Assistant Technical Adviser, Agriculture

Scope of Work The Afghan NGO Coordination of Afghan Relief (CoAR) carries out a series of development interventions in 19 provinces of Afghanistan, in the sphere of agriculture, livelihoods, livestock, environment, relief, education and rural engineering.SCA has had close cooperation with CoAR since 2005, when CoAR took over SCA's agriculture programme which consists of seed multiplication and mobilisation and training of farmers through extension services.A formal partnership agreement was entered into in 2006, through which SCA commits itself to be a capacity builder of CoAR.The capacity building package offered is geared to training of CoAR staff and enhancing technical and managerial capacities of the organisation.In addition to capacity building activities, it also includes a secondment of an Assistant Technical Adviser (ATA).The ATA will support CoAR management staff in issues related to coordination, planning, reporting, monitoring and follow-up, within the programmatic field of rural development, agriculture and livelihood development.S/he will provide technical advice, build and strengthen capacity, and support in networking and advocacy work.The ATA will also have a specific role of monitoring the capacity building package, in which s/he will function as a link between the two organisations.Through this, it is assumed that the ATA will contribute to the dialogue and development of the partnership between the two organisations. Main Responsibilities: Technical support and advice: To provide technical advice in order to ensure: - quality in design, methodology and implementation of rural development/agriculture/livelihoods programmes - development of, and compliance with, programme strategies - development of technical tools and methods for enhanced effectiveness of programmes To support in preparing proposals, action plans, budgets and reports To participate in reviewing and monitoring progress of programme implementation To organise, facilitate and supervise studies, including documentation of best practices Capacity Building: To coach and train staff in order to promote knowledge, capacity and technical skills To participate in arranging workshops, seminars and training sessions for increased capacity Networking and Advocacy: To actively contribute to strengthening the partnership between SCA and CoAR, both on overall organisation level as well as within specific programmatic areas.Entry Requirements Qualifications: University Degree in agriculture, agronomy, horticulture, rural development or similar Experience: Professional experience of rural development programmes in general, and agriculture programmes in a development context in particular.Following are considered assets: - Experience of working with community mobilisation and gender issues in conservative societies - Experience of development work in Muslim communities - Experience from a post-conflict environment Others: - Skills in capacity building and training - Excellent interpersonal and communication skills - Conversant with project planning, budgeting and report writing - Good analytical and troubleshooting skills - Team worker - Ability to cope with a stressful environment - Proficiency in English, knowledge of Dari and/or Pashtu a merit - IT and computer literate Contract period: 2 year.Duties to begin as agreed.