Technical Specialist – Climate Smart Agriculture at Global Communities Tanzania

Technical Specialist – Climate Smart Agriculture

Technical Specialist – Climate Smart Agriculture at Global Communities Tanzania November 2024

POSITION DESCRIPTION
Job Title Technical Specialist- Climate Smart Agriculture
Location Dodoma
Salary Level 6
Department Programs
Reports To Deputy Chief of Party (DCoP)
Supervises NA
Coordinates Closely Sr Program Managers; Sr Manager MEL

Pamoja Tuwalishe Program Summary:
Global
Communities and its partners are implementing a 5-year U.S Department
of Agriculture, McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child
Nutrition Program, Pamoja Tuwalishe in Dodoma and Mara regions in
Tanzania. Pamoja Tuwalishe will work in close collaboration with the
Government of Tanzania and other stakeholders to strengthen the school
feeding system, improve the overall education outcomes for students in
program-supported schools and build technical program approach models
that can be replicated in other schools and communities.

Pamoja
Tuwalishe improves learning environments that enhances student literacy
competency, increases students’ attendance, improves students’
attentiveness, strengthens students’ education status, and improves the
student’s overall education outcomes.

JOB SUMMARY
The
Technical Specialist Climate-Smart Agriculture (TS-CSA) will lead the
programmatic implementation of the agriculture component for Pamoja
Tuwalishe, with a focus on climate mitigation and adaptation approaches.
The TS-CSA will be responsible for the rollout of the digitized manual
for school farms and gardens across schools in Mara and Dodoma, ensuring
effective adoption.

The TS-CSA will be a national thought
leader, influencing policy and investment to strengthen the government’s
school feeding system – focusing on local production of commodities in
schools and communities. The Technical Specialist Climate Smart
Agriculture will provide oversight for the planning, implementation,
monitoring, innovation, and evaluation functions for all
agriculture-related program activities. S/he will provide direct
technical support to the school support officers in Dodoma and Mara.

PRIMARY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
Technical Leadership

• Coordinate the completion of formatting, translation and digitization of the designed school farm manual and tools.
• Lead
  trainings of school garden and school farm manual, using the digital
  information and learning system, ensuring they become productive in
  guiding schools to establish and manage gardens and farms as a
  sustainable source of school feeding commodities. Engage in national
  technical working groups and conferences on Agriculture, fostering
  relationships with agricultural research institutions and relevant
  National Ministries.
• Lead the rolling out of the piloted simple irrigation systems to schools in Dodoma and Mara.
• Cultivate
  and nurture relationships with the private sector for the supply of
  quality inputs that facilitate the adoption of climate-smart
  agricultural technologies.
• Collaborate with LGAs to promote Climate smart agriculture adoption in schools and communities
• Partner with schools, local government, and communities to identify and address barriers to climate-smart practices

Innovation & Program Quality

• Identify
  scalable, sustainable and cost-effective approaches that facilitate the
  adoption of climate-smart approaches across program schools
• Review
  and deliver integrated pest management training curriculum for
  extension agents, community groups, and School Garden Clubs.
• Strengthens
  capacity of Dodoma and Mara region administrations and the extension
  systems to apply integrated pest management (IPM) approaches and climate
  smart agriculture technologies.
• Develops and implements the school tree nursery model to expand the planting of multiple wood use wood lots
• Utilize
  the developed tools and approaches to monitor the adoption of
  climate-smart approaches in school-based gardens and farms.

Project Management:

• Tracks and reports on the amount of food from gardens and farms contributing to school meals.
• Oversees the development and monitoring of annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly work plans for the Agric sector.
• Supervises
  the implementation of participatory extension approaches that involves
  Government extension officers and leaders’ farmers
• Oversees the commodity price management system in Mara and Dodoma.
• Ensures close coordination with MEL to ensure the appropriate data is being collected
• Develops and monitors the sector budget, ensuring spending is within the approved budget ceiling.
• Proactively
  coordinates planning and implementation with the other technical
  sectors and implementation team to ensure smooth and cost-effective
  program implementation
• Publishes at least two success stories per year.

Team management:
· Mentors, coaches and trains staff and partners to build their capacity around CSA
· Nurtures an enabling environment, linking annual performance objectives to key performance indicators

Reports & Communications:
·
Liaises with DCoP and respective sector Leads in developing and
finalization of CSA activity reports, and the final approvals of all
Pamoja Tuwalishe reports
· Consistently develops high quality
material relating to climate-smart agriculture and ensure timely reviews
and approvals prior to dissemination
· • Liaise with HQ CSA counterparts for required support and represent Pamoja Tuwalishe in external meetings, as assigned.
·
Supports DCoP in building and maintaining relationships with donors,
local partners and government officials in Dodoma, Mara and beyond.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Support MEL in enhancing MIS for agricultural activities: collecting, cleaning, compilation, analysis and utilization.
• Utilized
  the develop tools to identify and report on CSA program progress and
  quality of activities. This includes reviewing and updating of the tools
  where needed.
• Establish and support linkages between the Twaweza groups and private sector/agro-dealers, and ensure their sustainability
• Work
  with the implementation team to ensure CSA is part of the schools
  specific Annual School Action plans (ASAPs) in collaboration with
  Commodities and School Feeding technical specialist.
• Contribute
  to preparations, reviews and dissemination of Pamoja Tuwalishe program
  results via documentaries, quarterly reports, semi-annual progress
  reports (SAPR) and success stories.

Coordination/collaboration and representation: