Job Description

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Company/Organization: KISAN II Project

The USAID/Nepal-funded KISAN II project is improving food security in twenty Hill and Terai districts in the Western, Mid-Western and Far-Western regions and four districts in the Central region of the country. The purpose of the project is to increase resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability of income growth in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence. KISAN II will help lead firms, input suppliers, and private sector change agents catalyze agricultural productivity, competitive market systems, a stronger enabling environment, and business and literacy skills for households in two Zones of Influence. We are recruiting for the following positions:

1. Enabling Environment Director

The Enabling Environment Director will work with private sector, GON, and USAID to identify, assess, and prioritize system-level enabling environment barriers to agriculture competitiveness. Barriers that need to be addressed may exist at the municipality, provincial and/or national levels and may be related to food safety standards, grading, storage and warehousing, rural infrastructure management, finance, etc. He/she will select and provide support for enabling environment issues that are high priority to KISAN II stakeholders with input from the private sector, GON, and USAID. Support activities will include developing a clear policy road map for each issue, identifying key milestones to be achieved over the life of project, identifying partners at the firm, industry, government and donor levels, and describing assessments that will need to be undertaken by the project to inform stakeholders. He/she will assess the advocacy capacity of private sector industry associations, and identify capacity building needs that will strengthen their ability to inform government priorities and investments in the agriculture sector. He/she will foster strong relationships with CON counterparts at the municipal, provincial and national levels and work with them to evaluate capacity gaps and identify areas where KISAN II assistance is needed. This should be a participatory process, and focus on how the ability of GON to facilitate private-sector led agriculture growth can be strengthened. He/she will facilitate donor coordination efforts related to policy, identifying areas where KISAN II can leverage efforts of other donor programs and avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts.

2. Senior Policy Advisor

The Senior Policy Advisor will work with the Enabling Environment Director to identify, assess, and prioritize system-level enabling environment barriers to agriculture competitiveness. Barriers that need to be addressed may exist at the municipality, provincial and/or national levels. He/she will advise on barriers that KISAN II can have the most impact on during the project’s period of performance. He/she will advise on the selection of enabling environment issues to be supported by KISAN II and develop a clear policy road map for each issue, identifying key milestones to be achieved over the life of project, identifying partners at the firm, industry, government and donor levels, and describing assessments that will need to be undertaken by the project to inform stakeholders. He/she will conduct value chain analytics to identify commodity-specific enabling environment constraints. These could, for example, be related to food safety standards, grading, storage and warehousing, rural infrastructure management, finance, etc. Based on the analytics, he/she will develop a clear road map for addressing commodity-specific constraints. This includes identifying key milestones to be achieved over the life of project, partners at the firm, industry, government and donor levels, as well as key assessments that need to be undertaken up by the project. He/she will work with the Enabling Environment Director to tie this work to broader efforts at the system level. He/she will facilitate and contribute to efforts to build government and private sector capacity, particularly at the industry level, for evidence driven policy making and advocacy. He/she will assist with conducting regulatory impact analyses to ensure and demonstrate the positive impact of policy changes over time, as well as the costs and benefits associated with certain policies. He/she will participate in assessing the advocacy capacity of private sector industry associations, and advise on how those industry associations can strengthen government relations and inform the agriculture policy agenda.

3. Senior Policy and Program Advisor

The Senior Policy and Program Advisor will serve as the primary project focal point with the Government of Nepal. He/she will foster and maintain alliances with KISAN II government counterparts at the municipality, provincial and national levels. He/she will develop internal mechanisms for ensuring the government at all levels is informed of project developments and that government feels a sense of ownership related to KISAN II work. He/she will work with KISAN II technical teams to ensure KISAN II activities leverage and sequence GoN programs to the maximum extent possible. He/she will identify KISAN II activities that can be adopted and scaled by GoN and link GoN to KISAN II’s learning agenda to support this objective. He/she will keep apprised of government developments, priorities, and interests particularly during the decentralization process, and advise KISAN II leadership on how to respond to those changes. He/she will Identify “champions” at each level of government, and work closely with them build their interest and buy-in for KISAN II activities. He/she will work with them to identify capacity gaps and needs that can be addressed by the project. He/she will ensure KISAN II’s reports to GON and presentations to GON are in-line with GON reporting standards and formats. He/she will work with KISAN II technical teams to ensure close coordination with GON at all levels. This includes schedules and formats of joint monitoring visits. He/she will be the point person for KISAN II in all matters related to the Steering Committee, chaired by the Secretary MOAD, and which provides oversight to KISAN II.

Minimum Experience for all the above positions:

• Masters degree in relevant field, PhD preferred.
• At least 12 years of relevant experience.
• Experience working with the Government of Nepal and/or the private sector to improve the enabling environment related to agriculture.
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written, with fluency in both English and Nepali required.

Last date to apply: 30 September 2017.

These positions are open to individuals of nationality; however, these are local hire local hire positions so international hire allowances will not provided. Disclaimer: These positions are contingent upon donor approval.

HOW TO APPLY

APPLICATIONS: Applicants must submit a cover letter and current CV to jobs.KISAN@winrock.org Applicants should reference the position they are applying for in the subject line of the email. Closing date for applications is 30 September 2017.

This job announcement was published in Kantipur Dainik on 23 September 2017

Job Categories: NGO/ INGO/ Social Work. Job Types: Contract. Job Tags: EJOBS, Ejobs Nepal, High Paying Jobs Nepal, INGO, INGO jobs, Jobs in Project, Jobs Nepal, Kisan II Project, Nepal Government Project, Nepali Jobs, NGO, and USAID Funded Project. Salaries: Negotiable.

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