Job Description

Title: Field Officer- BGD 1051-23 Project, FIVDB

Company Name: Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB)

Vacancy: 4

Job Location: Sirajganj, Sirajganj (Sirajganj Sadar)

Employment Status: Full-time

Educational Requirements:
∎ Diploma in Agriculture (preferrable) or Bachelor Degree in relevant field
∎ At least three years of experiences in community-based organization development and management.

Experience Requirements:
∎ At least 3 year(s)

Job Context:
∎ Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB) is going to implement the “Strengthening Rural Advisory Services to Support the Economic Situation of Women in the Char Region of Bangladesh / Rural Advisory Services for Women Empowerment (RASWE).” project funded by the Welthungerhilfe (WHH).
∎ The project aims to improve income and employment opportunities for poor women by promoting rural extension services, agricultural entrepreneurship and strengthened civil society to bring about gender-transformative change and sustainably empower women as self-determined agents of change who shape positive change in society.
∎ Public extension services remain the backbone of the Rural Advisory Services (RAS) system in Bangladesh, while the private sector and civil society complement existing public services. Despite having multiple or permanent bases on the ground, the effectiveness of government agricultural extension organisations or agencies is hampered by a lack of resources, and an often top-down approach as well as the extension services tend to cater mainly for the needs of large farmers who can adopt new technologies comparatively easier than their small-scale farmers. Moreover, it has been reviled that access to extension services remains limited particularly for farmers living in the remote areas of Bangladesh, such as the Char regions of the country. In such places, farmers particularly women, face difficulties in accessing appropriate RAS infrastructure. As a result of such limitations in accessing adequate information, agricultural product outlets or comprehensive financial services the ability of farmers to increase their productivity becomes significantly constrained. On the other hand , the private sector is usually not very active in the fields of agricultural advisory and extension services delivery. Their model of reaching out to farmers tends to be through agro-dealers, who are often static service points usually located in Upazila headquarters and permanent markets. Such places are typically inaccessible to most women and often provide a limited range of products to farmers. Furthermore, the non-governmental and civil society organisations in Bangladesh, have a strong presence on the ground and offer microcredit services together with microfinance institutions, where the majority of the beneficiaries are women. And a large proportion of the loans made available to communities are utilized mainly for consumptive rather than productive purposes. Also, the non-governmental organisations services mainly Donor depended on which is not sustainable for the long run. The overall objective of this project is to improve the socio-economic situation of economically vulnerable and politically marginalised women in the rural district of Sirajganj in the Char region.
∎ With the partnership of FIVDB, the project will focus in Sirajganj Sadar Upazila under Sirajganj district. The duration of the project is 3 years, and the job is contractual for the project period. The position will be recruited for implementing the project based at the Project Office at Sirajgonj district with substantial field activities.

Job Responsibilities:
∎ The Field Officers will be carried out the regular ongoing field activities in coordination with the women farmers groups/MSMEs, Rural Service Centers, Community Service Providers, Community Facility centers (CFC) and different rural market actors. He/she will be overall responsible for the implementation of the project activities in their respective area and effective delivery of the capacity building events. Field Officers will closely work with the Technical Specialist- Agriculture and Senior MEAL Officer to ensure smooth and effective operations of the program support activities.
∎ Provide organization development and management support to the Strengthened and independent women MSMEs, technical capacity building of women CSPs, community-based institutions.
∎ Conduct regular meetings with the entrepreneurial groups, women CSPs and relevant market actors,
∎ Conduct base line survey, beneficiary's selection and group formation (SHGs) by using different PRA tools
∎ Promoting CFC through creating an enabling environment for female CSPs/women MSMEs by applying a community-based, gender-sensitive approach..
∎ Organized and facilitate different training and awareness among local authorities on the benefits of women's participation in the rural economy and on creating an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs through gender training.
∎ Maintain coordination with women MSMEs and entrepreneurial groups for increased sales and turnover in local market
∎ Assist farmers and other service providers for better access to services, inputs and markets.
∎ Organize linkage building meeting with project beneficiaries’ group and different service provider
∎ Support to establish “Rural Service Centre” to ensure affordable, accessible, and quality agriculture and agribusiness services by the women CSPs.
∎ Establish linkage with existing Small and Women Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) for the delivery of quality inputs, aggregation, value addition and marketing of agricultural produce.
∎ Contribute to design and implement business plan at the CFC and MSME level.
∎ Assist to establish demonstration of climate-resilient practices and technologies
∎ Maintain close collaboration with local govt authority like Union parishad and relevant stakeholder.
∎ Organise different campaigns and fairs including day observance at local level.
∎ Prepare field progress report and other reports regularly, document the key learning & findings and submit to project Coordinator
∎ Follow-up different activities undertaken by the beneficiaries with project support.
∎ Participate in the monthly staff coordination meeting. Regular communication with Project Coordinator and Technical Specialists.
∎ Conduct / perform any other responsibility when asked by the reportable person for the interest of the Program.

Additional Requirements:
∎ Age 22 to 55 years
∎ Experience in similar position of any agriculture/market/livelihood project/programme
∎ Good communication, documentation, facilitation and motivational skill.
∎ Understanding of local cultural languages.
∎ Ability to work in a team and with good networking and interpersonal skills
∎ Considerable understanding of rural markets, organic food promotion and rural service provision.
∎ Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.

Salary:
∎ Tk. 32000 - 42000 (Monthly)
∎ Deduction of Tax at Source

Compensation & Other Benefits:
∎ Weekly 2 holidays, Mobile bill
∎ Festival Bonus: 1
∎ As per the project policy of FIVDB and the budgeted provision of this project.

Job Source: Bdjobs.com Online Job Posting.

Application Deadline: 20 Sep 2023

Company Information:
∎ 16 Sep 2023
∎ Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB)
∎ Address : FIVDB, Khadimnagar, Sylhet-3103
∎ Business : FIVDB is a development organization, established in 1979. Its major operation cover 7 major districts and concentrates round in the north-east of Bangladesh. It mission is to give disadvantage women, men and children greater voice, reduce their vulnerability, increase use of citizenship rights and help them enhance their quality of life.

Category: NGO/Development

: FIVDB affirms the 'ZERO' tolerance approach against sexual exploitation and abuse. And is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behavior at work including sexual harassment, lack of integrity, and financial misconduct, and expects staff to promote the welfare of children and adults at all times. FIVDB expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our Code of Conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate this commitment are recruited to work with us.FIVDB is an equal-opportunity organization and any kind of persuasion will be construed as automatic disqualification.Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.Join us on our Facebook page for more updates: www.facebook.com/fivdbngo