Irrigation Technical Expert, Irrigation Design Team International Consultant
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Job Title: Irrigation Technical Expert, Irrigation Design Team
Mission: To support the Design Phase of the Togo Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA)
Unit/Division: Programme Unit / CO Togo
Contract Type: National Consultancy / CST
Contract Duration: between 1 October 2022 and 15 December 2022 (2 months) with the possibility of longer-term engagement with the Togo ATA
ABOUT WFP
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.
WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, color, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic is one of the smallest countries in Africa and home to 8.6 million people. Situated in the Gulf of Guinea, Togo serves as a critical corridor to enable the COVID-19 response to landlocked countries in the Central Sahel region.
Togo’s economy depends heavily on both commercial and subsistence agriculture, with both sectors providing employment for 60 percent of the labor force. Socio-political and economic turmoil coupled with devastating floods and now COVID-19 have seen a deterioration in its food and nutritional situation.
Agriculture and food systems are vital to food security, livelihoods, and development. The sector has proven to be more effective for poverty alleviation and job creation than others, and sustainable transformation of agriculture and food systems can underpin economic development for many African countries. One innovative approach to spur transformational change is in the use of a Nodal Agency—successively leveraged by many Asian countries and beyond.
The nodal agency model was successfully leveraged by many Asian countries in the 1960s to 1990s to drive transformational growth and rapidly expand their economies. More recently, the nodal agency model was used successfully by the Government of Ethiopia when it established the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) in 2010.
The nodal agency model leverages key characteristics to achieve impact:
- Operates from a “center of government” position with strong links to senior government officials including the Head of State.
- A high level of authority, independence, and responsibility that allow it to innovate, use evidence to inform decision making, work across public and private sectors, exert influence over actors, and manage and ensure effectiveness.
- High organizational performance that enables efficient systems to be implemented, focuses on results, and ensures learning takes place within and across institutions and programs to adapt to changing contexts and take advantage of opportunities.
The Government of Togo (GoT), in its 2025 Roadmap, has positioned agriculture as a priority engine of growth for production, income, and job creation. The Roadmap specifically identifies mechanization, irrigation, and extension through public-private-partnerships as areas of significant opportunity.
To further support progress on the Roadmap and in recognition of the need for transformational growth in the sector, the GoT in March 2022 made the decision to leverage the Nodal Agency model and create an Agricultural Transformation Agency. The GoT has engaged TASC to support the scope, design, and establishment of this Agency by January 2023. Togolese stakeholders have worked with TASC to complete development of the scope of the Agency, which includes 5 priority focus areas for the new ATA: mechanization, irrigation, digital extension, ZAAPs (agricultural production areas), and value chains.
To further the development of the Togo ATA, the GoT seeks technical expert consultants to contribute to focus area teams and contribute to the development the Agency so that it can begin operations in January 2023.
JOB PURPOSE
The Government of Togo in partnership with WFP/FAO is now looking to form a high-performing design team that can develop these priority focus areas into a clear set of projects, initiatives, and workplans to enable the ATA to begin activities in January 2023.
Each priority focus area will be led by a Lead who is responsible for the design outputs within this phase of work. The key deliverables are expected for the Irrigation Focus Area are expected to be:
- Irrigation Master Plan and Strategy review
- Carry out a technical review of the irrigated agriculture master plan and provide a recommendation for implementation.
- Support the identification and sequencing of potential irrigation priority initiatives for the Togo ATA in 2023
- Design these initiatives into a prioritized portfolio of work, including key geographies, owners, and workplans
- Six pilot irrigation sites
- Project design and resource mobilization (if necessary) for the six new pilot sites for irrigation development (sites have already been selected)
- Propose medium-term activities to evaluate and monitor water capacity and recharge in areas in six pilot irrigation sites
- Shallow groundwater mapping
- Validate current water resource maps and, if necessary, propose an approach or actions to provide Togo with these hydrological maps
- Develop a shallow groundwater implementation plan
- Recommend medium-term activities to evaluate and monitor water capacity and recharge in areas used for irrigation
An Irrigation Technical Expert is required to support the project design for the Irrigation focus area. As context, the Government of Togo has enlisted consultants to map the water resources of the country, which is an input into the Irrigation Strategy. Further, the consultants are identifying six specific sites for the provision of irrigation including potential site development plans.
