Position: Dairy and Agriculture Research Manager

Reports To: Head of Programmes, Kenya SustInAfrica Work Package (WP) 5 Coordinator

Project: Sustainable Dairy Farming for Smallholder Farmers in Kenya: A Climate Smart Research for Development Project & Sustainable Intensification in Africa (SustInAfrica)

Company: Self Help Africa

Location: KALRO, Naivasha, Nakuru County, Kenya

Contract Terms: 6 months probation, Two-year contract with possibility of extension

Gross Salary: Negotiable

About: Self Help Africa (SHA) is an international NGO dedicated to the vision of an economically thriving and resilient rural Africa. SHA has over 50 years of experience working with smallholder farmers, farmer associations, cooperatives and agribusinesses across Africa to help farmers grow and sell more food, improve diets, diversify incomes and make their livelihoods more sustainable and resilient to external shocks. SHA also builds awareness of issues affecting smallholders and represent their interests at policy and institutional level. The organisation has programmes in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and implements projects in Brazil and Bangladesh. In early 2023 SHA launched a new five-year organisation strategy, which defines shared mission as the alleviation of hunger, poverty, social inequality, and the impact of climate change through community-led, market-based, and enterprise-focused approaches, so that people can have access to nutritious food, clean water, decent employment, and incomes, while sustaining natural resources. Our wider organisation also includes social enterprise subsidiaries Partner Africa, which provides ethical auditing and consultancy services, TruTrade, an innovative trading platform in Kenya, and CUMO, Malawis largest micro-finance.

Our three core values are:

• Impact: We are accountable, ambitious, and committed to systemic change.
• Innovation: We are agile, creative, and enterprising in an ever-changing world
• Community: We are inclusive, honest and have integrity in our relationships.

Job Purpose: The purpose of this position is to contribute to key research activities.

Kenya

Manage and deliver the project activities, running through all activities from applied research, research translation, and demonstration of technologies, packaging, extension and dissemination of the research findings to smallholder dairy farmers as well as project PR. These will include:

1. Manage the development of a project implementation plan for Dairy Kenya II including;(i) scope statement; (ii) project milestones, goals, and key objectives: (iii) detailed resource plan; (iv) implementation timeline; (v) plan milestones; (vi) implementation plan KPIs & metrics (performance measures); (vii) Roles and Responsibilities; (viii) communication plan; (ix) Risk analysis.
2. Work closely with KALRO management and staff on the planning and implementation of the activities supported by the project including:
3. Dairy animal breeding research and development of a Kenyan EBI.
4. Forage production and conservation systems research.
5. Development of the sustainable future dairy farm system model.
6. Supporting the KALRO Innovation Support Unit to disseminate information and provide training.
7. Establishment of a new Extension Specialist Support Unit to support extension officers working with farmers.
8. Work closely with the Lead Dairy Specialist in the new Extension Specialist Support Unit to:
9. Co-ordinate and publish frequent demo farm data from KALRO, Baraka and Development Pamoja.
10. Plan and deliver a programme of extension officer support activity and on-farm activity supported by the project.
11. Support individual co-ops to prepare and monitor tailored development plans for each co-op to develop a sustainable milk production system in their catchment area.
12. Work with Baraka and Development Pamoja to plan and monitor their project activities.

SustInAfrica

The researcher will contribute to the following deliverables:

1. D5.11 Technology Scores (readiness) Update. Collect and clean 2024 harvest data from the field trials to calculate Gross Margin and Labour requirements to update the report.
2. D5.10 Exploitation Routes + D5.13 Exploitation Strategies: work with the Enterprise Advisor to develop exploitation strategies for the technologies and farming practices developed by the project that have proved successful.
3. D5.14 Policy briefs: summarise all the research to data to produce short policy briefs for each of the technologies and farming practices
4. D5.15 Investor Briefs: produce short briefs on the investment potential of commercially viable technologies.
5. Provide support to other Work Packages

Key Responsibilities:

