Assistant Livelihoods Officer - Samburu (Baragoi & Wamba) at Mercy Corps

The Position Summary 

The Assistant Livelihoods officer will be a member of the USAID Nawiri Resilient Livelihoods Team and directly responsible for implementing nutrition-sensitive resilient livelihood interventions at sub-county (prioritized wards) level. These include Climate Smart Agriculture (crop and fodder) production, market systems linkages, private sector and financial inclusion support. S/he will work alongside other USAID Nawiri team members in layering interventions for collective impact at household and community level

Specifically, S/he will be supporting small scale irrigated crops & fodder production for diversified household access to nutrient-dense foods, private sector engagement for access to farm inputs & finance, markets linkages, households economic strengthening that aims at increasing sustained access to incomes (financial inclusion), Climate smart agriculture technologies and improved ecological practices that support Natural resources management. The position is based at the USAID Nawiri sub-county (sub-office) office level supporting interventions within the sub-county and prioritized wards - that continuously experience high rates of acute malnutrition. S/He will work closely with relevant county officials, CSOs and private sector players involved in livelihoods and food security & nutrition within their areas of operation.

Essential Job Functions

VISION AND STRATEGY & ITS IMPLEMENTATION

• Facilitate community visioning process for resilient livelihoods using community participatory appraisal tools
• Coordinate with the Ward/ sub county level of County Government to mobilize actions and ensure effective communication channels.
• Coordinate with community leadership to facilitate activity integration and targeting of participants / groups within selected irrigation schemes. 
• Coordinate with County government to build capacity for poor HHs on appropriate crop production systems and relevant climate smart agriculture approaches and technologies 
• Facilitate business to business linkages for targeted small scale irrigation schemes / farmers associations / groups that include poor and ultra-poor for increased access to farm inputs, finance and markets.
• Facilitate Increased access for poor and ultra-poor HH to productivity enhancement inputs, climate smart agriculture and post-harvest technologies
• Facilitate identification of youth and women agri-preneurs and lead support them establish interventions; i.e. establish fruit tree nurseries.
• Support small-scale vegetable production gardens utilizing home garden techniques (permaculture) to promote nutrition dense vegetables for enhanced household consumption and income generation targeting poor households
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation of project activities 
• Coordinate with the livelihoods officer to develop activities work plans, directly implement and report for each activity undertaken
• Mobilize communities and support SBC initiatives for transformed practices at household level
• Coordinate with public and private service providers (crop husbandry, inputs suppliers, aggregators, local financial institutions etc) to reach USAID Nawiri participants.
• Collaborate with Nawiri health and nutrition staff to integrate messaging into crop and livestock production training curriculum.

COMMUNITY AND COUNTY ENGAGEMENT 

• Mobilize sub-county and ward level meetings with relevant stakeholders.
• Lead community engagement and mobilization activities within the Ward(s) of operation 
• Support the facilitation of planning meetings and workshops with government, NGO, private sector, and community partners to revise and customize implementation plans.
• Conduct community mobilization and sensitization meetings with ward and community-level leaders to enhance investment in crop production. 

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION 

• Assist livelihoods and food security officer in activity coordination with local government and other implementers at the Subcounty level.
• Participate in planning meetings and workshops with government, NGO, private sector, and community partners to develop and deliver capacity building of farmers 
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission

OTHER

• Promote and adhere to the principle and objectives of the project and Mercy Corps.
• Participate in other USAID Nawiri livelihoods program activities (Livestock and NRM)
• Other duties as assigned.

Organizational Learning  

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves. 

Accountability to Participants 

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Accountability 

• Reports Directly To: Senior Livelihoods and food security officer 
• Works Directly With: Water resources officer, Assistant livelihoods officers – livestock, alternative livelihoods officers, REAP for nutrition officers, Household economy officers, and Sub-office M&E officers.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects  

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• A Diploma in Agriculture related field (i.e., Agronomy, Agro-ecology, Horticulture, Dry land agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture Education & Extension).
• Advanced technical certificate holders from reputable institution plus proven experience of over 5 years will be considered.  
• Minimum 2 years of direct implementation of agriculture development activities.  Experience working directly with small scale irrigation is an added advantage. 
• Good spoken and written English required.
• Must be able to work independently once in the field and show initiative.
• Experience in farmers needs assessment and report writing.
• Demonstrable experience in farmers training and community mobilization
• Experience in community participatory appraisal tools
• Practical experience in partnership building and collaboration with government and other partners
• Computer and basic administrative and organizational skills is a plus.
• Willingness to travel extensively throughout the project area.