Position Title : Project Coordinator (Agriculture Specialist)
Number of Position : 1 
Position Status : Full-time Staff
Duty Station : Achham district (UREKA project area of 5 communities)
Report to: Project Manager and Programme Coordinator/WASH Engineer

Background

Support Activities for Poor Producers of Nepal (SAPPROS Nepal) is a national level non-governmental organization (NGO) established in August 1991. It is amongst the well-recognized NGOs in Nepal. SAPPROS envisions a poverty-free Nepal where people engage themselves in innovative initiatives without having to worry about the basic livelihood matters. It works to improve the lives of small farmers and other disadvantaged communities by providing them opportunities for their socio-economic empowerment. Through various developmental and livelihood projects, SAPPROS’ outreach increased to 52 districts in the past 29 years, serving over 5, 74,000 households.

UREKA Project Description

‘Using Renewable Energy to Kickstart Agriculture in Achham (UREKA)’ project will be jointly implemented by Renewable World (RW), in collaboration with SAPPROS and a local partner in Achham. ‘This project forms part of a wider ‘Renewable Energy for Change’ programme. The goal of this project is to contribute to the achievement of SDG 2 in Nepal - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. UREKA will work towards this goal, through the objective of improving food security, income generation, and hygiene among 1,730 households across Achham District through access to renewable energy technology (solar powered water pumping and solar powered agro-processing, agricultural resources and enhanced value chains. 

SAPPROS will lead on the agricultural components of the project, including Farmers Field School, Farmers Business School, and the seedbank and heritage seed campaign.

General Position Summary

The Project Coordinator (Agriculture Specialist) will be working as a full-time employee representing SAPPROS, who will be stationed at district office, Achham with frequent travel to working communities. She/he will be responsible for assist Project Manager in planning, smooth implementation, financial management, monitoring, reporting and quality assurance of the project activities at field level. S/he will lead and provide technical backstopping to LNGO project staffs, coordinate the wider team at field level including RW and LNGO staff, and maintain strong coordination with the concerned stakeholders including RW, as required. The Project Coordinator is required to ensure that gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), safeguarding, governance and environmental sensitivity are integrated in the UREKA’s project activities as crosscutting themes.

Job Description

Main duties and responsibilities

Planning and Coordination

• Represent SAPPROS to lead UREKA project in project areas for effective planning and implementation of  field level activities in selected communities, in collaboration with RW
• In collaboration with the Project Manager at RW prepare Detail Implementation Plan (DIP) and Detail Implementation Guidelines (DIG) of the project activities
• Develop standard operating procedures and training packages (including trainer and participant manuals) based on the contents, methodologies, tools, and approaches to capacitate CBOs (farmer groups, user committee and cooperatives etc) 
• Prepare periodic/quarterly plan with district team and facilitate its timely and effective implementation in compliance with planning and expected result
• Ensure appropriate fund allocation and expenditure on a quarterly basis and take corrective measures by revisiting plans and communicating timely with SAPPROS HQ and RW
• Review the project’s Budget Verses Achievements and report to problem solve and implement smoothly
• Coordinate with District office and central teams including the Program Coordinator within SAPPROS and the Project Manager within RW, to design robust field visit plans, self-assessments and monitoring systems including follow up on recommendations with relevant department and impact areas
• Coordinate with concerned staffs of LNGO and RW for technical assistance as required in the project

Programme Quality

• Supervise and provide guidance to field level staffs in the planning, implementation and monitoring of agriculture activities and project plan as per the given guidelines and planning
• Ensure that the programs have minimum quality standards in place and the cross-cutting themes of GESI, Governance, safeguarding are exclusively followed at all levels  
• In collaboration with RW, ensure that UREKA is delivered according to RW’s Community Centered Model (CCM)
• Ensure and oversee the implementation of project’s Accountability mechanism at community level
• Ensure that all action plans developed after project reviews, monitoring visits, evaluations and assessments are followed up and completed on time
• Identify strengths and improvement areas of staff members and partners for quality delivery of the projects and comes up with plans to improve such gaps via coaching, mentoring, on the spot support etc
• In collaboration with RW’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team, ensure that proper monitoring and evaluation systems are in place to demonstrate project impact and to ensure that programmatic lessons are used to generate a knowledge base for improved project practice and learning
• Ensure that the monitoring and evaluation systems enhance the accountability of the project towards the communities with whom the project works as well as other key stakeholders (civil society, donor, government counterpart, etc)

