Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Country Program Director

POSITION TITLE: Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Country Program Director
PROGRAM: Farmer-to-Farmer Program East Africa 
LOCATION: CRS will deploy four (4) F2F Country Program Directors in the following countries upon successful application: Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzanian 
REPORTS TO: F2F Regional Program Director

Note: This position is not guaranteed, as it is dependent on a successful application to the donor. Women are highly encouraged to apply

BACKGROUND: 
Agricultural development and farm livelihoods in East African countries are constrained by: lack of appropriate production, marketing, processing and support services technologies (inputs, management and production systems), poor or unsustainable management of environment and natural resources, limited rural and agricultural financial services and weak sector institutions (farmer coops, and associations, agribusinesses, research and extension services, etc.). The F2F East Africa Program is an US$8M USAID funded 5-year program that will assist in agriculture development, commodity value chain competitiveness and firm upgrading by providing technical assistance to introduce new technologies and innovation and development of local capacity for more productive, profitable, sustainable and equitable agriculture systems. The technical assistance will be provided by volunteers; US experts in agriculture, marketing, finance, value and supply chain development, quality assurance, quality control, trade, business plan development, etc. The F2F program objectives and strategic framework are in line with USG assistance program USG Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative/Feed the Future, USAID Agriculture Strategy/Linking Farmers to Markets and the US Farm Bill. In addition to these initiatives and strategies the F2F program will be in concurrent with Country Investment Plan (CIP) and USAID country missions.

The F2F program will focus on the following areas:

1. Increase agriculture sector productivity and profitability;
2. Improve conservation and sustainable use of environmental and natural resources;
3. Expand agricultural sector access to financial services, and;
4. Strengthen agricultural sector institutions.

For more information about Farmer to Farmer please visit: USAID - Agriculture - Farmer to Farmer Program

CRS will deploy four (4) national or regional F2F Country Program Directors (CPD) in the following countries upon awarding of a successful application: Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

JOB SUMMARY
The F2F CPD, which is a key personnel position, reports to the F2F Deputy Program Director (based in Nairobi) and is responsible for coordination of all F2F program activities within a country, including: 

• identifying, designing, and implementing Country F2F Projects;
• coordinating any flexible assignments;
• identifying potential partners and hosts;
• developing volunteer scopes of work;
• facilitating volunteer assignments;
• providing pre-assignment and post-assignment assistance to hosts;
• offering pre-assignment orientation and onboarding to US based volunteers
• up-dating sector and sub-sector analyses;
• ensuring sound systems for monitoring and assessing impact from program activities; and coordinating work and learning events with other stakeholders.
• Providing representation of F2F projects to USAID/Tanzania

The F2F CPD will manage a small team of qualified local staff, with appropriate technical, managerial, and human relations skills. S/he will empower and catalyze the work of the F2F volunteers and will travel frequently to rural areas to meet with country hosts within the country. The hosts are organizations that request volunteer services and work directly with the volunteers. Host organizations commonly include farmers groups, women’s groups, processing or marketing groups, community groups, trade or business associations, local government offices, cooperatives, microfinance institutions and other public or private service providers (inputs, credit, information, marketing, processing, storage, etc.) 

QUALIFICATIONS
The F2F CPD’s minimum qualifications and requirements include: 

• a university degree, preferably an advanced degree in agriculture (subsector) development, agri-business, value chain or services providers development;
• at least eight years professional experience in assignments relevant to the Feed the Future priority crops, animals and animal products for the F2F Country Program in Tanzania;
• at least 5 years’ experience in partnership building and relationship management;
• familiarity with USAID rules and regulations;
• dynamic self- starter and results driven team player;
• proven ability to network, build relationships with public and private sector agriculture-related actors;
• Fluency in Swahili and English

If you are interested and meet these minimum qualifications, please submit your cover letter and resume by the 22nd May 2013, totz_hr@global.crs.org , copying Ms. Pamela Lwakabare, Human Resources Manager, CRS Tanzania at pamela.lwakabare@crs.org