The Irrigation Technical Expert will validate the work of the consultants and transform recommendations into workplans that include location specific activities, design requirements (if needed), and source of equipment and installers for site development. The work of the Irrigation Technical Expert will be supported by the Design Team Agronomist and experts from the MoA.
An additional area of development is shallow groundwater. The consultant will review any information on shallow groundwater in the consultant’s report and make recommendations on how best to develop this resource for crop production.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):
The Irrigation Technical Expert will be under the supervision of a Focus Area Team Lead, who is responsible for the focus area deliverables. The Lead in turn will report to an overall Design Phase Director.
Technical expertise is required around how to transform reports, recommendations, and strategies into workplans that the Togo ATA can implement in 2023. Expected activities for this position include:
- Work closely with Focus Area Lead as part of the Focus Area Team
- Work closely with the Irrigation Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and where necessary the Ministry of Water
- Work closely with the Agronomy Technical Expert on the ATA Design Team
- Propose a development plan for the six irrigation sites identified by Ministry of Agriculture consultants
- Review current water resource maps and documentation that have been prepared by MoA consultants
- Evaluate the proposed approach to developing the six irrigation sites
- Recommend additional activities (if any) to validate the findings or dramatically improve the likelihood of success for using surface and/or shallow groundwater for irrigation
- Specify irrigation needs for each site based on water availability, expected recharge rate, and crop type to be irrigated
- Develop design requirements and an implementation plan for the six irrigation sites
- Recommend technical studies needed to determine water availability, recharge rate, and long-term sustainability and activities needed to monitor water usage and recharge.
- Develop a shallow groundwater implementation plan
- Review current water resource map with a focus on shallow groundwater throughout the entire country
- Recommend additional activities that would enhance success of developing shallow groundwater sites
- Recommend technical studies needed to determine water availability, recharge rate, and long-term sustainability and activities needed to monitor water usage and recharge.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Education:
Bachelors, Masters or PhD degree in hydrology, rural engineering and/or agricultural science or other relevant areas.
Experience:
Minimum of 4 years+ relevant experience with emphasis on developing actionable workplans from recommendations and strategies in the irrigation/water management sector
Deep understanding of Africa’s technical and institutional agricultural context is required, and a professional network of relevant agricultural actors who could be leveraged in this design phase would be a key asset.
Knowledge & Skills:
- Deep technical knowledge of irrigated agriculture with a focus on water availability, use, and management
- Proven experience and results related to supporting the design and implementation or irrigation schemes
- Ability to engage technical experts (hydrologists) to determine how their findings impact irrigation design and implementation
- Ability to work with agronomy experts to develop crop-appropriate irrigations schemes
- Strong interpersonal, operational, and organizational skills, and able to effectively problem-solve and come up with innovative solutions
- Deep institutional knowledge and a professional network of relevant agricultural actors who could support this design phase
- Familiarity with broader challenges faced by farmers, farmer groups, and commercial farms
Language:
Fluency (level C) in French and at least an intermediate knowledge (level B) in English (written and verbal)
WHY WORK WITH US?
This is an opportunity for an exciting and challenging position in a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary team, based in a unique location, on a topic with high relevance. In addition, we offer:
➡️Meaningful and impactful careers:
Our day-to-day work makes a difference in the lives of the people we serve
➡️Continuous learning and training:
We provide learning tools for our staff to continually develop their careers
➡️Multicultural and stimulating work environment:
We encourage gender and cultural diversity to make our teams stronger
Join us to make a difference, watch this video to know more about us!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnaxfnNKdsM&t=7s
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: September 7, 2022
All employment decisions are made based on organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.
