Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa
Agriculture Transformation Agency ATA
Vacancy AnnouncementETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY Position:                    Senior Director, Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC)Term of Employment:   FixedDuty Station(s):               Addis AbabaRequired Number:          OneSalary & Benefits:           CompetitiveApplication Deadline:   June 25, 2018 BACKGROUND:The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) has been established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and address systemic bottlenecks to Ethiopia’s agricultural development. The Agency does this through problem-solving, implementation support, and capacity building of stakeholders involved in implementation of interventions that address the systemic bottlenecks. The Agency reports to a Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister and whose co-chair is the Minister of Agriculture.  The Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) initiative has been introduced in Ethiopia to apply a geographically-focused approach for rapidly enhancing priority commodity agricultural value chains throughout the country. The implementation of this initiative will support agricultural sector transformation by enhancing and supporting existing structures of government, private-sector and other non-governmental partners, to address systemic as well as commodity- and geography-specific bottlenecks in agricultural value chains. Agricultural commercialization clusters are defined as geographically concentrated networks of producers, agro-industries, traders and other private and public actors engaged in the same industry and that are inter-connected and building value networks, either formally or informally, when addressing common challenges and pursuing common opportunities. This concept builds on previous federal and regional efforts for value chain development, including part of the government’s focus on Economic Growth Corridors and crop production and productivity Initiatives in priority woredas. The current approach advocates for a more focused and market-driven solution with significant coordination and support between federal and regional bodies.POSITION SUMMARY:The Federal ACC is an office in the ATA mandated to coordinate Federal engagement on ACCs across Regions, provide effective upward reporting to the higher federal government office and Federal and Regional stakeholders, mobilize domestic and external resources, and provide training and capacity building to regional counterparts.  The Federal ACC Senior Director will lead and oversee all operations of the ACC and report directly to CEO.ESSENTIAL DUTIES:The main responsibilities of the Federal ACC Senior Director include: LeadershipLead ATA’s Federal ACC engagement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources, other relevant Federal level Ministries and Agencies in the implementation of ACC target deliverablesSupport the ATA Regional Directors in their engagement with the Regional Presidents and Regional Transformation Councils as well as with the Bureaus of Agriculture and other relevant Regional stakeholdersLead the alignment of national and regional strategies and programs to deliver increased results in effectively impact cluster level VC concept Support effective cross-sector and public-private stakeholders' coordination and problem-solving of issues at the national level, including alignment with other national and regional strategies and programsProvide effective timely upward reporting to the Agricultural Transformation CouncilEnsure effective regular communication and reporting with the various government offices, and key public, private and development partner stakeholdersHarmonize  re/organization efforts and new national priorities to achieve organization strategic outcomeProject Management
Deliver  on the outcomes and directions provided by the Agricultural Transformation Council to ensure that all tasks related to the ACC Initiative are completed in a timely mannerEnsure stakeholder coordination, planning, reporting, problem solving and implementation support activities by ACC Support Teams in clusters across the Regions is effectively overseen Ensure effective capacity-building support to Regions on issues related to the ACC Initiative.Lead process of performance management from the cluster, Regional and Federal levels in connection with annual plans and national targetsEnsure annual plan and execution is consistent with organization target with over 90% budget utilization rate across region and programsResource Mobilization
Engage in mobilization of domestic and external resources for the ACC Initiative, including development of project proposals as necessaryFacilitate private sector investments and provide on-going problem-solving support by closely working with the concerned stakeholders