Openings at TechnoServe Kenya

Job Summary:

The Agronomy Advisor shall support the implementation of strategies that will enable clients to achieve sustainable increases in coffee quality and yields.

Program/Practice/Department Overview:

TechnoServe’s Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality Program is a partnership with Nespresso SA program to implement the Nespresso AAA program to Africa in Ethiopia, Kenya. The overarching goal is to reduce poverty of 200,000 smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia through increased coffee incomes as a result of improved yields, quality and market access to Nespresso’s AAA supply chain.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

• Sensitize cooperative leadership, smallholder coffee farmers and local stakeholders on the TechnoServe coffee project work.
• Implement existing strategies to provide assigned cooperatives with agronomy training and with structured post-training farm visits to improve adoption.
• Train and advise farmers being assisted by the project on coffee agronomy best practices with the objective of helping them to improve coffee yields and quality.
• Train, mentor, coach and support assigned Farmer Trainers on all technical and operational aspects of their work and in relationship with farmers. This includes assisting them to set performance goals, continuous assessment of performance and giving feedback.
• Participate in the implementation of the defined project monitoring, measurement and evaluation activities that ensure accurate and consistent capture of date for project reporting and documenting of the impact of our work.
• Cultivate and manage good relationship with clients both at leadership and farmer levels as well as with key industry stakeholders and community leaders at local levels.
• Any other relevant tasks as assigned by the Senior Agronomy Advisor.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, agronomy, horticulture or related agricultural sciences.
• At least three years’ professional experience – ideally in the private sector – in one or more of the following areas: coffee processing or agronomy; business or cooperative management; SME development; agriculture; training; extension services.
• Demonstrated good understanding of the Kenya coffee industry and especially the cooperatives sector.
• Possess an aptitude and skills for training adults in a field set up.
• Strong planning skills and ability to generate innovative solutions in highly dynamic work situations.
• Demonstrated ability to prepare and present well-written, cohesive analyses and reports.
• Strong interpersonal, collaborative and cross-cultural skills.
• Willingness to spend significant time in project implementation sites located in rural areas.
• Valid motorcycle riding licence.

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Key Responsibilities​​​​​​​

Specifically, with the direct support of the Visa Foundation Program Manager, and advisory support from AINFP Regional M&E manager, Tanzania, and Kenya AINFP Program managers, the selected candidate will:

• Support in data collection (both qualitative and quantitative), validation, cleaning, and analysis.
• Support in the maintenance of an up-to-date clients’ database and program metrics.
• Merge different data sets (both qualitative and quantitative data) and undertake statistical analysis of program data, identify relevant trends, and visualization over different periods (quarterly, after 6 months) as may be required.
• Support in undertaking research, and providing relevant evidence in the identified program learning agenda (from primary and secondary data sources) to inform project learning.
• Support in undertaking field visits, donor report compilation, and documentation of learnings.

Desired Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics, Economics, Monitoring & Evaluation, or related field.
• At least 2 years of experience in program monitoring and evaluation, data collection, large and complex data management, and analysis.
• Advanced computer skills, including analytical software (e.g. Advanced Excel, SPSS, STATA) and data visualization programs (e.g. Advanced Excel, Tableau, Power Bi)
• Strong analytical and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated experience in data processing and management of large-scale and complex data sets.
• Knowledge of web-based surveys (e.g ONA, google forms,Power Bi) is desirable.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work well within a multi-cultural team environment.
• Must be result-oriented and be able to work under pressure and tight deadlines.
• Working experience with donor-funded / development projects will be an advantage.
• Ability to travel across the country and internationally to support data collection.