Animal Science Expert – Field

GLOBAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT DEVELOPMENT ETHIOPIA (GWEDE)

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

About GWEDE

Global Women Empowerment Development Ethiopia (GWEDE) is a national, women-led and community-rooted civil society organization established in 2022. GWEDE works to advance gender equality, women’s and girls’ empowerment, food and nutrition security, resilient livelihoods, inclusive economic empowerment, WASH, protection, peacebuilding, and sustainable community development in Ethiopia.

GWEDE envisions a future where gender equality, inclusion, and locally led leadership drive sustainable community progress. The organization works with women, youth, pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities, local institutions, government, CSOs, and development and humanitarian partners to strengthen local capacities, amplify marginalized voices, expand opportunities, and promote resilient and inclusive solutions.

GWEDE is committed to localization, equal opportunity, diversity, safeguarding, and accountability. Qualified women, youth, persons with disabilities, and candidates from Borena Zone and surrounding pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities are strongly encouraged to apply. Candidates with strong knowledge of the local context, communities, languages, culture, and development and humanitarian priorities are particularly encouraged.

GWEDE seeks competent, committed, and values-driven professionals who are passionate about community engagement and contributing to gender responsive, inclusive, locally led, and sustainable development outcomes.

About the Project

LEVEL UP is a three-year initiative designed to make Borena’s food system more inclusive, climate-resilient, nutrition sensitive, and market oriented by strengthening the economic participation, leadership, resilience, and agency of pastoralist and agro pastoralist women and female youth.

The project uses Market Systems Development, Gender Transformative, climate-resilient, nutrition-sensitive, and graduation approaches to strengthen women’s participation in three high-potential value chains: poultry, irrigation-based horticulture, and small ruminants.

LEVEL UP will work across Arero, Yabello, and Gomole woredas, strengthening women’s and female youth’s access to markets, services, productive assets, skills, leadership opportunities, and decision-making, while supporting institutions to adopt more gender responsive and inclusive practices.

The project seeks to create sustainable economic opportunities, stronger agency and leadership, and more inclusive market and institutional systems that enable women and female youth to participate in and benefit equitably from Borena’s evolving food economy.

 Animal Science Expert – Field

Purpose of the Position

The Animal Science Expert provides technical leadership for the climate-resilient poultry and small-ruminant (goat) value chains at field level, ensuring that women- and female youth-led livestock enterprises across Arero, Yabello, and Gomole become more productive, resilient, and commercially competitive. Working within a facilitative Market Systems Development approach and in close coordination with WHH and WE-Action, woreda livestock and agriculture offices, and private input and service providers the post-holder translates the project's livestock strategy into practical, adaptive, and sustainable production and animal-health improvements. The role builds on existing assets in the target woredas, including the poultry production sheds already established by the local government in Yabello and women's existing experience in small-ruminant management, and works through existing systems rather than parallel delivery structures, so that improved practices and services continue beyond the project period.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct technical assessments of poultry and small-ruminant production systems, constraints, market opportunities, and participant needs.
• Support the selection and registration of women and female youth participating in poultry production, small-ruminant fattening, feed enterprises, and veterinary-service enterprises.
• Develop appropriate production packages, technical standards, training materials, and implementation guidelines.
• Train and coach women and female youth on improved animal husbandry, feeding, breeding, housing, hygiene, biosecurity, animal welfare, and record-keeping.
• Support climate-resilient poultry production, including breed selection, improved housing, vaccination, disease prevention, and heat-stress management.
• Support small-ruminant fattening, including animal selection, feeding plans, housing, health management, and finishing schedules.
• Assess available feed resources and promote affordable feed production, formulation, conservation, and forage development.
• Support women-led feed enterprises and connect them with producers, suppliers, cooperatives, and other market actors.
• Work with veterinary authorities and service providers to strengthen vaccination, disease surveillance, treatment, referral, and extension services.
• Provide technical support to female-youth veterinary-service enterprises in coordination with qualified veterinary professionals.
• Prepare technical specifications and quality standards for livestock, poultry, feed, housing materials, equipment, and other project-supported inputs.
• Support the technical evaluation, procurement, distribution, and post-distribution monitoring of livestock-related inputs.
• Facilitate linkages among producers, input suppliers, veterinary-service providers, traders, aggregators, processors, financial institutions, and insurance providers.
• Promote market-oriented production by helping enterprises meet buyer requirements related to quality, quantity, timing, and food safety.
• Integrate nutrition-sensitive practices, particularly the safe production, handling, household consumption, and marketing of eggs and other animal-source foods.
• Ensure that women’s priorities, workloads, safety, access to productive assets, and control over livestock-related income are considered.
• Participate in market-systems assessments and identify opportunities for sustainable private-sector engagement.
• Monitor livestock performance, mortality, disease incidence, weight gain, egg production, adoption of improved practices, enterprise profitability, and market access.
• Conduct regular field supervision, identify technical challenges, recommend corrective actions, and document lessons and good practices.
• Coordinate with woreda livestock offices, research institutions, cooperatives, private service providers, community structures, and project partners.
• Contribute to workplans, budgets, procurement plans, progress reports, participant databases, and MEAL activities related to the livestock components.