Senior Program Officer, Community Engagement job at Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM)

About the Organization

The RIMS platform is used to manage RUFORUM core activities such as scholarship and grants management, projects, alumni, etc .

Job Description

The Senior Program Officer Community Engagement and Operations (SPO-CEO) will be based at the RUFORUM Secretariat. He/she will lead RUFORUM’s community engagement and outreach activities for action oriented/translational research to enhance agricultural production and productivity in the agri-food systems for jobs and wealth creation. The SPO-CEO will also be responsible for coordinated efforts on re-imagining the extension and advisory services and the role of TVETs and universities in the delivery of complimentary extension services to agrifood system stakeholders. As part of engagement, the SPO-CEO will also support the Program Manager in operations to ensure effectively coordinated program activities within and across units for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness of programming.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support action-oriented research, knowledge and outreach systems on strategies, practices and policies that will raise agricultural production and productivity growth and economic returns to agrifood system/value chains stakeholders
Strengthen integration of agriculture in the national and global economy
Support the development of innovative mechanisms for last mile delivery of technologies, innovations, and management practices including the full valorization of the largely underutilized TVET sector capacities, and Youth Serving Organizations (YLSOs).
Support the strengthening of universities community engagement and outreach agenda for positioning universities as development facilitators.
Support Program Manager in the program operations for efficiency and effective operations

Activities

Support Universities to scale out-community engagement and field/industry attachment models that engage students in experiential learning with concurrent delivery of complimentary agricultural advisory services
Strengthen partnerships with other actors involved in capacity development for human resources in the national, regional and continental agricultural innovation systems

Facilitate universities repositioning to focus on wealth generated from the big five commodity crops and key priority neglected crops in Africa.
Support highly targeted community-action research clusters that create stronger and more integrated linkages between higher education and commercial opportunities to embed effective solutions and approaches to local challenges supported

Deliverables

Community engagement and exit guidelines are finalised to better guide community entry and exit in last mile delivery of solutions
Mapping of advances in research in the Five Key priority commodity crops is conducted to identify gaps for RUFORUM’s interventions and positioning.
A revised framework for developing and delivering Community Action Research Projects and Research Programs
Periodic reports on a month, quarterly and annual
Grant proposals for resourcing
Publications including peer reviewed articles, guidelines and manuals

Qualification, Experiences and Competencies

PhD in agricultural sciences including; plant breeding, animal science, biotechnology, rural innovation, plant sciences, seed systems, plant protection, and related fields.
At least 5 years working experience with knowledge of academic – community engagement programs
Experience of working with international research institutions

Experience of working with farming communities in technology transfer
Peer reviewed publications and evidence of capacity to write for diverse audiences.
Flexibility in working schedules and willingness to travel at short notice