Job Opportunity for Project Officer – Integrated Natural Resource Management at Care India in Chhota Udepur

POSITION/DESIGNATION

Project Officer – Integrated Natural Resource Management

GRADE/LEVEL

Contractual position (1 Year renewable contract based on performance and organizational need analysis) at Grade G

PROJECT/UNIT

Empowering Smallholder Farmers through strengthening agri & allied clusters in Chhota Udepur, Gujarat

PROJECT DURATION

March 1, 2021 to March 31, 2024

REPORTS TO

Project Manager

LOCATION

Two blocks (Chhota Udepur and Pavi Jetpur) in District Chhota Udepur, Gujarat

TRAVEL

80% including daily field travel, district head quarter, state and national travel as required.

ABOUT US

CARE is a not-for-profit organisation working in India for over 70 years, focusing on alleviating poverty and social injustice. We do this through well-planned and comprehensive projects in health, education, livelihoods and disaster preparedness and response. Our overall goal is the empowerment of women and girls from poor and marginalised communities leading to improvement in their lives and livelihoods.

During FY 2020-21, CARE India directly reached out to 52.7 million people through 53 programmes across 18 states, covering more than 130+ districts. We are part of the CARE International Confederation, working in 100 countries for a world where people live with dignity and security.

CARE India seeks a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

Our goal is to ensure that women and girls from the most marginalized communities are empowered, live in dignity and their households have secure and resilient lives. CARE India aims to accomplish this goal by working with 50 million people to help them have quality health, education, livelihoods and overcome the effects of disasters.

Our employees are committed to CARE’s values, Code of Conduct, and safeguarding commitments towards a safe workplace for all, including the principle of ‘do no harm’. They are also responsible to uphold and strengthen our safeguarding commitments in their role. To know more about our safeguarding policies please visit our website link given below.

PROJECT DETAILS

Project goal is to empower 8,000 smallholder farmers through promoting sustainable agriculture & allied production clusters and promotion of enterprises resulting in enhanced income for the smallholder farmers. The objective of the project are as follows:

• Objective 1: Strengthening Community Based Organizations by building their capabilities.   
• Objective 2: Natural Resource Management through promotion of soil and water conservation  
• Objective 3: Promotion of sustainable agriculture practices within smallholder farmers
• Objective 4: Enterprise promotion and support
• Objective 5: Enabling environment creation for enterprise and smallholder farmers

JOB SUMMARY

Project Officer –  is to be primarily contracted for 12 months (may be extended as per need/requirement for a maximum of further 12 months) to support the project located in Chhota Udepur and Pavi Jetpur Blocks in Chhota Udepur District, Gujarat. Project Officer – INRM is the resource person to bring in innovation, project execution and strategies to realize the vision of Integrated Natural Resource Management supporting small and marginal landholding farmers particularly women farmer.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead village level micro planning studies for natural resource management and prepare village level micro plans for promotion of soil and water conservation in the project area.
• Prepare detailed strategy and implementation plan for promotion of soil and water conservation in the project area.
• Lead formation and capacity building of Water User Groups and Water Budgeting practices in the project area.  
• Designing and developing detailed training module for training of CBOs and Community Resource Person on relevant trainings such as soil and water conservation, water conservation structures, micro irrigation technologies, solar energy-based technologies etc.  
• Facilitate identification and selection of Community Resource Person and train them on relevant thematic areas with respect to Integrated Natural Resource Management.
• Design and facilitate demonstrations of relevant technologies and soil & water conservation structures. 
• Responsible for water structure and irrigation systems design, maintenance and repairs with macro-micro projects like dug well, water sheds, drip irrigation, etc. with farmers and community empowerment, training and community mobilization and resource and labour contribution from the farmers and community.
• Create systems of community ownership and management with contribution for design creation, maintenance and repairs and take lead in integrating resources from diverse sources like agriculture department, watershed mission, SRLM, etc. 
• Ensure that the target households are extended technical support strictly adhering to the SOP, continuous monitoring, leadership of Community Resource Persons (CRPs), M & E systems, timely procurement, following accounts & procurement systems, etc. with planning, ownership and prior approval of project manager and Deputy Director. 
• Understand issues and problems faced in the field, aggregate and seek advice from senior colleagues as per requirement.
• Producing designs, both initial outlines and full plans, timely monitoring, on-field demonstration and support to CRPs and farmers, donor reporting. 
• Support to the team in designing and organizing state level events, policy discourse and representing various forums.
• Produce papers, learning materials and bulletins from time to time for wider packaging of project & CISSD. 

