Senior Livestock Technical Advisor at Land O Lakes

Project Description:

The senior livestock technical advisor will provide technical leadership and support to the assessment and design of dairy and livestock market system development projects.  The position will play a key role in pursuit of strategic new business opportunities aligned with ID’s new dairy/livestock and New Business Development strategies and ID’s overall strategic goal. This includes opportunities with USAID, USDA and potentially other funders/implementing partners.

The initial focus of this consultancy is assessment and design of new livestock/dairy projects through 2017. There is potential for the consulting position to transition into a full-time dairy/livestock technical expert position. This role would include:

• Driving the dairy/livestock strategy;
• Providing technical support to field projects in implementation;
• Supporting related strategic partnerships;
• Collaborating on design and implementation of shared value corporate partnerships; and
• Overall thought leadership in dairy/livestock.

The long-term position would be contingent on performance and new funding secured.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Research/assessment of the dairy/livestock market systems in priority countries;
• Prioritization and analysis of key economic opportunities for inclusive growth including
• Financial modeling of on and off-farm livestock-based business opportunities
• Economic opportunities and barriers to women and youth engagement in on and off farm business opportunities
• Estimation of economic losses due to spoilage/waste/animal mortality
• Evaluation of meat, milk, egg and live animal supply chains
• Systems for quality-based payment programs
• Identification of change agents and lead firms followed by development of partnerships; with these local/national/international public and private market actors;
• Design of technical approaches and specific interventions to support inclusive market; development that benefits smallholder producers as well as other actors in the system, particularly climate smart approaches;
• Identification of innovative, evidence-based approaches to dairy/livestock market; development, and potential scaling up strategies; and
• Proposal writing in areas of technical expertise;

Management of in-country consultants that may be recruited for additional technical support in new program development and existing program support.

The initial consultancy might also include some limited support in areas including:

• Technical backstopping of current programs. This may include:
• Review of and input to technical manuals;
• Participation in quarterly meetings with project staff;
• Provide in-country technical assistance and/or develop SOW for external technical assistance; and
• Remote and occasional in-country capacity building and training.

Reporting & Supervision:

Reports to the Director, Technical Services & Strategic Partnerships based in Washington, DC.

Position Location: Washington D.C or Nairobi, Kenya, preferred.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in agriculture/animal science/animal health, agribusiness, agricultureeconomics, or relevant field;
• A minimum of seven years of experience in technical assessment, design and implementation ofUSAID, USDA and other agricultural development projects in Africa;
• Prior experience leading livestock/dairy market assessments, prioritization of interventions and project design for large-scale projects;
• Strong understanding of private sector-led approaches to livestock/dairy market system development, preferably in Africa
• Detailed understanding of role of livestock/dairy in household resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities;
• Experience in building livestock or dairy service delivery systems, (genetics, veterinary, preventive animal health, and private sector services businesses) around livestock or dairy production and processing;
• Demonstrated experience in networking with donors, government officials and the private sector;
• Demonstrated experience in proposal development and writing;
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal skills and the ability to develop collaborative relationships;
• Excellent verbal and written English communication skills; and
• Must be fluent in English.

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

• Prior living and working experience in Africa;
• Senior experience in milk/meat post-harvest and processing interventions;
• Experience in making livestock or dairy markets and market systems sustainable at scale;
• Experience making livestock development approaches more gender inclusive a plus;
• Experience in fragile environments preferred
• French a plus
• Good sense of humor a plus