Director - IBAR at African Union (AU)

Purpose of Job

The African Union, established as a unique Pan African continental body, is charged with spearheading Africa’s rapid integration and sustainable development by promoting unity, solidarity, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African States as well as developing a New Partnership worldwide. Its Headquarters are located in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.

In seeking to achieve these objectives, the African Union intends to strengthen its capacity to deliver by, amongst others, the implementation of its organizational structure and the filling of all vacant posts by African Nationals from its Member States.

The African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is a specialized technical office of the Department Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE) of the African Union Commission (AUC). The vision of AU-IBAR is: “An Africa in which animal resources contribute significantly to integration, prosperity and peace”. Its Mission is: to provide leadership and integrated support services for the development of animal resources in Africa.

AU-IBAR’s mandate is to support and coordinate the sustainable development and utilization of animal resources (livestock, fisheries and wildlife) to enhance nutrition and food security and contribute to the wellbeing and prosperity of the people in the Member States of the AU.

AU-IBAR is the main vehicle for the AU to develop appropriate and independent expertise to support and coordinate the sustainable development and utilization of animal resources to enhance food and nutrition security and contribute to the wellbeing and prosperity of the people in the AU Member States.

The Commission of the African Union invites applicants who are citizens of Member States to compete for the position of Director, AU-IBAR, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Main Functions

• Provide leadership and vision to AU-IBAR in execution of its mandate;
• Coordinate AU-IBAR activities and ensure timely delivery of goals and objectives;
• Supervise and manage employees to ensure successful performance;
• Design strategies and policies consistent with AU-IBAR’s goals in order to address the pertinent issues in the relevant area;
• Lead and supervise the design and plan policy programs to achieve these strategies;
• Develop new programmes review activities as components of these strategies and policies;
• Represent the Department and explain its position at conferences;
• Mobilize resources for execution of programmes and activities of AU-IBAR.

Specific Responsibilities

The Director’s duties and responsibilities shall include, among others, the following:

• Maintain the role of co-ordination and strategy development of the Animal Resources (livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, apiculture and wildlife) sector for the continent through a three level framework – continental, regional and national;
• Provide leadership on the coordination of sanitary and zoo sanitary issues as they relate to animal and public health, food safety, their application to the facilitation of intra-African trade in animals and animal products within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the international trade in animals and animal products;
• Provide leadership in coordinating and enhancing the capacity of AU Member States to manage food safety.
• Oversee programmes development and execution to ensure impact on livelihoods and economic development. Encourage and ensure coordination and alignment of goals, strategies and activities with overall strategic frameworks;
• Lead in planning and coordinating the implementation of overall programme activities;
• Promote the effective implementation of relevant global and continental instruments for sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture resources;
• Provide leadership in enhancing the capacity of AU Member States and regional institutions for transitioning to blue economy growth, including the effective participation in global and continental initiatives relating to fisheries and aquaculture sector;
• Initiate projects of regional or continental interest relating to the animal resources sector including projects relating to Fisheries and aquaculture in Africa, wildlife health and ecosystems management and the One Health Approach;
• Strengthen and diversify the institutional and technical partnerships with international organizations, donors/development partners, Regional Economic Communities, Member States, civil society and private sector organizations;
• Identify the strategic direction for resource mobilization efforts and lead in donor relations and proposal development as well as monitoring and evaluation of projects/programmes;
• Deal with high-ranking official from AU Member States, including ministries responsible for animal resources development and related issues and the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (STC-ARDWE)
• Administration of the AU-IBAR Mission, which entails budgeting, human resource management including performance assessment of staff, quality assurance of the work of heads of units, in-house training/induction of new staff, production of required documents, reports for participation in the PRC (Permanent Representatives’ Committee), the STC-ARDWE, Executive Council, Summit of Heads of State and Government;
• Manage relationships with the host country and ensure the representation of AU in Kenya;
• Other duties as may be directed by the Department of ARBE.
• Identifier l’orientation stratégique pour la mobilisation des ressources, jouer un rôle de premier plan dans les relations avec les donateurs et dans l’élaboration des propositions, ainsi que dans le suivi et l’évaluation des projets/programmes ;
• Travailler avec des hauts fonctionnaires des États membres de l’UA, notamment les ministères responsables du développement des ressources animales et des questions connexes et le Comité technique spécialisé sur l’agriculture, le développement rural, l’eau et l’environnement (CTS-ADREE) ;
• Assurer l’administration de la mission de l’IBAR-UA, notamment la budgétisation, la gestion des ressources humaines, qui comprend l’évaluation de la performance du personnel, l’assurance qualité des activités des chefs d’unité, la formation interne et la prise en charge des nouveaux membres du personnel, la production des documents requis, la rédaction de rapports en vue de la présentation au COREP (Comité des représentants permanents), au CTS-ADREE, au Conseil exécutif et au Sommet des chefs d’État et de gouvernement ;
• Gérer les relations avec le pays hôte et assurer la représentation de l’UA au Kenya ;
• S’acquitter de tout autre tâche qui pourrait lui être confiée par le Département ARBE.

Academic Requirements And Relevant ExperienceRequired Skills

• Post-graduate University degree (Master’s degree) in Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science or any other related area.
• A minimum of fourteen (14) years of progressive relevant work experience with Member States or international organizations, out of which seven (7) years must be at a senior managerial level in a reputable organization and five (5) years at supervisory level.
• Preference shall be accorded to candidates with PhD in Veterinary Medicine or Animal Science with specialized post-graduate training in livestock or agricultural policy analysis.
• Further qualifications in projects/programme management and/or rural development will be an added advantage.
• Experience in formulating strategies, developing programmes, guiding preparation of work plans and budgets as well as management of human and financial resources and decision-making
• A deep understanding of aquatic and terrestrial animal health and welfare standards governing international trade in animals and animal products, food safety standards and institutions and processes for the development and review of the standards.
• Diplomacy and good interactive skills necessary for dealing with senior officials in Government, Regional Organizations, and donor/development organizations;
• Good networking skills and ability to maintain positive and constructive dialogue and relationships with key institutions operating in the regions;
• Self-starter with the ability to strategically plan own work and follow-up on implementation;
• Sector related project development, management and implementation skills at national, regional and continental levels;
• Very strong writing, analytical and communication skills are necessary;
• Demonstrated ability to provide strong leadership and foster team environment is required