Programme Operations & Management

• Ensure project adherence to SAPPROS and donor compliance requirements for finance and other strategic support functions (e.g., procurement, transport, inventory, etc.)
• In collaboration with RW, monitor project’s financial position, and ensure the best use of available resources. This includes overseeing the development and review of the project annual budget, review of financial transactions and reports, and review and follow-up on internal and external audit findings/recommendations
• Ensure project operations are conducted in accordance with all statutory requirements
• Ensure and collect the information about project progress, analyse the expenses Vs activity delivery and submit to SAPPROS HQ on a quarterly basis

Innovation and Scale up

• Identify best practices, problems and issues around program implementation and work toward finding solutions for improvements, documentation, and dissemination in consultation with relevant departments
• Coordinate with local government, agriculture cooperatives and market holders to promote agriculture value chain products of the marginalised beneficiaries
• Engage with line agencies for influencing future scale up, including advocacy for climate smart agriculture, income generation, food security and WASH related policy and procedures at local level/provincial level
• Contribute towards developing and implementation of new ideas/innovations and its documentation of processes and its results, based on learning
• Ensure effective monitoring and evaluations are carried out for deriving lessons learned, best practices and that monitoring is effective in terms of deriving quick analysis of progresses for immediate corrective actions and measurement of results

Coordination and Capacity Building

• Support for the capacity building of district/field based Technical Staffs of local implementing partners and district level stakeholders on the different components such as solar MUS, agriculture, livestock and WASH
• Support for the capacity building of lead farmers on the climate smart agriculture, high value crops, heritage (indigenous) seeds production and cultivation, innovative agriculture technology and kitchen garden (healthy garden better home)
• Support for the capacity building of agriculture cooperatives, with a major target to women and other service providers on the market system and channel (input and output level), government policy in cooperative, farmers’ business school, value chain products, collection center and linkage with stakeholders etc
• Coordinate and capacitate multiple stakeholders at the community level to create an enabling environment for planning, mainstreaming, and integration of the program activities
• Coordination and collaboration with Local Government, civil society and private stakeholders for leveraging of program fund, sharing and replication of best practices
• Support in building the capacity of district-level staff and key stakeholders to facilitate the overall process of planning, implementation and monitoring of adaptation plans at local and community level
• Ensuring benefits to real climate - marginalized communities within project areas and considering good governance, gender, and social inclusion
• Represent in and backstop district team to organize and share program progress and plan in different forums
• Maintain effective coordination with the lead partner organization, governmental institutions and others at the project areas as required to implement the program
• Implementing program activities as outlined in the Sub-award agreement between RW and SAPPROS

Documentation & Reporting

• Responsible for timely reparation of comprehensive and analytic reports and submission to SAPPROS-Nepal HQ and RW in line with agreed reporting timeframes
  
• Coordinate with district/field level staffs to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and documentation of program activities and best practices
• Develop a sharing and learning culture within organization for promoting best practices from related programs to each other programs communities of district project areas
• Ensure proper documentation of the project including and not limited to learning, lessons learned, best practices, case studies, success stories and capacitated to monitoring, reporting and knowledge management associate

Occasional Significant Duties

• Work as a member of Humanitarian Response Team if required in Emergency preparedness and response.
• Comply with SAPPROS-Nepal policies and practice with respect to code of conduct and other relevant policies and procedures
• Any other tasks assigned by the organization and immediate supervisor

Academic qualification and experience

• Bachelors in agriculture with 3 years of field experience in planning, implemention, monitoring and reporting of agriculture related livelihood project
  

Required skills and competencies:

• Experience on managerial role including strategic work planning processes, team building, and financial management
• Familiarity with Project Cycle Management, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation
• Knowledge on climate smart agriculture, high value and nutritious crops production, seed bank and heritage seeds, small scale livestock production, innovative and low-cost agriculture technologies etc
• Experience on value chain development, small agro-enterprise and market system development
• Understanding and experience in renewable energy technologies (agro based) is desirable (will add value)
• Experience in working with entrepreneurs, farmers group, cooperatives and CBOs
• Strong analytic and experience in writing high quality reports
• Team player with strong interpersonal, communication, negotiation, facilitation and representation skills  
• Fluency in both (written and oral) Nepali and English language
• Candidates with a valid motorbike/scooter driving license are preferred

Desirables:

• Organized and able to manage own time guidance and direction from immediate supervisor
• Commitment to overall organization's overall aims and beliefs, including strong commitment to Gender, elderly, disables diversity issues, equal opportunities and capacity building
• Strong interpersonal and self-awareness skills
• Experience in complex donor-funded programs with joined consortium organizations
• Strong proficiency in Local Nepali language
• Understanding of database management skills

Remuneration and Benefit Package

• As per the organization norms commensurate with the project agreement 
  

Location 

• UREKA Project Field Office - Achham (with a frequent field visit to UREKA Palikas/working sites)