Position: Programme Officer Livelihoods

Organization: SWISSAID India

Location: Pune

JOB DESCRIPTION/ RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting to the Senior Program Officer, the Program Officer Livelihoods (POL), shall have the overall responsibility for managing the Sustainable Tribal Livelihood project. S/he shall also be responsible for accompaniment and monitoring of 3 partnerships, including facilitating linkages with government programmes, public relations, information dissemination and fundraising. The Programme Officer shall also be responsible for developing knowledge products, strategy papers and policy engagement strategy for the project. This position interfaces with experts in the field of agroecology, markets, gender, climate change adaptation and M and E.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

(A) Accompaniment and Monitoring of Projects and Partnerships to Achieve Agreed Results (65%):

• Develop project proposals (in the SWISSAID template) together with partner organizations, taking into consideration the needs of local communities and the outcomes of the Country Programme Plan;
• Develop detailed annual project implementation plans together with partner organizations, monitor and enforce deadlines.
• Support partners to ensure farmers adopting ecological farming practices increase the area, diversity and yield and other outputs of ecological farms
• Provide technical support to partners to enable individual farmers, community-based institutions to increase their income through marketing of agroecological produces, NTFP and promotion of livestock, fishery, and nonfarm activities.
• Support the partners implement strategies to strengthen different community-based institutions to function effectively as per institutional maturity index.
• Promote the partner organizations’ awareness of gender and of social inequalities and facilitate actions to build women's leadership and to increase participation of women in decision making in CBOs within the project
• Facilitate the development and implementation of village level climate change adaptation plans and support CBO level mechanisms to respond weather extremes and social shocks
• Periodically assess the thematic capacity and organizational capacity of partner and organize capacity-building of partner organizations 
• Undertake partner visits to provide handholding support to help partners develop operational strategies to achieve project outcomes.
• Draft six monthly and annual reports and review the finance reports. Document success stories, journeys of empowerment and change
• Work closely with the M and E consultant and partners to ensure effective implementation of the Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation System.   
• Proactively participate in Community of Practice on Agroecology and Climate Change and develop knowledge products based on SWISSAIDs work
• Ensure compliance of projects with quality management, procedures and guidelines as stated in the set of SWISSAID Reference Documents;
• Inform/ consult with the Senior Programme Officer in the event of significant modifications in project content and budget or serious problems in a project.
• Any other task delegated by SPO

(C) Engagement with Government and other stakeholders (15 %):

• Develop linkages with government and non-government stakeholders working in the region to build climate resilient livelihoods in order to enhance project impact
• Facilitate partner organisations to leverage mainstream resources for implementation of climate change adaptation plans, livelihood diversification and advancing other project objectives
• Foster and participate in networks on thematic priorities of the SWISSAID country program.

(D) Public Relation, Information Work and Fundraising (20%):

• Lead and contribute to the development of good quality donor proposals to enhance the Small Scale Farming portfolio. Manage the donor funded projects and prepare high quality donor reports
• Draft fund raising and communication materials on SWISSAID and its program in the country for information and fundraising work

4. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES:

Qualifications:

• Applicants must be graduates with a post graduate degree in Social Sciences, or Economics, or Agriculture, or equivalent, from a reputed university.

Experience:

• Minimum eight years’ experience of working in the development sector, in the field of Agriculture, Forestry or Livelihoods, of which at least three years must be with a grassroot development organization;
• Demonstrated experience and track record of strengthening small farmers livelihoods through enhancing agricultural production and encouraging diversification, initiating income generation activities, facilitating strong peoples institutions and linking and leveraging resources from government programmes;
• Practical experience of promoting ecological farming is desirable.

Skills and Competencies:

• Ability to develop strong, positive relationship internally with team members and externally with Stakeholders, Funders, Social Networks and other organizations.
• Strong commitment towards addressing gender discrimination and the rights of marginalized persons.
• Good understanding of key challenges being faced by small farmers in India, as well as government policies and programmes to improve livelihoods;
• Proven track record of accompaniment of grassroots development projects;
• Excellent analytical, conceptual and writing skills;
• Experience of monitoring and evaluation;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Hindi;
• Willingness to travel extensively;
• Proficient in word, excel, PowerPoint and SPSS.