Technical Advisor - ARE Activity

BACKGROUND

The Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity, funded by USAID and implemented by Chemonics International, has a three-year base period, two Option Years, and One Increased Quantity Option. Both option years have been activated, bringing the activity implementation period to five years, and the IQO has been exercised in order to enable the incremental funding for scale-up of interventions in support of both of ARE’s expected results (objectives). ARE supports Lebanese rural and peri-urban communities to obtain technical and financial resources in order to facilitate increased productivity, sales, and exports, improved business income, while also ensuring livelihood sustainability. To support this purpose, ARE will increase jobs; improve incomes; improve female participation and employment opportunities; increase domestic and export sales; increase private sector investment; improve access to finance; link value chain actors to domestic and international markets; and improve production through improved practices, technology, increased volume, and/or decreased cost. ARE supports two key expected results (objectives), each with their own intermediate result (IR):

• Increased domestic and export sales at both firm and farm levels (Result 1)
  • Increased enterprise competitiveness (IR 1.1)
• Livelihoods improved, especially in rural areas and for women (Result 2)
  • Improved productivity of MSMEs, including farmers (IR 2.1)

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Technical Advisor will be responsible for providing technical advisory services across all of ARE’s value chain activities, including interventions through grants and technical assistance and provide technical guidance and advice to the Regional Private Sector Engagement (RPSE) team on value chains at the farm, firm, or marketing levels. The Technical Advisor (TA) will support with the development of operational and business plans and feasibility studies for firms supported through all of ARE’s interventions across all targeted value chains. The Technical Advisor will also provide technical assistance to various stakeholders. The Technical Advisor will contribute to the identification of development and upgrading opportunities within the agricultural and agri-food sectors to improve farm and firm-level competitiveness and revenues. The Technical Advisor will provide as-needed support to the project’s value chain and market development approaches to activity design and implementation. The Technical Advisor will continuously support with the analysis of relevant economic and market data to inform ARE decision-making.

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support agricultural producers and MSMEs with the development of strong technical approaches, based on best agricultural practices.
• Provide technical support and advisory for ARE’s Regional Private Sector Engagement (RPSE) and Strategic Innovation and Sector Development (SITSD) teams
• Ensures high-quality technical delivery through active performance management, monitoring partnership and engagement best practices, and continuously ensuring contractual compliance in line with Chemonics and USAID standards and regulations;
• Provides analysis and research that facilitates ARE’s engagement with private sector entities across the project, including identifying and exploring value chain and market system constraints that can be addressed through ARE activities with private sector firms.
• Support with the development of compelling farm and firm related needs assessments used to inform intervention design.
• Facilitate and deliver technical design trainings and technical assistance to various stakeholders and agricultural producers.
• Support with procurement planning, specifications, bid reviews and inspection and commissioning
• Support with grant-making related tasks, conducting technical due diligence visits, validations and monitoring support as needed
• Support with the development and operationalization of SMEs and partner organizations production and marketing strategies.
• Provide technical review and support of ongoing projects to ensure alignment with best practices and agricultural strategy.
• Coordinate learning and innovation around ARE’s agricultural strategy’s cornerstones.
• Stays abreast of best practices and industry trends in order to provide innovative insights to proposal design.
• Contributes to project deliverables like weekly, quarterly, and annual reports; annual work plans, as directed by the Deputy Chief of Party and/or Chief of Party;
• Other duties as assigned by the Deputy Chief of Party and/or Chief of Party.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in agricultural engineering, agricultural economics, marketing, management, business or other field related to ARE’s technical activities;
  • Minimum of 10 years of recent relevant experience (within the last 15 years) in agricultural production, post-harvest production and access to markets;

Minimum 10 years of project management and/or technical advisory in the private sector (agriculture/agribusiness) and/or agricultural development programs in Lebanon, USAID-funded development program experience preferred.

• • Demonstrated experience in agricultural/agri-food product development, engagement in agricultural and agri-food products trade and access to markets;
  • Demonstrated experience in the design and implementation of agricultural business plans and feasibility studies and/or market systems analysis for agricultural value chains;
  • Must be familiar with Lebanon’s municipalities, local communities, and private sector, particularly focused on agro-business;
  • Demonstrated ability to work independently as well as in a team structure, versatility, and integrity;
  • Strong interpersonal, analytic, and written communication skills
• Fluency in spoken and written Arabic and English required.

LOCATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The TA will be based in the project’s main office in Beirut, Lebanon, and travel throughout the country as needed.

REPORTING

The Technical Advisor (TA) reports directly to the Deputy Chief of Party/Chief Technical Officer, or his/her designee.