Description

Job Title:                                  Senior Program Officer 

Position Number:                      TBD

New or Refill:                           New

Core position:                           Yes   No

Salary Grade:                            3

Division/Dept.:                         Programs/Asia

Dept. #/Subproject WO:             NP0/ NP3170 HPN00

Reports to:                                Program Manager

Supervisor POSNO:                  TBD

Supervisor RESNO/Name:         TBD

Supervision:                              Employees  Yes   No | Volunteers   Yes   No

Location:                                  Field

Relocation Funds:                     Non-negotiable

Travel Required:                       Minimum 75% Annually 

Heifer Project Nepal is an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with some form of specially-abled.

 FUNCTION:

The Senior Program Officer (SPO) will serve in accordance with HPN’s vision, mission, goal, objectives, policies, and procedures. S/he will coordinate with thematic leads to provide oversight to advance farmer-led food system transformation by strengthening farmers' collectives, regenerative practices, inclusive market systems, private-sector engagement, and creating an enabling environment. S/he will work collaboratively with project partners, cooperatives, local governments, and relevant networks to strengthen social capital, supply chains, market systems, and cooperative development. The role will facilitate shared learning, strengthen local leadership and partner capacity, and provide continuous technical backstopping. By connecting people, knowledge, and resources, the position will support locally led, sustainable, and scalable program outcomes.

 RESPONSIBILITIES AND DELIVERABLES: (including approximate percentage effort)

 Ensure that projects are implemented, maintained, and completed on time (45%)

• Take a lead role in planning, operationalization, and effective implementation of the project.
• Facilitate coordination among local government authorities, project partners, farmer institutions, private sector actors, and service providers to support joint design, planning, implementation, and follow-up of project awards.
• Lead collaboration with thematic leads and program teams and partners to translate project goals into Project Implementation Guidelines (PIG), Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP), and rollout.
• Support the project implementing partners and facilitate implementation of the project interventions related to social capital development, cooperative strengthening, market system development, local value chain development, inclusive rural livelihoods, care for earth, one health, access to finance, digitalization and local food system strengthening.  
• Promote regenerative agricultural practices, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management throughout project implementation.
• Facilitate multi-sector collaboration within and beyond the project and organization to achieve sustainable food system outcomes through adaptive implementation, learning and system coordination.
• Facilitate institutionalizing the local food system priorities into local government planning, budgeting, policy implementation and co-investment where appropriate.
• Facilitate institutional and market system changes that improve resilience, inclusiveness and sustainability of local food systems.
• Work closely with project partners to ensure timely implementation of project interventions and delivery is coordinated, efficient, and responsive to community needs.
• Ensure a fair and transparent process in project-related recruitment and procurement in accordance with prevailing policies and compliance.   
• Maintain transparency and comply with all donor and organizational requirements, compliance, and standards during project implementation.
• Coordinate project teams and resources to ensure timely, efficient, and high-quality delivery of project outcomes.  

 Project coordination, monitoring, learning and reporting (30%)

• Build and maintain strong relationships with local and provincial government entities, and other stakeholders to facilitate effective project implementation, and sustain project outcomes.
• Lead adaptive management by using monitoring evidence, stakeholder feedback, and learning reviews to continuously improve implementation quality.
• Visit project sites, collaborate with farmers, SHGs, SHG networks, and cooperatives to understand the context, monitor progress, and follow up on agreed actions.
• Collect, verify, analyze, and report project progress against plan, outcome indicators, system change indicators, milestones, and budgets
• Ensure quality implementation through regular coordination, adaptive problem-solving and timely follow-up on implementation challenges.
• Coordinate with relevant private sector and BDS providers to establish and strengthen the required service delivery mechanism.
• Ensure the project milestones, objectives, and requirements are fulfilled.
• Prepare technical reports, progress updates, success stories, case studies, lessons learned and technical briefs.
• Ensure timely submission of quality reports while maintaining compliance with donor requirements and organizational reporting standards.  
• Support monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning activities, including baseline assessments, reviews, and evaluations
• Represent Heifer in project coordination meetings, local government forums and stakeholder consultations as delegated.

Collaboration, Partnership development, technical support and capacity strengthening (20%)

• Identify and address systemic constraints affecting smallholder farmers through facilitation, innovation and partnership.
• Build trusted partnerships with government agencies, producer organizations, private sector enterprises, financial institutions, business development service providers, research institutions and other stakeholders to achieve sustainable developmental outcomes.
• Provide day-to-day technical leadership to project partners and facilitate collaborative problem solving to achieve project results.
• Support capacity building of project partners, institutions and relevant stakeholders through tailored capacity development interventions, including training, mentoring, coaching and technical backstopping.
• Create an enabling environment to access and mobilize resources for smooth implementation of project activities and resilience of the local food system.
• Strengthen the leadership, governance, and business capacity of farmer institutions to enable them to drive inclusive local food system transformation.
• Support farmers, cooperatives, local governments and market actors to adopt institutional and behavioral changes that strengthen resilience and inclusiveness food system.
• Coach and empower lead farmers, entrepreneurs and cooperatives to become champions of local food system transformation.
• Support lead farmers, entrepreneurs, and cooperatives to leverage resources from local government, provincial government, and other opportunities.
• Foster innovation, knowledge-sharing and continuous improvement among project partners.
• Actively contribute to organizational learnings, cross-project collaboration, proposal development, and knowledge management initiatives

 May perform other job-related duties as assigned (5%)

 QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent from a recognized university in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Veterinary Science, Food Systems, Development Studies, or a related field with a minimum of three (5) years of relevant experience in a similar context is required. 
• Experience working with local governments under Nepal’s federal system.
• Demonstrated experience in regenerative and climate-resilient agriculture practices, market system development and value chain strengthening.
• Strong leadership qualities
• Strong collaboration and relationship management skills.
• Ability to lead, coach and mentor diverse teams to foster an inclusive and collaborative work environment.
• Ability to work independently and take initiative while also having strong team-building skills
• Time management and ability to manage competing priorities effectively.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and virtual collaboration tools.
• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.

 ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES:

• Demonstrate the ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with professionalism while promoting transparency, ethical decision-making, and accountability in all aspects of work.
• The ability to work effectively and respectfully with people from diverse cultural, social, and professional backgrounds.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Willingness to work flexibly and ability to travel extensively to rural and project locations to strengthen the relationship to support partners and ensure effective implementation.
• Demonstrated commitment to Heifer International's mission, values, and regenerative, locally led program approach.
• Sensitivity in working with multiple cultures and beliefs, and gender equity.