Fresh Fruits and vegetables Value Chain Development Manager

Agriculture Development Association (PARC) is seeking qualified candidates for the following position:

Fresh Fruits and vegetables Value Chain Development Manager-No.1

Proposed location Ramallah Governorate

Qualification and Requirements:

I-QUALIFICATION OF The Expert:
-Master Degree in Agronomy or Marketing.
-Proven record of at least 5-years working experience in related field.
-Experience in planning, implementing, monitoring livelihoods or small enterprises programs.
-Demonstrates ability to provide technical assistance, one-on-one mentoring, and small group training sessions.
-Successful candidate should have good experience in marketing for commercial firms, or small businesses of fruits and fresh vegetables.

II-SKILLS:
-Excellent analytical and report writing.
-Strong coordination and facilitation skills.
-Excellent organizational skills; ability to effectively plan operations.
-High knowledge in the rural areas, cooperatives and private sector dealing with rural production/fruits and fresh vegetables products or any relevant governmental institutions.
-Ability to respond on short notice and plan and execute several activities at once.
-Experience in designing market and value chain needs
-Generate or find new ways of working to manage internal and external changes that affect program implementation.
-Gender awareness and gender sensitive in conservative contexts.
-Ability to work under pressure, as part of a team or independently and meet deadlines consistently.
-Excellent English oral and written communication skills.
-Computer skills (word processing, excel, power point, spreadsheets, etc.).
-Valid driver's license & a private car.

 

Qualified candidates with relevant education and experience are encouraged to send their CV’s by email to

[email protected]

with cover letter no later than 23rd of May.2015

Note: Please ensure that you state the title of the position that you are applying for as subject of your email otherwise it will not be considered

 
Executive summary

The Improved Access to Markets for Female and Male Small Scale Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Producers in the West Bank Programme inception phase has been in process since February 2014. The Programme aims to improve market systems and governance in the agriculture sector, specifically in the fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) subsector, in the interest of small-scale producers (SSPs) and sharecropping farming communities working in the West Bank, and thus lead to a sustainable increase in their income levels.


Analyses have confirmed that small-farmers in West Bank face a series of challenges shaped by Israeli occupation policies and restrictions. These impact all aspects of daily life and severely affect the functioning of agricultural as well as FFV markets. While agriculture is a key pillar of the Palestinian economy, the majority of Palestinian agricultural land is located in Area C, which is under full Israeli control where the policy environment is precarious, agricultural productivity is low, and farmers’ access to basic rights and market services highly constrained. Women are doubly disadvantaged in this context due to security and social factors. They have to contend with social and cultural marginalisation which negatively impacts their role and status as economic actors, and they are also more vulnerable to the risks of Israeli settler attacks, as their husbands are more frequently engaged in other work away from home. However, women’s role in farming and value-addition/processing is widely recognised as vital and farming is viewed as a family enterprise.


The Palestinian government and the international community, while being deeply concerned about the situation, have not until recently begun to invest in development activities in Area C. In 2011, the European Union (EU) Heads of Mission to the Palestinian Authority strongly urged for the reversal of Israel policies in Area C and called on their governments to step-up development assistance to the Area. Two years later, in 2013, the World Bank[1] highlighted the economic importance of Area C for the Palestinian economy and as corner-stone of the two-state solution. These reports seem to have invigorated the Palestinian government to focus on the development of Area C. In 2014, the Government of Palestine prepared a “National Strategic Framework for Development Policies and Interventions in Area C (2014-16)”, which places the focus on the development of agriculture sector and FFV sub-sector, providing a policy framework and a timely opportunity for this Programme.

After a careful analysis of where the impact would be most optimal, the Programme will target thyme, grape, and tomato SSPs across four districts of the West Bank (Hebron, Jenin, Qalqilya, and Tulkarem) and the Jordan Valley cluster (which includes parts of Tubas and Nablus districts). 40 per cent of the targeted communities fall almost entirely in Area C, while the remaining communities either have significant areas of their land in Area C or are considered main markets for the targeted communities.

The Programme will ensure farmers’ access to affordable production and market services, access to market and climate information, and will help facilitate the process of women farmers and women’s enterprises developing stronger links for processing and value addition through capacity building, investments and productivity. Diverse set of market actors in different market channels will be incentivised to develop closer and more equitable business relations with small-scale farmers. Policies will be facilitated to increase investments in the sub-sector and especially in the SMEs for filling the gaps in the available support services, improve agricultural standards, reduce impediments to trade, and strengthen farmers’ rights and participation as market actors. This will be accomplished through influencing and leveraging with stakeholders, coordination, research, and policy advocacy which supports and facilitates mechanisms for local and national consultations, campaigns, and coordination among market actors.

The programme design has a strong focus on community-ownership within the larger FFV market system, through a facilitation approach.  It will be people-oriented in that it will increase the power of the poor in the market system. Oxfam GB will play a facilitative and coordination role in programme implementation, engaging and partnering with appropriate stakeholders. Oxfam GB will also use its global and regional expertise to influence and leverage impacts of this Programme on a sustainable basis. As implementers, the programme strategies will avoid unsustainable distortion of the market system and support the Programme with a broad network and alliance of other like-minded organisations among NGOs, policy making and governing institutions, and the private sector. The targeted farmers and farmer groups will be self-sustaining and will operate on market principles. The programme design allows the programme interventions to sustain and allows programme implementing agencies to exit gradually.

[1] World Bank, Area C and the future of the Palestinian Economy, 2013

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