New Employment at USAID/MALAWI

Depending on qualifications and experience incumbent may be hired at a trainee grade (one or two grades lower than the position grade.)

POSITION TITLE: PROJECT MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST (AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY)

BASIC FUNCTIONS OF THE POSITION
A key member of the the USAID Malawi Sustainbale Economic Growth (SEG) Office, the Project Management Specialist, Agriculture and Food Security supports activities and operations across the SEG portfolio. The SEG Office houses the Feed the Future (FTF) Food for Peace and Environment teams. The Project Management Specialist is expected to complete complex assigned duties with little direct supervision, exercising extensive independent judgement as s/he works with diverse groups and stakeholders.

The principal functions of the position are to lead some of SEG’s project design and management, activity development, monitoring and evaluation and learning, GIS and communications efforts. The incumbent is expected to coordinate closely and maintain strong relationships with the Program Development and Analytics (PDA) office as s/he will function as a liaison between PDA and SEG. The incumbent reports to the Feed the Future (FTF) Team Leader of his/her designate.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education: a minimum of Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, agricultural economics, or another field relevant to agricultural development.

Prior Work Experience:

• A minimum of five to seven years of professional experience related to agriculture and food security programming Professional experience using GIS Is required.
• Experience with cost-benefit analysis is desirable
• Experience with monitoring, evaluation, and learning, and using statistical packages including SPSS and STATA, is required
• Ability to work independently, to manage several activities at once, and work under pressure to meet deadlines is required.
• Demonstrated experience in communications, activity design, and procurement is desired
• Language Proficiency, Level IV (fluent) English and Level IV (fluent) Chichewa are required, knowledge of other local Malawian languages is a benefit
• Excellent written and oral English skills are required.
• Ability to write technical documents in English to concisely summarize complex ideas, and to edit work is required

Job Knowledge:

• A thorough knowledge of the principles and best practices for project design and activity development and implementation modalities, particularly related to agricultural development and food security
• Extensive knowledge of agricultural conditions, causes of low productivity and incomes among smallholder farmers, and effective methods to strengthen agricultural growth in Malawi.
• Knowledge of agriculture systems, including value chains, domestic and regional markets, seed systems. financing, extension, and post-harvest storage and handling
• Knowledge of and familiarity with key players in the agriculture sector, including the private sector and public sectors, civil society, financial institutions, and academia
• Knowledge of Government of Malawi (GOM) policies and approaches to improving agriculture and food security
• Knowledge of gender dynamics in smallholder farming households and communities, and of how to apply gender-sensitive approaches to implementation of agriculture activities
• Knowledge of linkages between agriculture, food security, climate change, and nutrition
• A thorough knowledge of best practices and approaches for performance and impact evaluation, monitoring, and learning.
• A comprehensive knowledge or potential to rapidly acquire such knowledge of USAID regulations, procedures and documents relating to strategic and program planning, activity design, monitoring and evaluation requirements is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of the relationship between monitoring, evaluation, learning, and the use of GIS as an evidenced-based monitoring and evaluation tool.
• Knowledge of USAID’s Collaborating. Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach and how to apply it throughout the program cycle is desirable, but not required

Skills and Abilities:

• Strong interpersonal and intercultural skills to ensure effective team relations
• Strong communication and negotiation skills to interpret USAID policies and best practices in performance monitoring, evaluation, activity development and management. budget processes, and communications and reporting for both internal and external audiences.
• Management and organizational skills to work with numerous teams and stakeholders, identifying priority actions and taking initiative for follow through.
• Especially a capacity to frequently travel for site visits and monitoring held level M&E as well as evaluation activities
• Advanced analytical and technical skills to provide concise and clear reporting for agricultural as well as non-agricultural staff on issues related to program implementation, national and regional agricultural policies and programs, technical reports and documents, and academic publications on agriculture.
• Ability to represent USAID in a highly professional manner in national, regional, and international meetings with multiple stakeholders including the UN, GOM, contractors, NGOs, private sector, and other donors
• Advanced computer and Microsoft Office skills, including ability to generate and maintain spreadsheets and databases, and to analyze data using statistical packages including SPSS and STATA
• Proficiency is required in standard GIS software including the ESRI ArcGIS product suite
• Capable of learning additional GIS or image processing software packages, and comfortable working with other, non-spatial, database systems.
• Advanced understanding of M&E data/information collection, management, synthesis, and integration into mapping environments
• Ability to work with minimal instruction and supervision

THE POSITION IS OPEN TO QUALIFIED MALAWIAN NATIONALS.

We strongly encourage that potential candidates obtain a copy of the complete Position Description listing all duties and responsibilities. The full copy Is available from the Human Resources Office Contact the Human Resources Office by email at lilongwehr@usaid.gov, in person at USAID offices or by phone at 01-772455 Ext. 5113 or 5112.

Applicants must meet ALL minimum requirements above to apply

SUBMIT APPLICATION TO:

Please send applications to lilongwehr@usaid.gov or the following address: The Supervisory Executive Officer, USAID/Malawi, P.O Box 30455, Lilongwe 3 Fax: (265) 01 773-181
POINT OF CONTACT Human Resources Office Telephone No. 01772458 Ext. 5114 or 5105

An Equal Opportunity Employer

REFERENCE THE VACANCY NAME ON THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR APPLICATION: EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY — PROJECT MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST (AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY)

Last date of receipt of applications — August 11, 2017