Senior Program Officer-Animal Well-Being

 Heifer International

Senior Program Officer-Animal Well-Being

Job ID 261

Program / Project Support  India   Andhra Prasesh

 

Description

Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.

FUNCTION
Heifer International in India is working with Women Small Holder Farmers to build sustainable livelihoods through agriculture and livestock value chains that would become an important part of their family income to close the Living Income Gap. Heifer International is working with private sector partners in a new project located in Andhra Pradesh, India aimed at strengthening Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), supporting their increase in revenue, and enabling women smallholder farmers to close the living income gap. Heifer is focused on the long-term development of inclusive, pro-poor, market systems in Andhra Pradesh.

The Senior Program Officer-Animal Well-Being will report to the Project Director and will lead and facilitate the well-being of all animals through the adoption of improved animal management, productivity practices and standards in the State and assigned program area to ensure animal health, animal husbandry and product quality assurance is achieved. He/She will be responsible for ensuring that Heifer participants in the project have knowledge and skills on how to maximize their animals’ productivity and reduce the cost of production. The Senior Program Officer - AWB will work in close collaboration and coordination with the Program/Project Managers to ensure successful, innovative, efficient, and effective functioning of all enterprise hubs in the program. He/She will be working in collaboration with project partners and will be responsible for capacity building, monitoring, and reporting related to project activities in the area.  

ESSENTIAL CHARACTER TRAITS
Accountable, humble, flexible, enthusiastic, dependable, creative and team player.

RESPONSIBILITIES & DELIVERABLES

A. Facilitate the well-being of all livestock through the adoption of improved animal management and productivity practices and standards in the program (60%)

• Promote scientific Backyard Poultry practices in rural farmers for the increase in income and nutrition of the family.
• Ensure quality and timely animal healthcare delivery (prevention and treatment).
• Ensure good husbandry practices (breeding, nutrition, housing, feeding, watering, and waste management and other ecological production methods etc.).
• Ensure regular supply of quality inputs.
• Ensure good quality output products.
• Develop training material and conduct trainings for field workers/entrepreneurs.
• Develop innovative models as per the field situation.
• Support in the livestock business and marketing activities.
• Facilitate vaccinators, CAVEs time to time for project implementation
• Organise trainings for the vaccinators, CAVEs and strengthen their knowledge and skills

B. Program Management (25%)

• Meet the project targets timely in terms of scale-up production, targeted families, income increase and business goals.
• Ensuring timely submission of reports.
• Ensure that the partner and FPOs meet the Heifer’s monitoring and evaluation requirements and the deadlines
• Reviewing the project progress (physical and financial) with partner staff on monthly basis
• Ensure that the activity-based reforecasting is prepared following the participatory method and the other stakeholders (PMC, co-funder, etc)
• Documentation and sharing of the best practices

C. Liaison, networking, and resource mobilization to strengthen the program effectiveness (10%)

• Sharing the Heifer’s model with other stakeholder and building a fruitful relationship with them
• Networking and relationship building with Government, CSR, Foundations, and other stakeholders and linking the project participants to their schemes
• Promotion cross earning and exchange of the knowledge
• Supporting the partners in mobilization of the committed co-funding/ Local Resource Leverage (LRL)
• Organizing and participating in donor visits.
• Time to time participation in state level events, workshops, and roundtables

D. May perform other job-related duties as assigned/ requested (5%) 

• Support other projects as and when required.

Minimum Requirements

A Bachelor’s Degree in Veterinary Science or equivalent plus five (5) years of related experience with 2-3 years of “grass-roots” experience is required.

Preferred Requirements

Master’s Degree in Veterinary Science with specialization in Poultry Science preferred.   

Most Critical Proficiencies

1. Knowledgeable of and experience in working with poultry and livestock programs.
2. Knowledge and experience of running campaigns.
3. Knowledge of and experience with or within community organizations.
4. Fluent in Hindi, English spoken as well as written. Fluency in Telugu preferred.
5. Good leadership qualities.
6. Good communication skills.
7. Have an interest animals/agriculture Community development.
8. Excellent organizational skills including strong attention to details.
9. Skills with Microsoft Office packages, internet browser and other appropriate technology.

Essential Job Functions and Physical Demands

1. Motivated to work responsibly with little supervision.
2. Ability to meet and deal with others in a courteous and tactful manner.
3. Demonstrate a high degree of honesty and integrity.
4. Constant face-to face, telephone and electronic communication with colleagues and the public.
5. Constant sitting, standing and walking, with occasional bending and lifting, may work at a computer for an extended period of time.
6. Ability and willingness and ability to travel extensively, both locally and internationally
7. Willingness and ability to work with a flexible schedule.
8. Ability to foster and maintain a spirit of unity teamwork and cooperation
9. Sensitivity in working with multiple cultures and beliefs, and to Gender Equality.

For more information and online application click here