Other responsibilities:

• Be accountable for timely accomplishment of responsibilities under his/her thematic area line items with respect to the project DIP and Workplan and generate adequate Means of Verifications (MoVs).
• Raise purchase requests (PRs) and closure of PRs in consultation with the supervisor, for products and services deemed necessary towards undertaking prior-approved project activities with discussion and prior approval of the Project Manager and Deputy Director as per CISSD
• Procurement Policy and functions Provide domain related documentation such as training reports, technical assessment summary, activity cost-estimation, etc.
• Perform any other task assigned by the line manager as per organizational requirement.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• A water engineer/ agricultural engineer with multidisciplinary professional with exposure to climate resilient efficient water usage advanced agriculture systems for sustainable multi-diversified agricultural productivity at micro, small and marginal levels. 
• Interested in and have proved track record in developing water retention, irrigation and climate resilient agriculture productivity models or climate impacted state/ geography with proven impact on sustainable production of nutrient rich crops in various agro-climatic and socio-cultural situations.
• Prior proven experience of leveraging MGNREGA scheme, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, PM Krishi Sinchai Yojana etc. for promotion of micro watershed development, micro irrigation technologies and other relevant water conservation structures and technologies.  
• An innovator and diligent professional who accepts challenge.
• Strategic communicator with ambition towards research and knowledge.
• An inspiring leader who can motivate and mobilize community, engage with government departments and brig in resources from diverse sources including motivating community for contribution in developing community water structure and adopt to new water models.
• A leader with proven capacity towards supportive supervision and meet strict deadlines adhering to quality of deliverables. 

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Master of Science in Agriculture / M. Tech in Agriculture Engineering from reputed institution / Government agriculture university with related experience at least 3 years.
  OR
• Bachelor of Science in Agriculture / BE in Civil Engineering / Diploma in Watershed Management / B. Tech in Agriculture Engineering from reputed institution / Government agriculture university with related experience at least 5 years.
• Hands on experience in working extensively on water structure design, development and implementation and working experience of directly working with farmers on the ground to support soil and water conservation.
• Experience in supporting and handholding farmers in adopting and adapting to best practices and newer climate resilient farming through adoptive water and other technologies.
• Experience of working in a large project and as part of a diverse team.
• Women candidates are encouraged to apply for this position. 

Preferred

• Familiarity with agro-ecological conditions and climate challenges in similar geographies in the country. 
• Experience and interest in working with women farmers and their groups at grass-root level. 
• Understanding of adult learning principles.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

(to cover competencies in Relationship Management, Self-Management and Result oriented. Please choose and define as appropriate for the role)

 Communication skills:

Able to articulate and communicate well to all stakeholders (both verbally and in writing) in a manner that meets the different needs of different audiences 

Language skills:

Able to read, write and speak in Gujarati, Hindi and English at an expert level 

Research skills:

Able to conduct primary and secondary research for identifying the newest trends and incorporate them in program / process approach.

Team Management & Collaboration / People skills: 

• High social intelligence: able to engage and influence teams, create relationships of trust with stakeholders
• Adept at co-creation: naturally collaborative and solutions focused 
• Conflict resolution: comfortable with negotiating and resolving conflict; seeking clarity and testing assumptions
• Able to reflect, empathetic, and a good listener 

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

Big picture / critical thinker (able to think clearly and rationally and select the best method as appropriate) / connector (able to spot gaps, establish needs and opportunities)

Change Management:

• Resilient: able to deal well with ambiguity, uncertainty, and change     
• Flexible: able to adapt well to shifting priorities  
• Versatile: able to juggle different and conflicting priorities  

Operational excellence (Project / Program / Process management):

• Able to successfully manage project /process deliverables in stipulated time and budget
• Able to incorporate feedback and continually work on project / process improvement