The Ugandan Jobline

Job Title:   Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Specialist

Organisation: Save the Children International

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About the Company:

Save the Children International is an international relief organization that was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts.

Job Summary:  The Climate Smart Agriculture Specialist will be responsible for guiding adoption and scaling of climate smart technologies and innovations by farmers, farmer groups and cooperatives. S/he will advise on specific climate smart interventions and extension systems along the selected value chains. S/he will coordinate with the CSA partners to contribute to cost/benefit analysis which will underpin the investments for effective climate resilient production systems. The specialist will contribute to the joint learning of smallholder producers and farmer group’ adoption of climate smart agriculture. S/he will coordinate, manage, and supervise local extension providers, provide technical expertise to strengthen farmers, farmer groups/ organizations/cooperatives in crop farming and management.

Reporting to the Consortium manager, the Climate Smart Agriculture Specialist will provide technical leadership and guidance related to the framework of Climate Smart Agriculture. S/he will develop strategies that promote adoption of climate smart agriculture practices and technologies. S/he will also supervise the Climate Smart Agriculture Officers.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Technical Expertise and Support:

• Provide technical advice and support on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices tailored to the specific needs of refugee and host communities.
• Recommend and implement CSA techniques such as soil conservation, water management, and agroecology that are suitable for the local context.
• Perform desk review of existing and potential CSA and Agroecological practices that support transitions to sustainable agriculture.
• Analyse needs and adoption barriers for CSA approaches among farmers, producer organizations, and agribusinesses and device measure to address these barriers.
• Co-design with target farmers, Local governments and other relevant stakeholders’ climate smart interventions based on context-specific farming systems.
• Ensure that cross-cutting aspects such as gender equity and social inclusion are included and well integrated into CSA approaches.
• Use learning to develop and scale up implementation strategy, approaches and activities; integrating agriculture resilience into additional technical areas as needed.
• Lead the design of CSA assessments of farmers, extension services, government partners, and small and medium agribusinesses.
• Identify and rank crops affected by climate change and natural hazards, and recommend priorities to be addressed, based on assessed impacts and relevance of the crops to food security, incomes, added value and exports.
• Assess barriers, gaps and needs for the adoption and implementation of climate smart agriculture approaches for the selected crops, at all levels, (policy, governance, research, technology development, information, capacity building, etc.).
• Assess the current capacities and needs for capacity development of agricultural producers and extension providers to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and natural hazards, which are affecting the farming systems.
• Propose priorities to be addressed through capacity development, related to the impact of climate change and natural hazards on agriculture, and provide recommendations for extension and knowledge tools required for the public, extension agents and farmers
• Recommend strategies for eventual preparation of demonstration programmes, inclusive of demonstration plots in close coordination with relevant team members.

Program Implementation:

• Oversee the implementation of CSA activities, including the introduction of improved crop varieties, sustainable farming methods, and efficient water use practices.
• Work with public and private agricultural extension service providers to ensure the effective adoption of CSA practices.
• Ensure integration of VSLAs among farmer groups and associations.

Capacity Building and Training:

• Design and deliver training sessions and workshops for refugees, host community members, and local farmers on CSA techniques and sustainable agricultural practices.
• Develop educational materials and resources to support knowledge transfer and skill-building.
• Develop training manuals and workshop content for farmers, government partners, small and medium agribusinesses and other stakeholders on climate smart agriculture
• Identify awareness-raising strategies (training plan activities and training curricula) for each of the identified target groups (public, smallholder farmers, extension providers), on basis of the identified capacity development needs (awareness raising/training activities), to address the adoption of climate smart agriculture and climate change adaptive measures (good agricultural practises).

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Develop and apply monitoring and evaluation tools to track the progress and impact of CSA interventions.
• Conduct field assessments and surveys to measure the effectiveness of CSA practices and adapt strategies as needed.

Research and Innovation:

• Conduct research on climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices that are relevant to the Ugandan context and the needs of the refugee population.
• Stay informed about new developments in CSA and integrate relevant innovations into project activities.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Collaborate with refugee community leaders, local government agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders to promote CSA adoption and support.
• Facilitate partnerships and networking opportunities to enhance the project’s impact and sustainability.

Reporting and Documentation:

• Prepare regular reports on CSA activities, achievements, challenges, and lessons learned.
• Document success stories and best practices to share with project stakeholders and contribute to knowledge management

Communication and Networking

• Create and sustain positive working relationships internally with other technical staff; externally with the Consortium partners, district local governments and other stakeholders, and maintains an up-to-date understanding of key development trends in the project area.
• Ensure coordination with the government activities and structures in the implementation of URRI Project

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• At a university degree in agricultural sciences, or a related field.
• At least 8 years of demonstrated experience in climate smart agriculture. Demonstrated experience should include 5 years in a technical role.
• Excellent communication and report writing skill.
• Computer literacy, particularly in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills in English, with experience working in multicultural, multi -location, values driven teams
• Commitment to Save the Children.

How to Apply:
All candidates who wish to join Save the Children should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 15th August 2024

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