Consultant at African Union - InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources

Background

The African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is a specialized technical office of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) of the African Union Commission (AUC). AU-IBAR is mandated 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 State of the AU. AU-IBAR accomplishes its mandate through supporting and empowering the African Union Member States and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). AU-IBAR’s vision is of an Africa in which animal resources contribute significantly to the reduction of poverty and hunger. Founded in 1951 to study the epidemiological situation and fight rinderpest in Africa, AU-IBAR’s mandate covers all aspects of animal resources, including livestock, fisheries and wildlife, across the entire African continent, but fills a unique and strategic niche by working at continental and regional levels, with the RECs being key partners.

AU-IBAR led a cross-section of stakeholders in the livestock sector in Africa to formulate the Livestock Development Strategy for Africa (LiDeSA), a 20 year framework for the collective and coordinated development of the livestock on the continent. The strategy was approved by the AU Heads of States and Governments of the AU in January 2015. In order to initiate the implementation of LiDeSA, the European Union made available funds to assist AU-IBAR implement the Sustainable Development of Livestock for Livelihoods in Africa (Live2Africa) project. As part of its coordination strategy and considering the high demand of services from RECs and Member states AU-IBAR is applying part of the funds to employ consultants in various disciplines to support the implementation of Live2Africa.

In this regard, AU-IBAR seeks the services of a Consultant, animal production expert with a broad range of competencies in animal production with an edge in technology development, transfer and uptake across livestock value chains. The consultant will provide technical backstopping to AU-IBAR, RECs and Member States aimed at enhancing technology uptake, development of novel innovation, formulation of continental action plans for technology transfer and uptake amongst other actions. The Consultant will also provide specific technical support to selected Member States to implement activities geared at transforming the priority regional livestock value chains (RLVCs) though strengthening systemic capacities.

Objective

The objective of the consultancy is to assist the Technology, innovations and skill development component coordinator of Live2Africa in providing technical support to enhance the implementation of key aspects of the Technology and Knowledge enhancement result areas of the Live2Africa programme.

Tasks

• Provide technical backstopping to Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in the implementation of technology related intervention activities across the priority regional livestock value chains
• Co-ordinate skill development and training of member states in the key intervention areas
• Provide technical support in the development of the continental Action plan for technology transfer and uptake
• Facilitate and co-ordinate the development of relevant documentation on lessons learnt and best practices on technology transfer and uptake by the National extension services
• Review and lend subject matter on the development of the compendium of existing technologies, their suitability and profitability across priority regional livestock value chains with special focus on gender sensitive technologies
• Support in the ground verification process of select host institution for the establishment of the regional technology and innovation incubation centers for Africa (A-TiCHUB).
• Review and lens subject matter on the development of the continental strategy for strengthening Research-Extension farmer-input linkage systems (REFILS) across the priority value chains
• Review and clear technical reports submitted by commissioned consultants
• Provide technical support in the piloting of livestock identification and traceability technologies for promotion of the live animals and meat value chain IGAD and SADC region
• Provide technical support in the establishment of centers of excellence for promotion of reproductive technology uptake in the EAC region
• Technically support in the development of Livestock value chains based information management systems
• Coordinate review of article submissions for the bi-annual newsletter on modern technologies and innovations including success stories in Africa
• Provide technical support in the implementation LiDeSA strategic action 4 “To enhance innovation, generation and utilization of technologies, capacities and entrepreneurship skills of value chain actors

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The following are the expected outputs:

• An inception report including the methodology and the work plan to undertake the tasks
• Validated continental action plan for technology transfer and uptake
• Validated compendium of existing technologies, their suitability and profitability across priority regional livestock value chains with special focus on gender sensitive technologies
• Establishment of at least 1 A-TiChub
• At least 4 regional trainings undertaken in the respective RLVCs on select technologies
• Publication on compendium of existing technologies, bi-annual newsletter amongst others
• Detailed technical reports submitted upon completion of each of task
• Detailed commissioned consultancy report available
• A final report on the assignment

Qualifications

The successful candidate shall have a University degree in Animal Science, Animal production (Breeding, Genetics and genomics) and a Post Graduate degree in animal production with strong background in to technology transfer and uptake across the Livestock value chains or other relevant disciplines. A PhD will be an added advantage.

General Professional Experience

• Experience in conducting, facilitating dialogue and organizing discussion platforms with livestock sector stakeholders
• Experience in research-extension-farmer interactions
• Experience in technology development and transfer
• Experience in utilization of various technologies such as reproductive, breeding, value addition etc, along the Livestock value chain
• Experience in animal recording and traceability

Specific Professional Experience

• Good working experience in implementation of adoption methods for technology uptake and transfer
• Experience in organising and facilitating stakeholder consultative meetings and preparation of reports/ proceedings
• Proven record in editing of technical/scientific papers and manuscripts
• Proven record of scientific publications in refereed journals
• Formulation and development of regional policy frameworks for technology transfer and uptake
• Experience in interacting with RECs and MS on policy and legislation formulation and development
• Experience in packaging, research and technology innovations into user-friendly products for the farmer/agribusiness entrepreneur
• Experience in the production of compendiums on livestock-related topics
• Proficient in management of projects

Skills and Competencies

• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Self-starter with the ability to strategically plan own work and to work independently, with minimum supervision, to high professional standards
• Knowledge and experience of using participatory approaches

Language Requirement

Proficiency in English, a working knowledge of Arabic, French or Portuguese will be an added advantage.

Gender Mainstreaming

The AU Commission is an equal opportunity employer and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.

Duty Stations

The consultants will be stationed in Nairobi with travel on specific assignments agreed with the AU-IBAR Management

Duration

The duration of this assignment is 6 months. The selected candidate should be available to undertake this assignment with minimum delay.

Remuneration

The remuneration for this Consultancy is a fixed amount of USD8,300 per month. Expenses for missions will be covered separately in accordance with the applicable African Union Commission rules and regulations.

Evaluation Criteria

The applications will be evaluated on the basis of the relevant technical qualifications, experience and competence of the candidates.