The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) is a not-for-profit sub-regional organization established in 1994 through a Memorandum of Agreement signed between the 10 national agricultural research institutions (NARIs) of Eastern and Central African countries that include Burundi, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

ASARECA's mission is promoting economic growth, fighting poverty, reducing hunger and enhancing resources through regional collective action in agricultural research for development. It aims at increasing the efficiency of agricultural research in the region so as to enhance productivity, value added and competitiveness of the regional agricultural system.

ASARECA will work to organize and facilitate regional collective action in agricultural research; training and technology transfer, to make improved technologies and knowledge widely available, making significant contributions to increase productivity, particularly of small holders.

ASARECA works closely with the Common Market for Eastern and Central Africa (COMESA) to coordinate the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), and to increase the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers

The job holder is a member of the ASARECA senior management team and is responsible for leading and coordinating the technical programme arm of the ASARECA Secretariat which entails planning, coordinating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating regional agricultural research programmes for the development portfolio. The job holder will also deputize the office of the Executive Director.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL ROLE
• Provide leadership to and coordinate the day-to-day management of the programmes which entails programme coordination, including managing the regional programmes, projects and initiatives.
• Provide effective guidance and coaching of programme managers and heads of units and assist them in developing their skills and abilities to ensure optimal performance.
• Deputize the Executive Director and represent him/her in regional and international forums
• Undertake budgetary planning and authorisation of programme funds.
• Monitor and ensure that program funds are used for the intended purposes.
• Participate in ASARECA senior management team and ensure there is effective team work and coordination between programme operations, strategic, financial, procurement, ICT and M&E functions

RESEARCH MOBILISATION
• Lead and contribute to the development of strategic initiatives for resource mobilisation efforts, and participate in specific resource mobilisation activities, including developing investor relations.
• Direct the preparation of proposals for resource mobilisation efforts and review proposals for relevance, quality and scope in contributing to ASARECA’s goals and objectives.

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND POLICY MAKING
• Contribute to the development and monitoring of ASARECA’s vision, goals and strategies for research and development and ensure that targeted impacts are achieved. This entails contributing to the development of the programmes and projects’ vision, goals and strategies for research and development; assisting in the development of programme operational plans and ensuring these targets are met.
• Contribute and provide guidance in the development and institutionalisation of policies, procedures, processes, and infrastructure (databases, information systems etc) for ASARECA.

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT
• Lead the overall development of the programme of work and budget for ASARECA’s research and development activities in close consultation with fiduciary, M&E and Gender units.
• Provide leadership in planning and coordinating overall research development activities within and across the programmes. Encourage and ensure the coordination and alignment of goals, strategies and activities amongst the programmes and projects.
• Coordinate and manage the integrated research and development agenda of the ASARECA programmes and the Competitive Grants System (CGS) and ensure that their activities are aligned to ASARECA‘s strategic goals and objectives. A key part of this responsibility involves ensuring ASARECA’s vision, goals and strategies are well understood.
• Oversee and contribute to the development and update of the Association’s policies, manuals and protocols with regard to programmes (i.e., M&E, MIS, etc).
• Organise and conduct regular programme reviews and evaluation at project level, programme level and overall organisational level.
• Develop and drive implementation of scientific standards and processes to assure high quality outputs and achievement of targeted impacts.
• Oversee the implementation of impact assessments for the ASARECA portfolio.

REPORTING
• Coordinate the preparation of semi-annual and annual programme reports.
• Ensure the preparation of high quality and timely reports to donors. This involves reviewing, editing and monitoring reports prepared by programme managers.
• Prepare ASARECA’s Annual Report for review by the Executive Director.

LIAISON ROLE
• Proactively contribute to the establishment and maintenance of strategic alliances and partnerships which involves preparing and delivering presentations in regional and international fora such as the EAC; COMESA and the AU.
• Represent ASARECA in a range of regional and global fora of strategic concern to the achievement of ASARECA’s vision, goals and strategies.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF STAFF
• The jobholder is responsible for coordinating the formulation of strategic initiatives for the ASARECA Programmes Unit and coordinating the development of ASARECA’s annual plan. Total staff complement in the Programmes Unit is 27.

EQUIPMENT
• The job holder has been provided with a laptop, a desktop, 1 black and white printer; and 1 colour printer shared by 4-5 staff; to facilitate execution of duties assigned.

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT
• Responsible for 7 programmes and 3 support units. This role is responsible for overseeing and managing the entire programme management process for all 7 programmes. This includes overseeing the commissioning of projects done with partners in the sub-regions. Partners form National Agricultural research systems in 10 countries.

FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• The jobholder is the budget holder of the Programmes department – US $ 400,000.
• Provides guidance in setting budgets for programmes unit- US $ 15M
• Resource mobilisation - on average US $ 16M which is a shared responsibility with the Executive Director.
• He/she is in charge of formulating the budget and monitoring expenditure against departmental budget. The job holder also authorises expenditure up to a limit of US $ 100,000.

INTERNAL JUDGEMENT AND DECISION-MAKING
• This role makes decisions with regards to budget allocation for the programme unit; expenditure; travel by programme staff; where they can travel or what official meetings or conferences the programme staff can attend.
• This role makes decisions and provides direction with regard to identifying the research priority areas the ASARECA programmes should focus on and pursue; and coordinates and signs off on programme strategies and priority areas.
• The jobholder also approves research calls; approves winning teams and budgets; signs sub-grantee contracts and amends them as appropriate in line with ASARECA’s goals and objectives.
• The jobholder reviews and approves reports from projects and programme managers.
• This role provides direction on the resource mobilisation focus areas of ASARECA proposals and provides advice on the relevance of proposals to ASARECA’s objectives.
• The jobholder reviews and approves terms of reference and contracts.
• This role also provides information and guidance to other organisational units on the strategic direction of ASARECA to enable business units develop strategic initiatives in line with ASARECA’s strategy.

EXTERNAL JUDGEMENT AND DECISION-MAKING
• The job holder is responsible for providing information and guidance to various local and international stakeholders on ASARECA’s strategy and performance to inform their decision making.

INTERNAL CONTACTS
• Executive Director - provides updates or progress reports on on-going initiatives (frequent)
• Programme Managers- programme development and implementation; budget monitoring ( frequent)
• Head of Finance - Financial issues relating to programmes and projects (frequent)
• Procurement Officer - Contracts, terms of reference for consultancies (frequent)

EXTERNAL CONTACTS
• Donor- Development partners - supply funding; wanting to visit; report reviews (frequent)
• National Agricultural Research systems - (occasional)
• CGIAR system- collaboration (occasional)

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
• At least fifteen years technical agricultural research experience, 5 of which should be in a senior management and coordination role.

EDUCATION
• Minimum of a PhD qualification in Agricultural Sciences or any other agricultural related field.

KEY COMPETENCIES
• Leadership skills
• Strategic thinking
• People management skills
• Planning and coordination skills
• Networking and diplomatic skills
• Financial management and fund raising skills
• Analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to communicate and presentation skills
• Report writing skills
• Computer literacy specifically proficiency in MS Office suite of packages

WORK ENVIRONMENT
• This job is carried out in a safe environment within an office and has minimal disruptions to weekends. 60% of time is spent in the office; and 40% of time is spent travelling to attend meetings, workshops etc.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• This position routinely plans for one year; and carries out reviews of progress made on a quarterly basis. The role is required to demonstrate creativity with regard to problem solving and ensuring the development of processes and systems to ensure operational efficiency. This role identifies areas for review in terms of operational and administrative issues.