Jobs in Uganda at Land 0' Lakes Uganda

Job Title: Program Manager/ Cooperative and Business Development Specialist

About the company
Land 0' Lakes, International Development, is a not-for-profit private sector dairy industry development program that has entered into an agreement with FINCA to implement an agricultural production and Agribusiness project in Uganda that will extend FINCA's impact by supporting farmers and cooperatives in three districts in northern and western Uganda to become viable borrowers through increased agricultural production. The period of performance will be two years.

The overall goal of this project is to strengthen sustainable smallholder agricultural and agribusiness enterprises. Land O’lakes will do this by achieving three key results - building the capacity of producer groups, improving productivity, and increasing market access.

These interventions will support FINCA's USDA-funded Food for Progress program, which is providing agricultural loans to increase production and value addition. The program will also support USAID/Uganda's Strategic Objective Seven (S07), Expanded Sustainable Economic Opportunities for Rural Sector Growth.

Land O'Lakes uses its agribusiness expertise to promote economic growth in the developing world. Since 1981, Land O'Lakes International Development has been helping farmers and small businesses around the world increase their productivity and profits.

Land O'Lakes therefore seeks to recruit dynamic focused, experienced and highly motivated individuals for the posts below.

Job Title: Program Manager/ Cooperative and Business Development Specialist

Position Summary
The Program Manager/ Cooperative and Business Development Specialist will support Land O'Lakes FINCA project development-activities in Uganda and assist farmers and agribusiness's to develop their capacities to produce, process, market and distribute their products. As the Program Manager the position will supervise Land O'Lakes staff on the FINCA project in Uganda. As the Cooperative and Business Development Specialist, he/she will be responsible (or the implementation of smallholder producer cooperative and association development under the Land O'Lakes -FINCA Program in Uganda.

Job Responsibilities;
• Assume overall responsibility for the successful implementation of all of Land O'Lakes-FINCA's activities in Uganda
• Ensure effective management of activities of the project in Uganda.
• Smallholder group identification within the three target geographic areas of the USDA-FINCA program; to be done in conjunction with other LOL technical staff and partners.
• Conducting assessments of each group's capacity and skill levels, in terms of cooperative management, governance and financial management (for groups which have some cooperative structure).
• For groups without cooperative structure, determining that each group understands of a cooperative's objective and develop the comprehensive sensitization and training program.
• Utilize the Land O'Lakes AgPro system for the key components of cooperative development and management.
• Assisting established groups in the development of business plans and facilitation of loans and grants for capital development.
• Conducting, on an on-going basis, training in Business
Development, for old and new farmer groups
• Liaising with the Land O'Lakes team members in planning, collecting performance data, monitoring, and evaluating of the project activities, as required.
• Assist farmers in developing market through the identification and selection of cooperatives capable of diversifying their agricultural enterprises.
• Carry out other duties as maybe required

Required Qualifications:
• Advanced degree in Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Business Management, Animal Science or a related field or equivalent relevant experience
• A minimum of five years experience managing development programs
• Strong English language skills are required.
Preferred Experience:
• Previous experience working with USAID and USDA strongly desired.
• Good verbal communication skills with the ability to dialogue, network and collaborate with donor agencies, international institutions, various dairy industry stakeholders and development partners is essential to implementing project activities.
Apply for this job

Interested applicants should send a cover letter, CV (including three references) and supporting documents to;.

The Country Manager
Land O'Lakes, Uganda
P,0. Box 29273, Kampala

The closing date for the applications is Wednesday 6th October, 2010.

Only shortlisted candidates will be invited for interviews,