County Coordinator at RTI International

RTI is currently seeking to fill vacancies for the Kenya Crops & Dairy Market Systems (KCDMS) Activity which is part of the Feed the Future program, America’s initiative to combat global hunger and poverty. In this regard, USAID is partnering with RTI International on a 5-year (Oct 2017 to Sept 2022) cooperative agreement – KCDMS Activity – to help increase agricultural production and reduce poverty and malnutrition in Kenya. The project will also spur competitive, resilient market systems in Kenya’s horticulture and dairy sectors. We seek to recruit a County Coordinator for Kitui County to be based in Kitui.

Job Summary:  The County Coordinator (CC) leads and coordinates the implementation of the project activities within Kitui County and provides technical expertise focusing on identification of existing technologies/enterprises with potential for growth and the provision of a wide range of business development services (BDS). The CC will maintain relationships with key sector partners, consultants, host county counterparts and stakeholders at county level. She/he will collaborate with colleagues across market systems on technical and strategic planning initiatives and will ensure best practices and lessons learned are captured and disseminated. The CC will serve as a representative of the project to clients, stakeholders, and partners, providing key inputs for technical and management decisions. Also responsible for managing program deliverables including planning, coordinating, and reporting of all activities.

Essential Duties:  

• Support the development of the project’s strategy for all project activities.
• Participate in a review of innovative marketing, extension, and input supply applications, identify strengths and weaknesses and identify potential private sector partners for collaboration and joint investment under the Partnerships and Innovations Fund.
• Review business models and viability of incorporating training and extension (T&E) into private sector operations (such as dairy cooperatives or agricultural input suppliers);
• Build and maintain relationships with county-level public agricultural marketing and production systems; work with counties to develop marketing and extension strengthening plans; design technical assistance to support sustainable, county-led training programs and information systems.
• Support technical and administrative personnel and subcontractors in the implementation of a large, complex activity to build capacity of actors in targeted value chains.
• Support the design of, then oversee interventions to improve farmers and relevant actors’ access to viable commodity markets and quality inputs.
• Lead the project’s support for market operations and input supply strengthening, including association-building or platform development, and identify and coordinate technology demonstration opportunities.
• Liaise with fellow teammates design support for “lead firms” that are in the output and inputs sectors (may include business planning, management, accounting, inventory, recordkeeping, capacity building, or investment facilitation.)
• Collaborate with the regional Access to Finance Specialist to design innovative financial products that support the needs of private sector and farmer groups.
• Contribute to monitoring and evaluation, learning, and reporting and provide technical oversight and support all data tracking by M&E staff of grant partners.
• Contribute to social inclusion activities in collaboration of the project regional SI specialist.
• Ensure project activities meet USAID (SUAP) and NEMA environmental compliance requirements
• Identify and document technical best practices and lessons learned and compile biweekly/monthly reports on project activities accomplished during those periods.
• Report directly to the Director for Productivity in coordination with the Eastern Regional Coordinator on all aspects that pertains to the achievement of results.
• Any other duties as assigned by your supervisor.

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in agricultural economics, agronomy, agribusiness management or related field and six years of work experience. Experience and understanding of Kitui County Markets systems will be an added advantage.

Skills & Abilities

• Excellent oral and written skills in English and Kiswahili.
• Demonstrated ability to be collaborative across projects, flexible and creative.
• Excellent interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Ability to multi-task and work well with others
• Ability to listen and communicate well both verbally and in writing
• Ability to work independently with attention to detail and accuracy
• Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel