Water and Agriculture Management Engineer Coordinator 263 views

Shelter For Life International (SFL) is a Christian relief and development organization with over 30 years of history in providing humanitarian and developmental assistance to communities around the world. The SFL headquarters is located in Minnesota, USA. Our mission is to demonstrate God’s love by enabling people affected by poverty, conflict, and disaster to restore their lives and rebuild their communities. We strive to be socially and environmentally sustainable by employing cultural sensitivity, community participation, appropriate alternative technologies, and cost-effective methodologies to our programs, which are underpinned by human-centered design. Learn more at www.shelter.org.

Program Overview:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agriculture Service through its Food for Progress (FFPr) program has awarded Shelter For Life a five-year (2023-2028) climate smart horticulture value chain project called Climate Resilient Optimization for Productivity in Horticulture (CROP-H) in The Gambia with the following strategic objectives:
1) To increase agricultural productivity in horticulture products while promoting climate change mitigating technologies and techniques; and
2) To expand trade of agricultural products (domestically, regionally, and internationally) through improvements in the trade-enabling environment.

The proposed program will develop and upgrade horticulture value chain linkages through the following four program goals: 1) Increased productivity and output; 2) Expand and improve quality exports, 3) Provide youth and women employment, and 4) improve incomes and standards of living for smallholder farmers in The Gambian horticulture sector.

Profile:
Shelter for Life is seeking a Water and Agriculture Management Engineer Coordinator for the CROP-H project. This position will oversee efficient delivery of project outputs, quality infrastructure development and capacity building related to on-farm, climate smart, community garden irrigation infrastructure. This position will plan and coordinate activities related to irrigation infrastructure including technical supervision, oversight of contractors, and routine monitoring of the works. This position will be based in our sub-office at Soma.

Duties And Responsibilities:
Responsible for all on-farm irrigation system development and rehabilitation activities for efficient and timely delivery and to the required quality standards in line with the design specifications.
Provide technical advice and guidance in the implementation of drip irrigation and other types of small scale, community garden irrigation schemes.
Work with stakeholders to identify sites, ensure appropriateness, conduct due diligence for potential social, environmental and other risks, and conduct participatory consultations/citizen engagement while working with producer cooperatives and associations.
Supervise contractors for timely and quality delivery of work, manage the process and mitigate risks
Provide capacity building to farmers on technical areas of climate smart agriculture and water management
Provide capacity-building training to Water User Associations and/or garden management committees ensuring that the mechanism for generating resources for operation, maintenance, and future replacement is functional and responsible entities for this are consultatively identified with the required guarantee secured before the intervention starts.
Provide support for the proper development of a typical irrigated garden design/guideline;
Provide situational assessment, analysis and recommendations to the Chief of Party(COP), Managers and Coordinators as required to ensure successful implementation of irrigation infrastructure development works
Maintain close relationships and coordinate all activities with other projects and stakeholders who are implementing similar climate smart gardening and irrigation activities
Collaborate with NARI, the MoA and MoFWR to ensure the smooth execution and sustainability of project activities.
Identify, review, and address problems before escalation to COP.
Provide technical and strategic guidance to ensure that the sustainability of completed sites and functioning, pre-informed, clear and agreed upon responsibility of operating and maintaining irrigation and associated infrastructure.
Monitors and follows up on critical management and planning issues to ensure effective and timely project execution
Provides overall coordination, management, administration and guidance on designated activities
Coordinate preparation and submission of annual work plan and budget
Compile, prepare, and submit timely monthly activity report and semi-annual performance reports for the components supervised
Ensures the responsible and judicious use of project resources
Promotes synergy between the different project components to ensure the delivery of desired results and impact.
Supports consolidation of data collection from the field and lower levels;
Coordinates the drawing up of MoUs and agreements with partners and stakeholders
Provides contract administration of the service providers, experts or specialists hired for implementation and project support, and assess their performance on a regular basis;
Ensures responsibility for networking and communications to internal and external stakeholders;
Undertakes and approves staff performance evaluation and takes corrective measures as required;
In collaboration with the MEL Manager, design, review, and continuously improve program implementation on the basis of results obtained based on quantitative and qualitative data and feedback from project participants, clients, partners and staff
Assist the COP with other strategic and operational tasks as required by the project, while ensuring high quality programming execution and donor accountability.

These essential functions are not to be interpreted as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other job-related duties as required. All work responsibilities are subject to having performance goals and/or targets established.

Position Qualifications and Skills / Required Profile:
A minimum Master’s degree in Irrigation Engineering, Soil and Water Resources Management or other technical related field
Proven practical hands-on experience in irrigation systems development in western Africa, preferably solar-powered schemes, preferably in the Gambia;
At least 5 years’ experience in irrigation engineering projects including new development and consolidation/rehabilitation of irrigation schemes in community gardens (vegetables) and orchards
Experience in project risk assessment and mitigation, including advising on matters relating to complex irrigation development and quality management to technical service providers
Preferred experience working with farmer cooperatives/associations/federations
Experience in fieldwork and good knowledge of the regions in The Gambia preferable with a high degree of adaptability to the working environment
Proven experience with project monitoring and evaluation systems and analyzing data.
Strong project management skills, including the ability to anticipate demand and manage multiple tasks and projects while meeting tight deadlines.
Strong communication, interpersonal, community level facilitation and coordination skills
Good written communication skills in English

How to Apply:
Interested candidates who meet the qualifications are invited to submit their CVs and a short cover letter to crophinfo@shelter.org. Please include the title of the position and your name in the subject line of your email.

Application Deadline:
Please submit your application by November 6th , 2024. Any applications submitted after this deadline will not be considered.

Note: We appreciate your interest in joining the Shelter for Life international team. We will review applications carefully and only contact shortlisted candidates for interviews.
Shelter for Life International is an equal-opportunity employer and encourages female candidates and individuals from all backgrounds to apply.