Highlights

Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) was established in response to the young generation’s increasing lack of interest in agriculture, insufficient participation of young professionals in addressing critical development issues and inadequate access to resources to address these issues. YPARD serves as a medium for young professionals (YPs) from all stakeholder groups in agricultural development to voice their views, exchange perspectives and to contribute to sustainably improved livelihoods, worldwide, through dynamic agricultural development.

The four primary objectives of YPARD are:

1. Opportunities for young professionals to contribute to strategic policy debates in agricultural development created
2. Agriculture promotes among young people
3. Young Professionals connected across disciplines, professions, age, and regions and exchange of information and knowledge facilitated
4. Access to resource and capacity building opportunities facilitated

The programme officer will primarily oversee fundraising and the mentoring programme. The officer is expected to allocate time as follows per week: Approximately 2 days mentoring programme, 2 days fundraising, 0.5 day M&E and 0.5 administration and other support.

The responsibilities of the officer will include

Mentoring

• Finalise the action plan and rollout of the mentoring programme;
• Work with the web and communications manager to setup the online component of the programme;
• Recruit mentors and mentees and match them according to formalised criteria;
• Monitor the mentoring relationships and provide support and direction where needed;
• Coordinate online and face to face communication events for the programme;
• Develop communications materials around the programme for the YPARD newsletter and partners’ publications;
• Report on the progress of the programme using M&E criteria for donors.

Fundraising

• Develop a fundraising strategy and ensure that it is current and updated;
• Make contacts with relevant donors and discuss opportunities for fundraising;
• Do online research for funding opportunities and keep an updated spreadsheet on these opportunities;
• Develop funding proposals, coordinating input from YPARD staff and representatives;
• Liaise with regional coordinators and national representatives to provide advice and support on regional and national level fundraising.

M&E

• Develop an M&E strategy that can work within existing systems and capacities at global, regional and national level;
• Refine and expand upon the indicators from the business plan and allocate responsibilities and methods for reporting on different topics;
• Develop practical and ongoing monitoring and evaluation systems, which may include standardised forms, scheduling and online systems;
• Develop a clear and concise document outlining the entire M&E strategy including the theory, methods and reporting principles;
• Ensure processes are followed and in a timely manner;
• Revisit and revise the strategy as necessary.