovets, community animal
health workers (CAHWs), goat breeding associations, marketing associations and
VSLAs. The BDO will also be responsible for capacity building the wider field
team on market-based approaches to development and business development, as
well as ensuring best practices in these areas are integrated into all field
activities. In addition, the BDO will contribute to Monitoring, Evaluation
& Learning (MEL) activities, particularly with regards to developing and
disseminating record keeping tools for the different stakeholders engaged in
business-focused activities.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: 

Delivery of markets
and business-focused activities to a wider range of stakeholders in line with
L4L project implementation plan:

  • Ensure that business development (BD) related project activities are
    implemented and outputs achieved as planned and within the agreed budget
    including:
    • Delivery of BD training and ongoing BD support to agrovets and vets
    • Training agrovets to deliver training on private veterinary service
      provision to CAHWs, and supporting and facilitating the dissemination of
      training to CAHWs
    • Supporting the establishment of private sector buck breeding
      services, and in particular working with the supported PS breeding
      stations to build their business acumen and business management skills
    • Supporting the establishment of district-level community-led
      commercial goat breeding associations and delivery of business
      development training to them
    • Supporting the establishment of marketing associations and delivery
      of business development training to them
    • Delivery of business development and good governance training to
      VSLA members
  • Ensure that Farm Africa Approaches to business development, access
    to finance and trade facilitation are used to guide high-quality delivery
  • Ensure that business development and markets focused activities are
    aligned with, and mutually supportive of other interventions in the same
    areas
  • Work with the Project Coordinator (PC) and the Project Accountant
    and Administrator (PA&A) to ensure all activities are planned and
    conducted according to the organization and the donor financial and
    procurement requirements and procedures.

Support project
management and coordination

  • Support the PC & PA&A with activity planning and budgeting
    as requested
  • Keep abreast of business development activities being implemented by
    other partners operating in a similar intervention area and sharing this
    information with the PC and wider team as appropriate
  • Proactively identify and monitor any risks to non-delivery and,
    where required, develop and implement action plans to address issues
    identified.
  • Support the PC to identify and analyze the causes of spend variances
    to the budget and make recommendations on actions to be taken as required

Monitoring,
evaluation and reporting

  • Contribute to internal and external reporting, with a particular
    focus on collecting and collating information from enterprises, private
    sector actors and VSLAs supported by the project
  • Regularly report on implementation learnings, and make
    recommendations on areas for improvement or changes in delivery strategy
    to the PC
  • Contribute to the implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation &
    Learning Plan (MLP) – and in particular support with developing data
    collection tools that will gather relevant data from the different
    enterprises engaged in the project.
  • Contribute to quarterly internal progress reviews and annual project
    performance reviews and workshops
  • Collect information for stories, case studies and lessons learnt on
    market linkages and business development

Play a key role in
delivering the wider objectives of both the L4L programme, and Farm Africa’s
work in Uganda.

  • Participate in project team meetings and planning sessions as
    requested by the PC
  • Work with AFRII (implementing partner) to ensure collaboration
    between delivery of nutrition-focused and business development activities
  • Support the wider L4L Uganda project delivery team to integrate
    market approaches within work plans and stakeholder engagements.
  • Work in close collaboration with the BDO L4L Ethiopia Team –
    ensuring that knowledge, learnings and tools are shared across the two
    project locations
  • Maintain regular and effective communications with the wider project
    team, Uganda Country Office and implementing partners.
  • In consultation with the PC, act as an ambassador, promoting the
    project and the work of Farm Africa, including hosting visitors, speaking
    at workshops, conferences and meeting donors and other officials as and
    when required.
  • Contribute to the development of relevant Farm Africa policies and
    strategies.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience: 

  • The ideal candidate for the Farm Africa Business Development Officer
    – Livestock for Livelihoods job placement must hold a Bachelor’s degree or
    equivalent in a relevant subject such as Agricultural Economics, Rural
    Development, Business or Economics
  • Detailed understanding of participatory community based project
    approaches, gender mainstreaming in development and economic opportunities
  • At least three years’ experience working for an INGO or
    agri-business
  • Experience in designing and conducting business development
    trainings for micro-enterprises or SMEs
  • Experience of providing mentoring and hands on business development
    support to informal enterprises and micro-businesses growth of businesses
    within the agriculture in rural areas
  • Experience of developing record keeping tools for micro/small
    enterprises
  • Experience of supporting the development and growth of VSLAs
  • Experience of managing your own workload – including scheduling and
    planning project activities
  • Experience of collection and collation of data for monitoring,
    evaluation and project reporting purposes
  • Ability to build strong relationships with stakeholders and
    communities based on trust and collaboration
  • Excellent communication skills – with the ability to train and
    inspire a wide range of different stakeholders
  • Excellent organisational skills – with the ability to effectively
    plan and manage your own work load
  • Good Excel & Word skills – with the ability to create record
    keeping tools for use by SMEs
  • Fluent written and spoken English
  • Ability and willingness to travel widely and frequently both within
    and outside the Karamoja sub-region
  • Willingness to ride a motorcycle in the field, with a valid riding
    permit.

Desirable:

  • Further relevant academic qualification in a relevant subject such
    as Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, Business or Economics
  • Experience of working within the livestock value chain and/or with
    veterinary service providers.
  • Experience of working in Karamoja, or in a pastoral or agro-pastoral
    context.
  • Experience of providing mentoring and hands on business development
    support to informal enterprises and micro-businesses within the livestock
    or veterinary sectors
  • Experience of conducting market assessments – ideally focusing on
    the livestock value chain and/or veterinary drugs and services
  • Experience of delivering activities focusing on the economic
    empowerment of rural women
  • Experience of designing or delivering interventions in a way that
    specifically encourage or maximise the participation of women
  • Experience of budget monitoring – and identifying and reporting on
    expenditure variances
  • Fluency in Karamojong

How to Apply:

All candidates
should send an updated CV, salary history, and a two-page supporting statement
detailing how you meet the person specification to ugandarecruitment@farmafrica.org
including ‘Business Development Officer- L4L Project’ in the subject line.

Please DO NOT send
additional documents such as certificates and references with your application.
Successful candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during
the referencing process.

First round interviews
will take place w/c 30th September 2019 at Farm Africa’s country
office in Kampala. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Deadline: 20th September, 2019 by 5.00pm EAT

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