Kenya

• Lead and manage the project, including oversight of project quality and accountability.
• Ensure all project partners deliver their responsibilities.
• Lead project planning, monitoring and reporting of all project activity with all project partners in Kenya (KALRO, Baraka Development Pamoja) supported by Irish based partners (Greenfield, Teagasc).
• Establish and manage linkages between all project partners and all other organisations working with and supporting the project (co-ops, input and service suppliers, media etc).
• Provide inputs to program activities where required to ensure the quality of project outputs such as training materials, guides and manuals.
• Prepare the reports required for the project.
• Ensure efficient use and management of all project resources including transport.
• Facilitate effective teamwork, coordination and work planning among development partners.
• Report progress to the head of programmes (Senior Programme Manager and Private Sector Lead) and the donor / lead contractor as requested.
• Plan and monitor M&E, diversity, inclusion, logistics and communications aspects of the project.
• Provide a lead point of contact for the project for project funders (Embassy of Ireland), lead contractor (Teagasc).
• Prepare regular (monthly) reports to project steering committee on all activities and facilitate meetings.
• Prepare quarterly activity and financial reports from all Kenyan based partners.
• Learning: Identify learning and best practise in the smallholder dairy sector. Develop of position papers, technical guidance, and other relevant technical documents.
• Leadership and compliance: The Project Manager is expected to be a role model for the organisation, applying and promoting best practice and provide guidance to staff and partners on SHAs ethos, approaches, polices, systems and processes.
• Other duties and tasks as assigned by the Kenya CD and HoP.

SustInAfrica

Support the SustInAfrica team in the production of the deliverables listed above and relevant project milestones.

Key Stakeholder Relationships:

Internal

• Head of Programmes, Kenya
• SustInAfrica WP5 Coordinator
• Kenya Project Coordinators Nutrition and Gender, Agriculture and NRM
• Kenya Trade and Enterprise Advisor
• Kenya M & E Officer
• Kenya Finance and Administration Team
• Regional Dairy Advisor and the Global Advisory and Research Team
• Programmes Coordinator (East Africa)

External

• Project Partners / Donor / Project Steering Committee
• County Governments and relevant County departments Health, Cooperative, Nutrition, Agriculture, Trade, Social Services, Gender, etc
• Dairy Cooperatives
• Other development organizations/ stakeholders/ Cooperatives
• SustinAfrica research partners:

Knowledge & Experience:

• The candidate should have a honours degree in Agriculture, Animal science/ Livestock production or Dairy production, International Development, Agricultural economics or any other related university degree.
• Extensive expertise, knowledge, and experience in dairy development programmes.
• Over 5-year experience of working on Dairy value chains.
• Must have proof of successful implementation of programmes in either Dairy value chain, Climate Smart Agriculture, Market Systems Development, integrated Food Security, Sustainable Agricultural and Livelihoods Programmes or other related fields.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex studies and findings in an accessible way for non-technical readers, including presentation of data in visually appealing ways, highly structured and rigorous summaries of findings and robust and accessible syntheses of key lessons.
• Experience implementing Dairy Research and Innovation projects will be an added advantage.
• A strong understanding of the role of gender in Kenyan dairy systems and understanding of gender roles and gender analysis in farming systems in Africa.
• A strong understanding of human nutrition issues in the dairy sector and Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture
• Good understanding of project cycle management approaches, monitoring and evaluation, and farmers capacity building.
• Willingness to learn new research methods and explore new areas of practice
• Experience in Dairy marketing strategy development and practice
• Budget management, monitoring, and implementation
• Has experience working with cooperative enterprise
• Has worked on system evaluations and/or design
• Must already have, and be able to retain, the legal right to work in Kenya and be available to travel in East, West and North Africa.

Qualifications and Other Requirements:

Essential:

• Experience in Animal nutrition
• Understanding of the climate change trends and predictions for East and West Africa and the implications for the production of crops, fodder and livestock.

Role Competencies:

• Written and oral proficiency in English with good communication and presentation skills and excellent report writing skills.
• ICT skills: Strong skills in MS Word and Excel and experience of using data collection apps in the field and data analysis software is essential
• good agricultural economic analysis skills.
• Ability to work as part of team across different cultures, countries and languages.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision and take initiatives
• Available to travel in East, West and North Africa.
• Good negotiation skills and ability to develop effective partnerships and relationship
• High level of integrity and high standards of personal conduct
• Is self-driven and a creative problem solver
• Experience with project management Tools
• Conflict resolution
• Decision making
• Leadership: is capable of taking initiative, working independently and with a team
• Risk management

Preferred Role Competence

• Additional experience of using Salesforce and dairy/ livestock sector specific software preferred.
• French language skills would be advantageous for this position.

Excited about this incredible opportunity? Take the first step towards joining a dynamic team by following these instructions:

Submit your updated CV and a compelling Cover Letter, stating your salary expectations and availability.

If you encounter any difficulties while applying through our job portal, please feel free to call +254 784 155 512 during official working hours.

Any candidate offered a job with Self Help Africa will be expected to sign Self Help Africas Safeguarding Policies and Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.

Self Help Africa strives to be an Equal Opportunities Employer; Women applicants are highly encouraged

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