Cluster Support in the Agricultural and Food-Processing Sector in Ethiopia

Job Description

The backbone of Ethiopia’s economy is agriculture. It provides employment for about 68% of the working population and represents over 30% of the country’s GDP. A central goal of the Ethiopian Government is the structural transformation of the economy from low- to high productivity agriculture and industry. Hereby, the agricultural and food industry is considered to have great job creation and development potential. Nevertheless, the sector lacks productivity, innovative capacity, and investments that can trigger further economic growth and thus employment. Few businesses in Ethiopia’s agricultural and food industry are considered competitive on both, national and international markets. As a result, the job creating growth of companies in the sector is insufficient.

The project Cluster Support in the Agriculture and Food Industry in Ethiopia is part of the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It aims to improve the employment and income situation in Ethiopia’s agro-processing sector by supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the agro- and food industry. The main objective is to increase the employment-effective growth of companies in this sector. The project’s target group consists of unemployed and underemployed people, with a special focus on women, employees and management of local and Ethiopian-based European and African companies in the agri-food sector, in particular MSMEs.

Tasks of the team leader:

• Overall responsibility for the advisory packages of the contractor ;
• Ensuring the coherence and complementarity of the contractor’s services with other services delivered by the project at local and national level
• Design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of capacity development measures for local partners in work package 1 and 2.
• Taking cross-cutting themes into consideration (for example, gender equality)
• Staff management, in particular identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, planning and managing the assignments and supporting local and international experts
• Ensuring that monitoring procedures are carried out
• Regular reporting in accordance with deadlines and agreed upon formats
• Responsibility for checking the use of funds and financial planning in consultation with the officer responsible for the commission at GIZ
• Supporting the officer responsible for the commission in updating and/or adapting the project strategy, in evaluations and in preparing a follow-on phase

QUALIFICATIONS:

• University degree (master’s or equivalent) in Economics, Management, Political Sciences, (Agriculture-) Engineering;
• Knowledge of English and German, C2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages;
• 15 years of professional experience in the private sector development, of which 10 years on another continent (international context);
• 10 years of professional experience in Cluster development and/or SME support, of which 6 years in the agro-processing industry;
• 10 years of management/leadership experience as project team leader or manager in a company;
• 5 years of work experience in Africa, of which 3 years in East Africa, 2 years in Ethiopia;
• 10 years of experience working in or in cooperation with DC projects
• 3 years of experience in financial management

START / DURATION:

Anticipated contract duration: 01.12.2021 – 31.10.2022

Expert days in home country: 55; Expert days in country of assignment: 20

About the Organization

Agriculture & Finance Consultants GmbH (AFC) is a private German consulting firm focusing on agricultural, agribusiness and financial development projects in developing and transition countries. AFC was established in 1973. In 2007, AFC Consultants International GmbH became a member of GOPA Consulting Group, Germany's largest group of consulting firms in development cooperation.

Our services for public organisations and private companies cover in Agriculture & Agribusiness the whole range from primary production to processing and marketing. Financial Sector Development focuses on developing tailor-made credit and saving products and establishing an appropriate regulation and supervision system.