Youth engagement and livestock/horticulture Agribusiness Advisor | Debrebrihan/Dessie

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Project background

SNV Ethiopia will be implementing an anticipated flagship programme focused on enabling 800,000 rural young women (RYW) to access dignified and fulfilling jobs. The programme will target high-potential agricultural value chains (e.g., horticulture, poultry, dairy), using a market systems development approach in seven regional clusters.

It emphasizes transformative gender and social inclusion (GESI) and aims to address structural and socio-cultural barriers that limit young women’s participation in economic life. Implementation will be decentralized, with strong collaboration across local TVETs, youth centers, community organizations, and public service institutions.

Summary of the position

This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about unlocking agribusiness opportunities for young people—especially rural young women—and addressing systemic barriers that limit their engagement in profitable livestock and agricultural value chains.

The Livestock & Agribusiness Advisor will lead the implementation of livestock sector and horticulture/crop agribusiness development activities at the cluster level, with a strong focus on practical facilitation, market linkages, and enterprise growth. The role involves supporting market system interventions in poultry, dairy, shoat, horticulture, and related value chains, mapping and coaching RYW led MSEs, and strengthening partnerships with local private sector actors, cooperatives, and unions. The advisor will ensure that activities are executed as planned to create meaningful income and employment for young women and men, drive market system improvements, and generate lessons for adaptive learning.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about unlocking agribusiness opportunities for young people—especially rural young women—and addressing systemic barriers that limit their engagement in profitable livestock, horticulture and other agricultural value chains. The Advisor will lead cluster-level implementation of livestock agribusiness activities, focusing on practical facilitation, market linkages, and enterprise growth in sectors like poultry, dairy, shoat, horticulture and others. The role includes mapping and coaching rural young women-led MSEs and strengthening partnerships with private sector actors, cooperatives, and unions to generate income and employment.

Facilitate market and value chain interventions

• Lead the operationalization of livestock value chain and market system activities at the cluster level, ensuring interventions are tailored to the local context and effectively address constraints identified through earlier market analyses.
• Contribute to annual, quarter and monthly planning, as well as regular reporting related to livestock and horticulture value chain and market system activities of the cluster
• Lead local assessments and analyses of the livestock sector to identify agribusiness opportunities tailored to rural young women.
•  Design and execute market-based intervention strategies that address identified constraints and leverage opportunities in the livestock and horticulture value chain, specific to the cluster context.
• Implement core value chain and market system activities—including market development, market intelligence, facilitation of local input/output market linkages (such as feed/inputs, veterinary services, aggregation, and value addition), and business development services—ensuring this leads to increased livestock productivity, income, and employment.

Support youth enterprise growth interventions

• Map existing youth-led MSEs in livestock and horticulture agribusiness and design strategies to enable them to grow, diversify, and employ more young women.
• Support capacity building of youth groups and enterprises on business skills, value addition, and market requirements to enhance their competitiveness.

Strengthen partnerships and systemic change

• Work closely with local private sector players (aggregators, processors, traders), cooperatives, and unions to identify and develop mutually beneficial business relationships with youth entrepreneurs.
• Facilitate cluster-level multi-stakeholder livestock forums to discuss and address systemic bottlenecks in input and output markets.

Capacity building & technical support

• Provide tailored coaching, mentoring, and hands-on support to cluster technical teams and local stakeholders on livestock market systems, youth enterprise growth, and business development.
• Organize practical demonstrations and exposure visits to stimulate adoption of good practices.

Outreach, mobilization and enrolment

• Implement inclusive community outreach and mobilization strategies that ensure effective targeting, registration, and enrolment of RYW, Persons with Disabilities, returnees, and other marginalized youth into the program, and support their progression into enterprise formation and skill training.
• Play lead role in identification of social, cultural, and systemic barriers for inclusion and develop context-specific strategies to overcome these problems.
• Support the implementation of a comprehensive strategy of YSLA approach including targeting, group formation processes, and guidance on group lifecycle and sustainability.

Monitoring, documentation & learning

• Regularly track implementation progress of livestock and agribusiness activities in the cluster, ensuring they align with approved work plans and contribute to employment and income targets.
• Support documentation of lessons learned, case stories, and innovations from the cluster and share with the national technical team and MEAL staff for broader learning.
• Represent the program in local livestock and agribusiness platforms and forums, building strong networks with other projects, government offices, private sector associations, and community stakeholders.
• Ensure that gender and climate considerations are mainstreamed into livestock value chain interventions at the cluster level.
• Undertake other tasks as assigned to support programme implementation and results.

• Bachelor’s degree in Livestock Development, Horticulture, Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Marketing, youth development or related fields. Preferably master’s degree in the field mentioned.
• 8 years of experience in livestock/agricultural value chain development or agribusiness, with practical experience working with youth and women in rural contexts.
• Experience in youth employment programming and Market system development
• Demonstrated capacity to work with local stakeholders, TVETs, OSSCs, Disability organizations and government institutions.
• Strong experience in community outreach and mobilization.
• Solid understanding of market systems, livestock input/output marketing, and local trade systems.
• Experience in facilitating business linkages, multi-stakeholder platforms, and building partnerships with private sector actors and cooperatives.
• Knowledge of livestock policies and local government structures, and experience aligning interventions to national and regional strategies.
• Willingness to travel frequently within the cluster to support field-level activities.
• Proficiency in English

Competencies

• Problem analysis
• Coaching
• Focus on quality
• Result orientation
• Persuasiveness

• Contract Type: National, Full-time
• This position will be based on donor funding and approval confirmation.
• Expected start date: As soon as possible
• Duty Station: Debrebirhan/Dessie
• Contract Duration: One year with the possibility of extension based on performance and budget availability.

How to Apply

If you believe that your credentials meet the outlined profile, we invite you to apply by uploading your CV and a letter of motivation before/on August 4, 2025. Please submit your application only via: Smart Recruiters. All information will be kept in the strictest confidentiality.

If your experience and skills match the position’s requirements, we will contact you to advise on the next steps in the recruitment process.

Working at SNV  

SNV offers a challenging work environment, opportunities to lead and innovate, and a commitment to growing your skills in a fulfilling and diverse working environment. Our staff benefit from and contribute to an internal and global network of experts.

At SNV, inclusivity is at the heart of our ethos. We celebrate the diversity of our workforce and uphold a policy of non-discrimination based on factors such as disability status, religion, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, and more.

Vetting

SNV carries out rigorous background and reference checks concerning possible safeguarding incidents for all candidates applying for both nationally and internationally determined positions. As SNV participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, all reference checks include a request to past employers to fill in a questionnaire regarding Misconduct (sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment), the “Statement of Conduct“. This Statement of Conduct adopts the definitions used in the Scheme.

SNV is an equal opportunities employer and female candidates are encouraged to apply.