Senior Project Officer, Better Cotton Sindh– Food & Agriculture Programme WWF-Pakistan

Reporting to: Coordinator Better Cotton Sindh– Food & Agriculture Programme Grade / Title: C-2/ Senior Project Officer
Department: Food & Agriculture
Project: Better Cotton, Sindh
Duty Station: Ranipur, District Khairpur Mirs

Type of Contract: Long Term (Annual Renewable)

Work Week: 5 (Monday to Friday) Days

Work Hours: 0830 hrs to 1715 hrs (40 Hours)

Number of Positions: 01
Working Relationships: Internal F&A-WWF-Pakistan, External Better Cotton Pakistan

Project Context:
WWF-Pakistan as Programme Partner of Better Cotton has been implementing Better Cotton Standard System in four districts of Punjab and three districts of Sindh with Better Cotton Growth & Innovation Fund awarded Project. The project is meant to build the capacity of cotton grower families for adoption of Better Cotton Standard System. The project is particularly focused on Better Management Practices for Cotton Production in line with Better Cotton Principle and Criteria, Promotion of Decent Work in cotton farming, Women Empowerment, Improving Soil Health and improving resilience of cotton growing families for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.

Job Summary
The position is meant to promote a clear focus on quality implementation and impact in the Better Cotton Project by ensuring that the project implementation takes place as per the WWF- Pakistan’s implementation requirements and learning is applied towards continuous improvements in the Better Cotton Project Punjab. He/she will build systems and staff capacity to ensure that the project quality is of high quality to beneficiaries and donors and learning is institutionalized for the project improvements.

Duties and Responsibilities
In order to perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform below functions.

a) Project Execution

• Ensure that Project adheres to the Timeline of Better Cotton Assurance Activities.
• Mentor and monitor the progress and quality of the project and provide inspiration and leadership to the project team to work.
• Lead the project team for execution as per approved strategy of the project.
• Facilitates a process, within project, based on a participatory approach with field staff and farmers to develop the natural resource plans and time-bound plans required under the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria (i.e. Integrated Pest Management Plan, soil management plan and soil profiling, water stewardship plan, biodiversity plan and mapping, child labour prevention, Improving position of disadvantaged groups).
• Develop close collaboration with Agriculture Extension Department, Research Institutions and other stakeholders
• Ensure timely submission of project reports and deliverables to the BCI and WWF- Pakistan’s FOOD & MARKETS PROGRAMME Management
• Implement an effective data management system for improving quality of project data.
• Conduct regular project site visits to monitor project activities and ensure data quality.
• Develop and maintain a centralized database for the project
• Ensure Credibility of Field Data of the project
• Assess the quality of collected data for the indicators and manage tools and methods for assessing data quality for all indicators of the project log frame and field implementation data.
• Organize the planning for project data quality audits and monitor routine data quality audits, compile results.
• Coordinate data gathering and data management of population-based surveys and surveillance activities.
• Collect the progress of the project against targets of Work Plan and Indicators of Logical Framework on a quarterly basis.
• Conduct or organize baseline, progress assessments and end line evaluation based on project objectives and focus areas for the use of current and future project activities as well as for reporting
• Establish basic learning systems within the project that incorporate project studies’ findings, lessons learnt, achievements and gaps, and develop all the tools required to support learning practices.
• Ensure after-action reviews and lessons learned exercises.
• Ensure that the internal feedback systems recommendations for project teams are adequately addressed and utilized to influence the design, the re-design of project implementation strategies.

b) Capacity Building

• Ensure that all capacity-building activities take place as per Cascading Model.
• Ensure that all field staff are trained by BCI accredited master trainers.
• Conduct capacity-building sessions for the field team on regular basis or need base.
• Ensure that Producer Units shape their capacity-building programme around the priorities identified in the CIP.
• Monitor the effectiveness of training and other interventions, through tracking levels of field team and farmer understanding and awareness and adoption of more sustainable practices.

c) Continuous Improvement of Producer Units

• Facilitate the Producer Units in identifying key sustainability challenges within Producer Units, devise tools for data collection and analysis.
• Facilitate the Producer Units in carrying out consultation process with different stakeholders.
• Ensure that Producer Units develop their Continuous Improvement Plans according to a specified process that supports Producer Units to identify their greatest areas for improvement, define and prioritise interventions, and monitor and record progress in achieving their goals.
• Engage the Producer Units in an annual review process of CIP to ensure they build on successes and address any areas of challenges.

d) Self-Assessment

• Ensure that Producer Units carry out Internal Assessment for Self-Assessment.
• Ensure that Producer Units use Self-Assessment as a learning tool for their improvement.
• Ensure that during the set-up phase of Producer units, internal assessment focuses on baseline (existing) farmer practices, which helps identify improvement priorities.
• Ensure that after a PU is licensed, the focus of internal assessment shifts to assessing levels of farmer understanding and adoption of the practices promoted through training.
• Ensure that the Producer Units use self-assessment for identifying gaps against Core Indicators, reporting progress against the Continuous Improvement Plan, and identifying areas where additional support or corrective actions are needed.
• Extend facilitation for assessors for conducting Licensing Assessment of Producer units.

Qualification and Experience

• At least Master Degree in Agriculture Science/Social Sciences.
• At least 3 years of work experience in implementing Agriculture Projects

Skills & Attributes

• Demonstrated ability to plan, implementation & manage MEAL functions.
• Sound skills in developing data collection formats and protocols
• Advanced data analysis skills
• Good English language reading, writing and speaking skills;
• Demonstrated interpersonal communication and leadership skills;

WWF-Pakistan is an equal opportunity employer and reserves the right to amend this document from time to time, as may be required in the interests of the organization.