Website Care India

POSITION/DESIGNATION

Project Officer (PO) – Institution Building & Enterprise

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 February 28, 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.

www.careindia.org | Regd. as CARE India Solutions for Sustainable Development

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- Institution Building & Enterprise is to be primarily contracted for 12 months (may be extended as per need/requirement for a maximum of further 23 months) to support the project located in Chhota Udepur and Pavi Jetpur Blocks in Chhota Udepur District, Gujarat.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Lead all project interventions with respect to identification, adoption or formation, capacity building of Community Based Organizations and its members.
Lead all project interventions with respect to identification and promotion of potential agro & allied based enterprise activities in the project area.
Prepare detailed strategy and implementation plan for promotion of CBOs and enterprises in the project area.
Identification and adoption of different village level community-based organizations including Self Help Groups, Producer Groups, Farmer Field Schools, Water User Groups etc.
Designing and developing detailed training module for training of CBOs and Community Resource Person on relevant trainings such as Financial Inclusion, Digital Literacy, Collectivization and Entrepreneurship.
Facilitate identification and selection of Community Resource Person and train them on relevant thematic areas with respect to Institution Building and Entrepreneurship.
Designing and implementing relevant tools to assess the performance and capacities of CBOs.
Facilitate linkages of CBOs with relevant government programmes such as bank linkages, National Rural Livelihood Mission and other relevant schemes.
Designing and conduct relevant market research and value chain studies to identify potential enterprise activities and develop business plans for community-based enterprises.
Provide techno-managerial assistance during formation and promotion of federations in the project area such as registration of federations, training of board members and management, business plan development, backward and forward linkages, establishment of enterprises etc.
Monitor field/ on ground implementation of project activities as per project log frame, report indicators as per the overall project outcomes, including providing guidance to local Community Resource Persons (CRPs) on implementation quality and reporting from the villages.
Regularly liaise with relevant government departments/ institutions and private sectors like State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLMs), various skills building initiative under various government departments and cooperatives, local CBOs/ NGOs and CSOs engaged in to understand ongoing policy and explore scope of engaging SHGs, rural youths and returnee migrants along with initiatives towards engaging with local micro-credit institutions, cooperative banks, state departments for sustaining entrepreneurship and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), SHG Cooperatives, etc towards registration, functioning, value chain, marketing and other support initiatives for sustainable income generation activities.
Support the project with SBCC efficacy documentation, SBCC reporting, research, monitoring, reporting and documentation including case studies, documenting best practices, assisting in donor reporting and support team members and project in designing required communication materials.
Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up to date on livelihood skills, entrepreneurship funding opportunities, marketing channels for products under private and public sector including diverse government department, local administration, district administration, banks, e-commerce, Panchayat related partnership related issues.
Analyses and explore initiatives for strengthening strategic alliances with government departments and stakeholders.
Generate new business, value chain, marketing, business operations and ecommerce partnership/ supply chain ideas and approaches, and build capacity of the FPOs, SHGs, social enterprises and entrepreneurs created and supported under the project for sustainable livelihood generation and economic development of the community and the cluster of villages.
Support the project team under overall leadership of the project manager and the deputy director and other specialists from CARE India Head Quarter, in designing and organizing state level events, policy discourse and representing various forums.
Actively participate in discussion forums, workshops, seminars, write shops and other appropriate events.
Produce papers, learning materials and bulletins from time to time for wider packaging of project & CISSD.
She / He will plan, design, build capacity, support concurrent monitoring, necessitate evaluation studies and facilitate knowledge products around approaches, strategies and tools to generate demand around and secure sustainable models encompassing, sustainable production of nutrition rich food.

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, mobilization reports, donor reporting etc.
Support in understanding local community knowledge & behaviour gaps leading to poverty and take lead in SBCC activities to ensure change through social institution like SHGs, FPOs, youth groups, children, etc.
Perform any other task assigned by the line manager and Deputy Director as per organizational requirement.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential

Postgraduate or equivalent degree or higher in Rural Development / Cooperative Management / NGO Management / Agribusiness Management / Social Work / Entrepreneurship.
Minimum 5 years’ experience in rural livelihood promotion in farm and non-farm sector involving FPOs, SHGs and rural youths / migrant community
Proficiency in languages of Hindi & English is a must with competency in both oral and written communication.
Candidates with prior experience of working with Community Based Organizations on institution building and enterprise promotion in Gujarat will be preferred.
Women candidates are encouraged to apply for this position.

Preferred

Candidates with proficiency in Gujarati reading, writing and speaking will be preferred.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

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

Communication skills:

Eg: 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 and Hindi languages at an expert level

Research skills:

Eg: able to conduct primary and secondary research for identifying the newest trends and incorporate them in program / process approach

Team Management & Collaboration / People skills:

Intelligent and motivating personality with capacity to lead a team of community-based cadres and groups.

• Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities with attention to details.

• Believes in ethical functioning and gender empowerment, equity and equality.

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

Analyzes current situation to identify opportunities for project development.

Change Management:

Eg: 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):

Eg: able to successfully manage project/process deliverables in stipulated time and budget

able to incorporate feedback and continually work on project / process improvement

To apply for this job please visit careindiacareers.peoplestrong.com.