Agricultural Development Officer
This is a Foreign Service announcement. Worldwide availability is a requirement of the position. Successful candidates must be available to work in any country in the world where USAID has a presence. Here is the link to the current list of countries.
USAID is seeking an Agricultural Development Officer who will support the design, implementation and monitoring of its agriculture and food security programs through Foreign Service assignment rotations around the world and in USAID's headquarters in Washington, D.C. This position requires worldwide availability. USAID offers the opportunity to address some of the greatest food security challenges of our time while reducing poverty and inequality around the world and furthering USG foreign assistance goals.
USAID oversees a diverse portfolio of agriculture and food security programs that includes activities related to agricultural productivity, market systems development, finance, and private sector development; nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene; resilience; climate change adaptation and mitigation; and natural resources management.
Foreign Service Agricultural Development Officers provide technical leadership and assistance to partner countries to achieve national and global agricultural, food security, and sustainable development goals. Agriculture Officers represent the US Government and engage in country and sector-level strategic planning and coordination with host country governmental and non-governmental organizations, other development donors, international organizations and a range of US government agencies. They support the design, management, monitoring, evaluation, oversight and reporting for agriculture and food security programs that are funded by USAID and implemented by NGOs, the private sector, civil society organizations, international organizations, or host government partners. Throughout a Foreign Service career, officers will likely assume positions that entail supervision of one or more staff and/or management of a team or office within USAID. Agriculture Officers may have expertise in a particular agricultural field and/or region but during the course of their careers, they can expect to work across a range of agricultural and food security programs in different regions of the world.
Specific duties include, but are not limited to:
Strategic Planning and Coordination
Designs and procures assessments and studies to inform country level strategic plans for USAID and for partner governments.
Leads or participates in designing and managing strategies, policies and programs in agricultural development and food security, including identifying opportunities for integrating agricultural development and food security with broader USG and other donor programs, analyzes constraints and opportunities in development, both sector-wide and country-specific recommends appropriate courses of action; and guides USAID activities in agricultural development and food security based on the review and analysis of data and consultations with concerned parties.
Serves as a liaison with partner country government and non-government counterparts, other USAID offices, bilateral and multilateral donors, other USG agencies, NGOS, and the private sector to coordinate and communicate agriculture and food security activities.
Program Design
Applies knowledge of the principles, methods, or tools for developing, scheduling, coordinating, and managing programs and resources.
Adaptively manages assistance instruments and contracts to achieve agricultural and food security objectives while providing effective financial oversight and environmental soundness.
Assists in designing and managing initiatives that cut across sectors and engage other elements of the US development assistance to accomplish broad programmatic goals; Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, Oversight, and Reporting Participates in the measurement and tracking of USAID project work and performance.
Develops and implements performance monitoring systems and indicators at the strategic, sector, and activity levels for agricultural development programs.
Plans and oversees assessments and evaluations of programs to determine development impact and return on investment.
Provides reports and communication to Washington to assist the Agency in reporting on annual performance and telling the story of the impacts of USAID's agricultural development programs.
Supervision, Professional Development, and Management:
Throughout a Foreign Service career, the officer will assume positions that supervise one or more staff and lead a team or office. In this role, the officer is expected to support the professional development and success of staff, conduct performance evaluations, and address conduct or performance issues that may arise.
Representation:
Act as U.S. Government representative in formal and informal settings related to the position as a member of the diplomatic community.