Agricultural Advisor- At Norwegian Refugee Council

Role and responsibilities

The purpose of the Agricultural Advisor position is to provide technical support in the implementation of agricultural activities in the assigned locations.

The following is a brief description of the role:

Generic responsibilities

These responsibilities shall be the same for all positions with the same title. The responsibilities shall be short and essential. Details belong in the Work and Development plan.

Adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures
Contribute to the development of Country, Area and CC strategies, initiate and participate in the development of relevant CC projects
Provide technical support to field staff and ensure high technical quality of projects
Provide regular progress reports to the Programme Manager and the Livelihoods Specialist
Ensure that projects target beneficiaries most in need of protection, explore and asses new and better ways to assist
Ensure capacity building of project staff and transfer key skills
Liaise and collaborate with relevant local authorities and other key stakeholders
Promote the rights of IDPs/returnees in line with the advocacy strategy

Specific responsibilities

Provide technical support in the assessment, design, implementation and monitoring of the NRC’s agricultural activities
Facilitate training of farmers using participatory methodologies and modern agricultural extension/technology transfer concepts including the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach and Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM)
Guide project staff to identify and train local community-based Farmer Field School (FFS) facilitators for the day-to-day facilitation of FFSs in their local areas. (Facilitators can be selected from government extension workers, NGO social mobilisers, community leaders, unemployed graduates and master farmers)
Leads in the development of tailored guidelines, curricula, training manuals and extension materials for the training of FFS facilitators and establishment and implementation of FFSs.
Provide technical support in beneficiary selection process for agricultural activities by following the criteria attributed to a project, while minimizing the risks of conflict situations with target population and other stakeholders
Ensure that agricultural projects implementation is carried out in line with the set objectives, timeframe and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Conduct field visits to farms to conduct analyses and collect data, such as crop yield, measuring, analysing and interpreting data.
Represent NRC in external meetings as needed, primarily with DOA, and any governorate level coordination mechanisms on agriculture and food security.
Contribute to the technical and normative development of tools and protocols for productivity analysis, as well as quality and compliance assurance tasks
Contribute in the collection and dissemination of relevant data and information related to agricultural and markets, agribusiness, food value chains and systems, including for example, trends and developments, approaches, impacts, lessons learnt and good practices; support organizational learning and exchange of information.
Cooperate closely with counterparts from NRC core competencies to identify opportunities for integration/synergy of NRC services alongside livelihoods/infrastructure;

Critical interfaces

By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position are:

Strategy and project planning: Core Competency Specialists
Area operations: Field Office Managers and Coordinators
Staff capacity building: Core Competency Specialists
Implementation: Core Competency Specialists; AO&CO CC teams; AO&CO Support teams

Scale and scope of position

Staff:

Approximately 1-2 Coordinator/s, 2 Officers, 4 Assistants, and casual worker enumerators.

Stakeholders:

INGOs, UN agencies, local NGOs, civil society actors, Donors, governmental bodies including the DoA

Budgets: –

Information:

Responsible for overseeing use of Kobo data collection platform by Livelihoods team; use of Atlas or MarketSight for filtering and analyzing qualitative data; comfortable with using/learning to use Agresso financial management system

Legal or compliance:

Must adhere to NRC internal and donor compliance requirements.

Competencies

Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results. They are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following two categories:

Professional competencies

These are skills, knowledge and experience that are important for effective performance.

Generic professional competencies:

Minimum 3 years of experience from a senior level project implementation position in humanitarian/recovery context
Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts
Proven experience of working within livelihoods and business development programmes.
Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile
Fluency in English, both written and verbal

Context/ Specific skills, knowledge and experience:

Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Science, Soil Science required
Versed in market and value chain assessments and analysis approaches
Experience with farmer training/capacity building
Demonstrated results with conflict-sensitive and adaptive livelihoods activities
Previous experience and contextual knowledge within Iraq is an advantage
Behavioural Competencies:

These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job. NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies and the following are essential for this position:

Managing resources to optimize results
Managing performance and development
Empowering and building trust
Handling insecure environments

Performance Management

The employee will be accountable for the responsibilities and the competencies, in accordance with the NRC Performance Management Manual. The following documents will be used for performance reviews: