Natural Resources Management Officer 118 views2 applications

Required No: 1

About Swiss Church Aid/HEKS-EPER

Swiss Church Aid/HEKS is the aid organization of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland and has its headquarters in Zurich/Switzerland. Swiss Church Aid/ HEKS works towards a more humane and more equitable world, assisting people and communities to overcome economic, social or humanitarian disparities in order to gain autonomy and to live with dignity both in Switzerland and abroad. Therefore, Swiss Church Aid/ HEKS engage in development cooperation, humanitarian aid and church cooperation and works in more than 30 countries and runs around 200 projects world-wide. Swiss Church Aid/ HEKS is a member of the ACT Alliance.

In Ethiopia, Swiss Church Aid/ HEKS has country programmes with focus on Natural Resource Management, WASH, Inclusive Markets for Smallholder Pastoralists & Farmers and Humanitarian Assistance for drought and conflict affected communities. The Ethiopia Country Office is recruiting a Natural Resources Management Officer for its Project in Borana.

Job Description

Key areas of responsibilities are:

• Responsible for provision of technical leadership and overseeing implementation of natural resource management component of the project in accordance with approved time schedules, work plans and budgets
• Takes a lead role in the development and implementation of natural resource management activities in the HEKS pastoral program portfolio in Oromia region (Borana, Guji zones) and Liben zone of Somali region) and within project operational area.
• Develop and prepare operation action plan for community –based natural resources management activities in collaboration with concerned bodies.
• Support technically the mobilization and awareness creation of the target communities on the concepts, approaches and principles of NRM in the target operational areas.
• Support/strengthen of community based NRM councils/ committees in the identified NRM sites and facilitates the development of by-laws.
• Support in identifying appropriate biological and physical conservation measures in the identified communal and closure areas.
• Identifies and recommends interventions to promote sustainable rangeland management in the program operational area.
• Identifies problems and conducts causal and problem analysis focusing on natural resource management.
• Participates and represent HEKS at meetings, workshops, working groups, etc, in collaboration with NGO partners, Government departments and donors as it relates to natural resource management.
• Innovates and advocate new ideas/technologies related to NRM that will speed-up implementation process and improve quality of NRM interventions.
• Develop, implement and document appropriate best-practices in community-based approaches to natural resource management.
• Regularly monitor, review and evaluate the implementation of programs on NRM and watershed, take appropriate and timely action and extract lessons learned for future program development and implementation.
• Develop and submit weekly/monthly and quarterly work plans in-line with the project DIP to the Field Office Coordinator and field visits report timely to share the progress and issues during implementation.
•  Lead initial rapid or detailed assessments in collaboration with field staff, local leaders, authorities and affected populations to determine priorities and immediate needs.
• Develop and maintain relationships with relevant stakeholders and represent HEKS at project target locations in consultation with field project teams and consortium.
• Ensure compliance with reporting requirements, with a focus on quality analysis and timely submission.
• Work with the customary institutions, project team and government counterparts to achieve the project outputs/outcomes.
• Ensure adequate consultation and participation of district and kebele level stakeholders throughout the project cycles such as in project planning, implementation and monitoring of the activities.
• Support M&E activities including beneficiary verification/validation activity, compliant data collection, interviews etc.
• Support documentation of best practices and learning on NRM and conflict transformation aspects of the project.
• Support/facilitate beneficiaries and other stakeholders knows and access to HEKS complaint and feedback systems.
• Providing information/data on expressed beneficiary needs, context information, local authorities’ policies and plans.
• Frequently travels to project woredas, kebeles to provide technical support, planning, implementation & monitoring of the NRM activities with woreda project team.
• Ensure that all HEKS accountability procedures and tools are applied correctly at all stages of the implementation of NRM interventions.

Education, Qualifications & other knowledge

• BSc/MSc degree in Natural Resource Management, Rangeland Management, Dryland Agriculture or other related fields.
• More than 5 years of work experience for degree holders and more than 2 years of work experience for MSc holders in Natural Resource Management interventions in pastoral and lowland areas.
• Experience and understanding of pastoral areas, context, livelihoods and culture is highly desired.
• Experience of working with local community and customary institutions at grassroots level.
• Willingness to works in remote areas, ability to work with minimum supervision.
• Very good English, Afan Oromo languages and/or multi linguistic skills (written and spoken).
• Computer literacy, excellent record keeping and report writing.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Good community level facilitation and coordination skills.
• Strong sense of integrity and personal commitment to the goals and values of Swiss Church Aid/HEKS.