Livelihoods Officer (3 openings, locations: Shan and Dry Zone, Mon and Kachin State/Region)

The Enabling Community Recovery and Resilience project, ENCORE, aims to empower the most vulnerable communities in rural areas to shift from crisis to recovery. The project incorporates short, intermediate, and long-term interventions. ENCORE works in 52 Townships in 11 States and Regions in across Myanmar with targeting beneficiaries to have improved their resilience to economic, security, health and climate related shocks”. 

Working closely with highly vulnerable communities, ENCORE aims to:

• Address the most fundamental and critical needs.
• Restore livelihoods and rehabilitate basic community infrastructure. 
• Build social cohesion and community preparedness to sustain project gains and manage future shocks.

All three project components, (i) Community capacity building, and mobilization, (ii) Community-led undertakings to address basic needs and promote recovery and resilience, and (iii) Improved governance and service delivery in contested territories, are underpinned by the inclusive and principled multi-stakeholder engagement process, in which the selection of partners is done in collaboration with the UNDP’s Civil Society Unit and informed by the Human rights due diligence (HRDD) and conflict-sensitive considerations. 

ENCORE envisages providing hands-on capacity development to improve dialogue/facilitation, problem-solving, gender and conflict sensitivity, participatory planning, insider mediation, and negotiation skills. The project activities are designed so that they will not in any way contribute to any existing conflict or tension within the community or create new sources of conflict but, instead, should contribute to peacebuilding and promote social cohesion among community members. The capacity development component will include strengthening awareness, skills, and methods to engage in more participatory, transparent, inclusive, human rights-based, gender, conflict-sensitive, and accountable service delivery and governance processes.

The ENCORE Project is designed to deliver interlinked interventions covering the whole crisis to recovery to resilience continuum, and the emphasis on building community resilience and increasing sustainability is therefore central to its overall strategy. The phasing of ENCORE includes (i) household-level basic needs responses (Phase 1), (ii) intermediate-term community-level crisis response interventions (Phase 2), and (iii) medium-term community-led recovery and resilience-building initiatives (Phase 3).  The gradual progression of community support enables the project to carefully adapt to the complex and widely varying operational conditions across project sites while gradually building trust and social cohesion thus promoting community ownership and social cohesion.

Under the overall supervision of the Project Manager and project management unit (PMU) of the ENCORE Project, the Livelihood Officer will work closely with the Head of Office/Area Office Coordinator of the Field Offices and will be responsible for the overall technical direction of the Project’s activities from design through implementation.

Under the overall supervision of the Project Manager and project management unit (PMU) of the ENCORE Project, the Livelihood Officer will work closely with the Head of Office/Area Office Coordinator of the Field Offices and will be responsible for the overall technical direction of the Project’s activities from design through implementation.

• Role as Livelihoods Officer would broadly focus on Agriculture, Livestock, Poultry, fisheries and Value Chain related technical capacities.
• The scope would be diverse and influential in supporting the agricultural sector’s growth while ensuring sustainable and responsible practices.
• Involvement in overseeing and managing various aspects of agricultural, livestock, poultry, fisheries production, as well as optimizing the value chain to ensure efficient and profitable business. 
• Fostering sustainable agricultural practices, ensuring food security, and promoting the economic development of rural communities.
• Multidisciplinary approach, strong communication skills, and a deep understanding of the agricultural sector, rural livelihoods in Myanmar and its interdependencies.

Provision of technical guidance for Agricultural, Livestock, Poultry and Fisheries Production: 

• Responsible for promoting and implementing best practices in crop, livestock, Poultry and Fisheries production. 
• Providing technical inputs and hands-on support to small-scale farmers and Start-up Livelihoods Assistance for Women (SLAW) group members on proper cultivation techniques, animal husbandry, poultry and aquaculture, disease management, and pest control etc. 
• Enhance productivity and ensure the production of high-quality agricultural products.

Ensure effective Value Chain Management: 

• Analyzing and optimizing the entire agricultural, livestock, Poultry, Fisheries related value chain. 
• Identifying and implementing strategies to improve efficiency, reduce wastage, and increase profitability at each stage of the production process – from farm to consumer.
• Guiding the targeted communities in the production, management and distribution of their on and off-firm products. 
• Involve working with stakeholders such as farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers to ensure smooth coordination and effective management of the value chain.

