Project Coordinator – Team Lead Ii Opportunity

Program and Position Summary

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) has launched the Energizing Women and Youth in Agri-Food System (EWAS) project to tackle unemployment and promote green energy in the agricultural value chain, focusing on young women. ATI integrates:

• Youth employment
• Gender equality
• Climate-smart practices
• Nutrition-sensitive agriculture

across its programs to create sustainable job opportunities and build resilience. Currently, ATI works with over 3 million smallholder farmers, including 540,300 women and youths, through its Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) and digital agriculture programs designed to improve production and productivity while supporting other actors along the value chain. Additionally, the ADEY program creates jobs for women and youths in ACC regions and Somali by improving access to markets and strengthening MSMEs. Leveraging ATI’s experience, the EWAS project aims to create employment opportunities for young women by establishing enterprises in three value chains:

• Grain milling
• Horticulture collection centers
• Honey and wax processing

The project interventions are implemented in seven regions:

• Oromia
• Amhara
• Tigray
• Sidama
• South Ethiopia
• Southwest Ethiopia
• Central Ethiopia

The component activities are designed to create employment opportunities for youths, exclusively 100% females, through engaging them in grain milling, horticulture collection centers, and honey and wax processing.

Major Responsibilities of the Project Coordinator (Team Lead-II)

The Project Coordinator will be responsible for:

• Planning and managing the technical program based on the proposal submitted to the donor.
• Ensuring the delivery of program outcomes, targets, and KPIs effectively and efficiently.
• Managing and leading problem-solving sessions, providing high-caliber support to project team members.
• Supervising and managing project technical teams, including preparation of annual work plans and budgets.
• Overseeing Senior Technical and Project Officers to ensure project deliverables are implemented.
• Providing technical and strategic advice to all members of the PMU.
• Overseeing the monitoring of project progress and evaluation of results.
• Monitoring project risks and supervising implementation of risk mitigation measures.
• Identifying needs for external technical support for effective implementation.
• Overseeing administrative and financial management, including procurement of goods and services.
• Liaising and coordinating with all project stakeholders.
• Coordinating the drafting of all project-related reports in a timely manner.
• Facilitating knowledge management, particularly in terms of lessons learned and best practices.
• Identifying needs and overseeing the design of project-related communication materials.
• Working closely with communication and monitoring teams to facilitate documentation.
• Engaging with the crop and livestock commercialization program team.
• Organizing stakeholder meetings and workshops to expand program outreach.
• Developing an outreach and advocacy plan for the EWAS project.
• Working closely with ADEY, CCP, Livestock Commercialization, and other related project teams.
• Implementing other activities as required by subprogram or the ATI.
• Integrating young women-centric design approaches in the program.
• Aligning with Women and Social Affairs and other program teams for collaborative delivery.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• PhD or master’s degree in relevant fields with 12 years for master’s holders and 6 years for PhD holders.
• Experience in providing management guidance and technical oversight on regional level projects.
• Extensive experience in implementing and managing donor-funded projects.
• Experience in leading multi-dimensional teams and complex work programs.
• Experience in strategizing and addressing programmatic and operational issues.
• Experience in crop-livestock-Agri business value chains and MSMEs.
• Experience in dissemination and institutionalization of best practices.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-moving, start-up environment.
• Broad understanding of how public, private, and informal actors operate within the agricultural system.
• Experience in green energy projects is a plus.
• Inclination towards participatory management and capacity to implement participatory planning methods.
• Desire to improve the lives of smallholder farmers.
• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.
• Ability to work under pressure and deliver quality results.

Skills Required:

• Agricultural / Studies
• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development