Rural Community Mobilizer for the cooperative empowerment program - South

Lebanon continues to face a prolonged economic and social crisis, further aggravated by the 2024 hostilities, which severely damaged agricultural land, MSMEs, local infrastructure, and basic services, particularly in South Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. In response, the Economic Recovery Project, funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), aims to support an inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient recovery in conflict-affected areas. Implemented by a consortium led by WeWorld, together with LRI, FJPII, IECD, and The Nawaya Network. John Paul II Foundation will focus on the pillar of Rehabilitating agricultural land, water infrastructure, and ecosystems, and promoting climate-smart, market-oriented agriculture.

John Paul II foundation is looking to hire one Rural Community Mobilizer for the cooperative empowerment program in south of Lebanon:

The Cooperative Empowerment Program aims to develop agricultural and food processing cooperatives in the project target areas, to improve the ability of farmers and food processors to cooperate to achieve common goals, in compliance with democratic decision-making processes, good governance, transparency and accountability, favoring common initiatives that enhance the concept "unity is strength", and the value of developing complementarities and synergies to enhance individual skills, visions and resources, placed at the service of a community of people. The program adopts a highly inclusive and participatory approach. The activities to be done during the program are supported by JPII community mobilizer and a pool of experts, enabling a qualitative design from both the technical and the managerial aspect. The support for the finalization of cooperative Business Plan, Investment Plan, Action Plan and Inclusion Plan are essential parts of the task of the community mobilizer.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Plan and organize meetings, focus groups and training in the target villages in collaboration with municipalities, farmers, farmer and producer cooperatives and other organizations, community members and community groups to support the overall aggregation process and related collective actions (infrastructure and collective services development, initiatives for marketing and promotion, awareness etc…) of the targeted groups.
• Mobilize community members to ensure their participation in the planning and implementation of the collective activities.
• Facilitate and support cooperatives in submitting updated status, business plan and official papers to the general directorate of cooperatives.
• Collect monthly data for reports and elaborate summaries for cooperative expenditures and income.
• Take minutes of focus group discussion and meetings.
• Ensure training pre and post evaluation.
• Perform general follow-up and coordination with all relevant authorities and farmer/producer community members to ensure proper implementation of the project’s activities.
• Support in the data collection and filing of the program.
• Assist the field extension services implemented by the program.
• Constantly update the Project Manager on the activities progress or on feedback from the target beneficiaries and the main stakeholders regarding the project implementation.
• Coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Cooperative awareness Program. 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

The following may be acquired through a combination of formal or self‐education, prior experience or on‐the‐job training:

• Minimum Qualification required: Degree/Advanced Diploma in Agriculture, Agro-business, Marketing, Rural Community Development.
• Experience:  2 years in rural community mobilization for Agro-business, access to market, and agriculture development.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong community mobilization and communication skills in building relationships with local contacts
• Understanding of rural community contest
• Networking and influencing skills
• Community Facilitation skills
• Good understanding of, and commitment to gender equity
• Good attitude and experience in working with farmers, food processors and key stakeholders
• Experience in agro-business
• Well-developed interpersonal and team skills and proven ability to be flexible and sensitive in demanding situations; passion for working with others
• Innovative and creative approach to problem solving
• High integrity
• Ability to work with minimal supervision
• Good written and verbal communication skills in English language
• Familiarity with MS Office software, such as Excel
• Driving license (mandatory)
• Commitment to the aims and objectives of John Paul II Foundation

Desirable:

• Experience in the cooperative sector and other forms of producers’ organization
• Preferably from the project target regions (South) or having good knowledge of the Regions
• Availability of personal vehicle to conduct field visits

SELECTION CRITERIA

CVs will be pre-selected according to their coherence with the required below criteria:

1. Administrative compliance

• Documentation complete (CV, cover letter)
• Language of application as required
• Respect of deadlines

1. Technical criteria

• Degrees, and qualifications
• Years of experience related to the job
• Experience related to mobilization of beneficiary groups towards project initiatives
• Experience in dealing with farmer and producers communities
• knowledge of the Lebanese cooperative system and on approaches related to the aggregation process
• Working knowledge of English and Arabic