Advise on Market Research and Development: 

• Conduct market research to identify trends, demands, and opportunities in the agricultural and livestock sectors. 
• Developing appropriate strategies to align production with market needs and to explore new markets for agricultural products.
• Guide in exploring and adopting new technologies and innovations in access to water and renewable energy.
• Support in finding more efficient and sustainable solutions.
• Identify new ideas, concepts and theories with the team and project management team.

Ensure effective information management and co-ordination. 

• Provide regular updates to the ENCORE Project Management Unit and Field Offices.
• Assist in planning, project implementation and reporting, taking into account the evolving political, social and economic situation in the project area.
• Update on progress, priorities and constraints – verbally and in writing. 
• Active coordination with all relevant stakeholders including communities, other agencies, government etc. 
• Coordinate with the local partners in the communities, international partners, project team, and government stakeholders if any.

Advise on data analysis and reporting:

• Incumbent will collect and analyze data related to agricultural and livestock production, market trends, and value chain performance. 
• Guide in generating reports and make informed decisions to optimize operations and drive continuous improvement.
• Review project progress reports, reports on engagement activities and other any reporting relating to the achievement of the project. 
• Regular reporting to the Project management while maintaining close communication over operational issues as well as strategic opportunities arising from the project implementation.

Management support and monitoring:

• Support the management and monitoring of the implementation of the planned activities.
• Ensure the activities are completed in a timely, consultative and efficient manner.
• Take responsibility for mainstreaming sustainable development principles in all activities.

Advise on sustainability and environmental concerns: 

• Incumbent would be tasked with promoting sustainable farming practices that minimize environmental degradation. 
• Advocating for conservation measures, water management strategies, and promoting organic farming practices and promoting renewable energies.

Build relationships with different stakeholders. 

• Ability to build trust and rapport among conflicting parties to encourage open communication and negotiation.
• Ability to lead the discussions and dialogue to fruitful and effective conclusions.
• Promote the overall project strategy, objectives and activities to the stakeholders and provide strategic guidance on the relevant aspects of the project. 

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization. 

Competencies:          

Core competencies.

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements. 
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies: 

Business Development           

• Knowledge Generation: Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.

Business Direction & Strategy             

• System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks, and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions; Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends: to demonstrate foresight to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.

Digital & Innovation

• Innovation capacity building: Ability to define and create the conditions for trying out new ways of working or introducing new problem-solving approaches to an organization.; Ability to develop, manage and evaluate a learning curriculum that raises awareness, builds confidence, strengthens innovation capabilities around a certain method, tool or technique; or helps develop an innovation mindset.; Ability to create the authorizing environment (mandate, incentives) to embed and spread new ways of working. 
• In-depth knowledge of one or more innovation methods, broad knowledge of innovation processes and innovation management.; Ability to align a learning and development strategy with broader innovation strategy. 

Business Management 

• Risk Management: Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks. 

• Advanced University Degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Food Security or other relevant discipline or Social Sciences, or other relevant field of study is required. 
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Up to 2 years (with Master´s degree) or minimum 2 years (with Bachelor´s degree) of relevant work experience with UN, national or international development organization with significant experience in agriculture, livestock, poultry, fisheries, and value chain in Myanmar with specific experience and/or advanced understanding of at least three of the following:
• Poverty and vulnerability in fast fast-changing rural context of Myanmar. 
• Social protection systems for vulnerable populations especially pastoral and Agro-pastoral populations
• Experience of running and monitoring cash transfer programmes
• Experience in designing and implementing market assessments and analysis of data collected.
• Capacity building of national staff and partners with a willingness to adopt a participatory and community-led development approach.
• Experience of working in complex projects and ability to deliver in strict timelines with good quality.
• Experience of working in multinational teams to implement programs involving different implementing partners. 
• Familiarity and a good understanding of community-based development work, previous experience in the implementation of livelihoods, cash for work is preferable.
• Working experiences in UNDP field offices will be an advantage. 
• Good command of office information technology and software suites (Microsoft Office) is an asset.

Require Languages:

• Fluency in English, Burmese and any other local dialect language is required.