Capacity Needs Assessment Specialist – Nairobi – FAO

Background
The Government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MoALF), is implementing the Kenya Small-Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (SIVAP) as part of its efforts to enhance smallholder’s agricultural productivity and food and nutrition security while promoting increased participation of women and youth. With funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the project is being implemented in eleven counties namely: Bomet, Kajiado, Kitui, Machakos, Makueni, Meru, Murang’a, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Tana River and Tharaka-Nithi.
The successful implementation of SIVAP activities requires strengthened project management and implementation skills, and technical capacities to provide adequate support and extension services both at national and county levels. Subsequently, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has designed a project to provide technical assistance to the SIVAP using 5% of the funds from GAFSP. The expected outcome of the TA-SIVAP is a strengthened technical and organizational capacity at the national and county level that will lead, under conducive external conditions, to achievement of SIVAP outcomes.
The TA-SIVAP’s focus is on raising the technical capacity of the management teams of MoALF at national and county level to successfully manage and monitor implementation of SIVAP activities and to enhance their technical skills and knowhow to support development activities specifically on food and nutrition security, agribusiness and market development at SIVAP sites. FAO Kenya plans to undertake a capacity (training) needs assessment in the areas of project management and implementation, nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, agribusiness and market development at national, county and producer group levels.

Reporting line and specific tasks
Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Kenya, and the direct supervision of the TA-SIVAP project manager, the consultant will be responsible for the deliverables in Activity 1.1 under Output 1.0 and Activity 2.1 under Output 2.0 in the project document. Output 1.0 and 2.0 narrate as “KSIVAP’s National and County Coordination Unit members’ knowledge and skills to oversee and coordinate the implementation of KSIVAP enhanced”, and “Capacity of County government technical staff and local private extension service providers to facilitate increased agricultural productivity, incomes and food security enhanced” respectively.

The consultant will assess;
i) The existing capacities of the PCU, CCU and county agricultural extension staff to successfully undertake their roles and fully implement SIVAP
ii) Capacity building/training needs required for the PCU, CCU and county agricultural extension staff to promote increased agricultural productivity, improved household nutrition, agribusiness management and market development
The exercise will involve use of participatory approaches and employing a methodology that will include institutional and field visits to all the select counties, literature review (previous capacity assessments of relevant projects), key informant interviews, focus-group discussions as well as other relevant assessment tools.

The key responsibilities entail:
• Holding entry meetings with the TA-SIVAP team to clarify TORs and assignment including methodology and approach and depending on the agreed methodology, development of tools such as interview guides and questionnaires.
• Undertake a capacity/training needs assessment of the national and county project coordination units, county agricultural extension staff and producer organizations at the select SIVAP sites targeting both men, women and youth on nutrition-sensitive agricultural issues, and agribusiness and market development.
• •Develop one comprehensive overall capacity-building plan based on the identified needs after the capacity assessment to be integrated into the programmed training that will be implemented over time.
• Compiling a draft report on findings and proposed capacity building processes, facilitate and participate in the presentation of the key findings in validation workshops with relevant stakeholders.
• Present final report with inputs from the validation workshops incorporated

Minimum Requirements
• Advanced university degree in any of the following; Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Social Sciences and/or Development Studies or related fields.
• Minimum 5-7 years of relevant experience in capacity needs assessments and development at national and/or county level related to nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, agribusiness management and market development.
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable
• Extent of Experience in participatory methodologies.
• Ability to communicate in English and Kiswahili.

Competencies
• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building effective relationships
• Knowledge sharing and continuous Improvement

HOW TO APPLY:
Candidates are requested to submit their application by email to vacancy-kenya@fao.org quoting the position title and vacancy announcement number.
A duly completed Personal Profile Form (PPF) generated from FAO’s iRecruitment portal as a PDF-file is to be submitted by email together with a cover letter. Please note that attached resumes or CV’s in place of the PPF will not be accepted.
In order to prepare a Personal Profile Form, you must first register on the FAO iRecruitment site by clicking on the following link to register: http://www.fao.org/employment/irecruitment-access/en/ In order for your application to be properly evaluated, please ensure that all sections of the on-line profile are completed.
Applications received after the closing date will not be given consideration. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.
This vacancy is open to both male and female candidates. Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply. Persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.

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