Community Development Officer at Farming Systems Kenya

Job Description

Farming Systems Kenya (FSK) is a Non-Governmental Organization formed in through the initiative of the Africa Inland Church, Nakuru Region Lay People Fellowship (NLPF). Our main agenda is to reduce poverty through agricultural development, the main focus being the smallholder farmers who constitute 80% of the Kenyan farming community.

Essential Character and Character traits

Born again Christian, result oriented, values committed, self-motivated, accountable and honest. Reporting to the Senior Programmes Manager the Community Development Officer will undertake the
following duties:

Roles and Responsibilities

Provide trainings to the groups, CBOs on group dynamics and animal welfare. Assess and identify community capacity gaps, needs and root causes on equine husbandry and management practices and related social-economic needs. Develop and implement interventions to address the gaps, needs and root causes identified above in a sustainable manner. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions, and follow up with relevant adjustments. Continuously implement follow up actions or adjustments on the basis of information gathered from the evaluation above. Explore innovative capacity building methods, tools and techniques that are suitable and sensitive to distinct community groupings, demographics and contexts for sustainable behaviour change. Strengthen community-based structures among target equine owning communities that assure sustainable project interventions. Participate in identification of gaps in and value addition to resource and material requirements related to community engagement. Prepare for and deliver content during planned trainings, ensure learning capacity building road map; matching session plans for each training session; and conduct monitoring visits to follow up on the use of C4A tools. Mentor community animal welfare ambassadors. Participate from time to time in meetings or initiatives with other like-minded stakeholders in animal welfare and livelihoods sectors. Compile weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual Reports. Management of organization funds, accounting and financial reporting as per activities planned and carried out. Organize field days and outreach programs to farmers in collaboration with other stakeholders. Support in fundraising to ensure and support programme growth and project sustainability.

Knowledge and Skills Required

Minimum bachelor degree in community development studies, social work, sociology, agriculture and human Ecology or related area of study Minimum 2 years’ field-based experience in community development, using sustainable and transformative approaches and tools Innovative and pro-active approach to resolving complex community needs Competencies in the application of participatory community approaches Good planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting skills Competencies in adult learning facilitation, planning and execution of workshop and training events Partnership-building, networking, collaboration and representation skills Proposal writing skills