Job Title: National Consultant to Prepare GEF Full Size Project Documents Agricultural & Land Use Specialist
Job Field
Agriculture, Agro-Allied, Consultancy
Job Detail
In the early 50s and 60s, the issue of food insecurity was not something the government of Nigeria had to contend with. The country was able to feed her citizens and at the same time export surplus food items to neighbouring countries. Every region of the country was well known for particular crop products, whether food or cash crops and the country was relatively self-sufficient when it comes to food production. Nigeria had groundnut pyramids in the North, the cocoa mountains in the West, oil palm and kernels heaps in the east and the rubber plantation in the mid-west. However, with the advent of oil exploration and production, things changed drastically, interest in the agricultural sector went sour and that marked the beginning of the decline into the abyss as a polity. Now, the issue of food security is back on the table. As at 2008, Nigeria was spending as high as $2 billion dollars importing food stuff for its citizens. The impact is more felt by vulnerable households mostly through price increases with difficulties in accessing food items. Beyond the high prices in Nigeria, drought and political situation in the country also have negative impacts on food production with Nigeria’s agriculture being mainly rain-fed and is yet to take full advantage of its irrigation potentials.
Role
The required official endorsement letters for the project shall be competed properly, and an official endorsement letter will be prepared by the GEF Operational Focal Point of the Government as evidence of completion of the process. Co-financing commitment letters will be collected from participating government institutions, bilateral development partners, multilateral development partners and NGOs who wish to provide cash or in kind contributions to the project. They form the beneficiary country’s guarantee of interest in the project and the incremental benefits GEF funding provides to the country;
Stakeholder consultations during Component C: Key agencies and beneficiaries shall be involved in validation of the project budget and its alignment with the project strategy, and also in validation of project financing mechanisms as will be described in the project institutional management arrangements. These consultations shall be documented;
Establish the existing knowledge networks and potential partnerships for addressing land productivity, adaptation to climate changes and resilience building in the region;
Identify sites for demonstrating proven, testing new technologies, establishing soil erosion and GHG emission monitoring. This will require knowledge and documentation of the socio-economic and cultural set up in the target districts, particularly with respect to decision making at household and village level regarding resource allocation and use, knowledge of the major SLM issues in each of the districts so that demos are located where they are most needed;
Identify gender parity issues that the project needs to address in order to promote gender equality, provide socio-economic benefits to all and empower women to increase the access to and control over production, natural resources. This activity should lead to identification of sub-counties, parishes for project focus;
Assess the technologies to be up-scaled with respect to adaptability to the host ecosystems, social acceptability, and economic viability for the user, environmental safety and possibility to increase food security to communities in the target area. In addition, identify the most appropriate packaging, presentation of the technologies that will result into maximum adoption by the communities and ease integration of the technologies into promotion plans and budgets at national and district levels;
Identify individuals, groups, schools, churches and communities that are willing to dedicate including cost-sharing land, natural resource for testing the effectiveness of integrated natural resources management technologies for improved ecosystems services and increased productivity;
Identify measures relevant to support diversification of production systems as a safety net for increased resilience and stability in the event of climate changes;
Identify the measures and modalities that can be used to support integration of MRM in agro-pastoral systems including options that enhance soil and water conservation, biodiversity conservation on a wide landscape in the project sites reduction of GHG emissions through improved grazing, fodder management, integration of crops with livestock systems, and the measures, modalities that would be required to implement them in terms of human, financial and other resources. Establish the potential role of CSOs, private sector actors and traditional leaders in project activities and the specific training needs for the communities.Finalization of projects results framework, which will include detailing incremental cost analysis as per GEF guidance; precise definition of baseline projects, activities, budgets, goals and co-financial links to GEF outcomes, definition of GEF incremental value per outcome and output, presentation of results of the incremental cost analysis in matrices. In addition, land degradation and climate change tracking tools will be prepared in collaboration with other stakeholders, quantifying and detailing a presentation of the global environmental benefits of the project, including GHG emissions reductions and growth of carbon stocks if any. This will result into finalization and stakeholder approval of the logical framework specifying the project goal, objectives, outcomes, outputs and corresponding activities, including success indicators as well as delineation of responsibilities and coordination mechanisms. Assessment of the social, economic, financial and environmental sustainability of proposed project activities, including gender aspects. The expected project outcomes and outputs shall be costed, co-financing sources identified and co-financing commitment letters secured;
Duties and Responsibilities
Integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies;
Perform the analysis of selected agricultural sectors/food chains, including food security and food safety issues and assess the feasibility of agribusiness investment projects and programmes;
Analyse the constraints and opportunities related to agribusiness investment options with emphasis on the functionality of markets, support services, trade policies, market institutions and organizations, risk management systems, food safety control systems and private sector engagement;
Formulate and deliver capacity development activities and programmes in favour of private and public stakeholders in the areas of agribusiness, marketing and food chain development;
Develop ‘early action’ to drive change in agricultural production systems towards increasing resilience to weather variability and shocks, while contributing significantly to mitigating climate change;
Sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts of agriculture;
Develop specific programmes and policies to assist populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate changes and food insecurity;
Knowledge management should be an integral part of project design and implementation;
Gender issues main streamed along the following lines – accessibility, availability, utilization and stability.
Competencies
Excellent team player with good interpersonal skills;
Ability to manage workload with minimum supervision;
Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment;
Strong analytic skills.
Required Skills and Experience
Postgraduate Degree kin Agricultural Sciences, Food Technology, Agricultural Economics.
At least 10 years’ experience and advisory role in conducting agricultural, rural sector, sub-sector analytical studies, and in planning, design, supervision of agricultural and rural investment operations, including elaboration of agribusiness investment feasibility studies, food chain analyses, agricultural market studies in developing countries and countries in transition;
Experience in climate change adaptation projects in agricultural sector;
Experience in facilitating dialogues, communications between local communities and national governments;
Extensive knowledge in agricultural research programmes, environmental projects, tools development, community projects, food technology and production, sustainable use of natural resources, agricultural sciences, food technology, sustainable land and forest management;
Good public relations background;
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