The College of Development Studies (CoDS) of the Addis Ababa University is implementing a collaborative capacity building program in selected Woredas of Oromia and Amhara Regional States with the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands under the project entitled Capacity Building for Scaling Up of Evidence Based Best Practices in Agricultural Production in Ethiopia (CASCAPE). The project operates as part of the BENEFIT (Bilateral Ethio-Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade) partnership, a collaborative partnership between 4 Dutch funded projects and their Ethiopian partners. Nationally, the project is implemented through collaboration between five Ethiopian Universities (AAU, Mekele, Bahir Dar, Hawassa and Jimma) and Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The College of Development Studies implements this project on behalf of Addis Ababa University in two regional states, namely, Oromia and Amhara.

Broadly stated, CASCAPE project is designed to support the Ethiopian government to increase agricultural productivity by verifying and testing best practices and innovations in agricultural production and identifying the circumstances under which farmers are prepared to take up innovations, and scale up these best practices to the wider farming communities as well as contribute to the capacity building of stakeholders.

Under this project, CoDS seeks to hire capacity development expert with portfolios stated below.

Main duty:

• Capacity development activities such as developing and organizing specific trainings tailored to the needs of stakeholders in the agriculture sector and supporting the research and scaling activities of the project.

Number required: 1(One)

Terms of contract: contract for 1 year renewable for another 4 months with probationary period set at three months.

Place of work: Addis Ababa (College of Development Studies, AAU) with frequent travel to project sites and village districts in Oromia and Amhara Regions.

Educational qualification and experience:

• MA/MSc in agricultural economics, agricultural sciences with a good background in quantitative methods, economics with a good background in agriculture with a minimum of five years of work/research experience in capacity building in the agriculture sector, extension and training.

Preferable skills:

• Understanding of agricultural policies and programs of the country.
• Research and/or teaching experience with participatory approach, with themes of farming systems/practices, innovations/technologies in small holder agriculture, action research and scaling in agricultural domain, value chain and extension.
• Demonstrated experience in organizing training programs.
• Demonstrated experience of working with farmers.
• Demonstrated skills in administration of research projects.
• Demonstrated skills in planning and outreach/extension in agriculture.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience in planning, coordinating, managing and supervising research and capacity building operations and up taking of innovation components.
• Demonstrated experience in statistical packages (knowledge and experience in econometrics is an advantage).
• Strong report writing skills (including policy and scientific reports).
• Strong planning, monitoring & evaluation skills and experience.
• Research experience in gender sensitive agriculture, nutrition, climate smart agriculture, and familiarity to performance tracking tools in small-scale farms is advantageous.
• Fluency in written and spoken English. Working knowledge of Oromiffa is a plus.