Consultant: National Coordinator At The International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

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The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit, scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries. IWMI works in partnership with governments, civil society and the private sector to develop scalable agricultural water management solutions that have a real impact on poverty reduction, food security and ecosystem health.

Headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with regional offices across Asia and Africa, IWMI is a CGIAR Research Center and leads the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant: National Coordinator

Location: Abuja
Duration of Assignment: 5.5 months

Description

• The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) seeks applications from suitable candidates to undertake a short term assignment as National Coordinator, to coordinate country-level activities of the Water Enabler Compact in Nigeria.

Project Background
Development Bank (AfDB) and aims to increase agricultural productivity and production in Africa through the deployment of proven and high performance agricultural technologies. As part of its Feed Africa Initiative, the AfDB launched the flagship program Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) to boost agricultural productivity of 9 principal commodities across Africa.

The development objective of TAAT is to rapidly expand access of smallholder farmers to high yielding agricultural technologies that improve their food production, assure food security and raise rural incomes. This result is achieved through three principal mechanisms:

• Creating an enabling environment for technology adoption by farmers;
• Facilitating effective delivery of these technologies to farmers through a structured Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure, and
• Deployment of technologies, accompanied by good management practices, and vigorous farmer outreach campaigns at the country level.

In line with its commitment to a water-secure world, IWMI supports through TAAT-WEC small-scale farmers with low-cost irrigation and water management technologies that enable sustainable productivity increase. No ‘one solution fits all’ exists and IWMI promotes farmer-led initiatives to enable producers to opt for appropriate technologies for their agricultural fields that increase crop yields and profitability of their farming activities. TAAT-WEC targets both irrigation and rainfed agriculture and seeks to scale technologies for in-situ water conservation and for developing new irrigation or making existing irrigation practice more efficient and profitable.

In the Water Enabler Compact, IWMI has brought together national agricultural organizations and five value chain compacts to scale technologies in 7 target countries. TAAT-WEC enables the Wheat, Rice, Sorghum/Millet, and Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato compacts by creating an enabling environment for large-scale adoption of irrigation and water management technologies through policies and programs, capacity development, and demonstration and visibility events.

The national organizations have a mandate to promote irrigation development in their respective countries while maintaining strong links with water user and farmer associations, extension services, government, and the private sector. Through TAAT-WEC, they promote appropriate technologies in national programs and policies on agriculture and food security.

Objective of the Assignment
The consultant ‘National Coordinator’ will ensure that TAAT-WEC project activities are implemented timely in the target country and report frequently on progress through quarterly reports and specific project reports. The consultant will implement activities that are in line with the main objectives of TAAT-WEC:

• To enable the Value Chain compacts by scaling-out proven irrigation and water management technologies to contribute to the increase of productivity and production, and income of small-scale farmers in Africa;
• To build the capacity of a cadre of trainers, extensions agents, champion farmers, service providers and youth in the proper selection, installation, deployment and maintenance of irrigation and water management technologies; and
• To attract investments from public and private sector sources for irrigation development and water management for agricultural production through the demonstration of viability and profitability of irrigation technologies and the creation of an enabling environment.

Scope of Work
The Consultant will provide the following services:

• Collaborate with key relevant national stakeholder groups and partners to participate and facilitate effective out-scaling of proposed technologies;
• organize in collaboration with the national partner institution stakeholder meetings and visibility events with public and private sector parties;
• inventory policies, programs and institutions, assess bottlenecks for scaling of TAAT water technologies, and provide recommendations;
• identify national projects, programs and funding sources for leveraging and further scaling of TAAT irrigation and water management technologies;
• present TAAT programme to national projects, programs and donors;
• contribute to monitoring and evaluation of project outputs and outcomes related to scaling of technologies and creation of an enabling environment;
• contribute to demonstration site development and awareness and visibility campaigns, including training, field visits, cross-country farmer visits, field days; and
• support development and adaptation of capacity development materials to local context and provide training on irrigation and water management technologies to extension agents, youth service providers and champion farmers.

Deliverables / Outputs:

• Inception report, which includes a work plan, linkages established with relevant stakeholders.
• Mid-term report, including a description of activities undertaken, inventory of policies and programs, inventory of key stakeholders (government, donors, farmer associations, etc.), visited stakeholder and follow up actions, contributions to ongoing project activities.
• Completion report, detailing activities and outputs, policy recommendations, inclusion of TAAT-WEC technologies in to existing and pipeline projects and programs, report to the Key Performance Indicators selected by TAAT-WEC, supported TAAT-WEC activities and contributions.
• Duration of Assignment: 5.5 months.

Requirements

• Postgraduate Degree in Irrigation Engineering, Agricultural Engineering or Soil and Water Engineering;
• At least 10 years of post-graduate work experience in the field of irrigation management for small-scale farmers in Africa;
• Proven knowledge of irrigation design, soil and water conservation, low-cost solutions;
• Experience in designing and providing capacity development for various actors;
• Experience in working with multiple partners across disciplines;
• Ability to independently design and conduct field demonstration using participatory approaches.
• Wide network with government organizations, donors NGO’s.