Inter Aide recruits 01 Intern / Agricultural development program

Inter Aide recruits 01 Intern / Agricultural development program

Organisation: Inter Aide (www.interaide.org)

Implementing organisation: BASEDA (Malawian Non-Governmental Organisation)

Project: Newcastle Disease Control Program (NDCP)

Country: Malawi

Districts: Lilongwe mainly, with missions in Phalombe and Zomba Districts

Duration:  6 months

Context of the study

Village poultry is of great importance for Malawian rural households’ livelihoods. But one of the main constraints to village chicken production in Malawi is the frequent devastation of flocks by Newcastle Disease (ND)[1]. Since 2005, Inter Aide program has been implementing Newcastle Disease control program in Malawi by organizing network of community vaccinators using the I-2 (Isolation 2). This thermo-tolerant vaccine, produced at low cost in Malawi by the Ministry of Agriculture, is adapted to rural vaccination and has proven its effectiveness in controlling the disease and increasing the chicken population of vaccinating households if administrated 3 times a year to every flock. In 2017, Inter Aide handed over the project to BASEDA, a local Non-Governmental Organization that has been involved in partnership with Inter Aide since the early 2000’s. However, Inter Aide still provides a technical and advisory support for this project. Today, around 550 trained community vaccinators are active in 3 different districts and buy about 40% of the national production of I-2 vaccines. Among them, about 350 of them have gathered in 3 different grass-root organizations and the others are organized in local groups called “clusters”. Community Vaccinators earn on average 20 euros per campaign and organize 3 vaccination campaigns per year in their catchment areas. Their objective is to vaccinate all the chickens by offering to farmers their services at an affordable price (around 0,03 EUR/chicken) without any subsidy from the project.

Objective of the mission

The 3 associations of community vaccinators, about to be officially registered, have already reached a good level of financial autonomy but still need to receive support to improve their organisational capacities. In order to reinforce the viability and sustainability of those associations, Inter Aide is proposing a study that aims at understanding the current level of autonomy of the associations and the potential of their better integration in the government policies. After the completion of an organisational diagnostic of the grass-root organizations and the understanding of the government strategy, this study should:

• Identify the most important needs in terms of organisational capacity building, produce concrete and detailed recommendations for the project and the associations to improve their strategic approach.
• Develop an organisational diagnostic tool adapted to the project’s needs, designed to be user-friendly for the project team, and enabling a regular follow-up of the evolution of the associations’ performance and autonomy levels.

Description of the mission

• Conducting an organisational diagnostic and producing concrete recommendations for the project

The person in charge of the study will have to design a methodology, together with Inter Aide’s Technical Assistant and Area Manager, in order to conduct an organisational diagnosis of the community vaccinators’ clusters and associations. He/she will conduct interviews of the local structures at every level (individual, clusters and association level).

The final outcome will be split into 2 deliverables:

• 1 report (written in English) concerning the organisational diagnosis and its results, including the description of the methodology used, results, analysis and recommendations.
• 1 simple organisational diagnosis tool supplemented by its guidelines for future project management use, tested and validated with the project’s team.

• Assessing the institutional frame and the possibilities of better linking community vaccinators and governmental veterinary services

The second aspect will focus on the institutional framework in order to assess the feasibility of better linking the network of community vaccinators and the governmental structures of the Ministry of Agriculture. Through a review of the bibliography and by meeting different stakeholders, a description of the current institutional frame and the initiatives developed during the past years will be carried out.

The expected outcome will be a description of the veterinary institutional framework and a history of the past initiatives, as well as propositions for a better integration of the community vaccinators network and the governmental structures.

Localisation and supervision

The person will be based in Nathenje, about 30 km from the capital city, where one of the project’s offices is located, with frequent trips to the rural areas in Lilongwe but also in Phalombe and Zomba Districts. The person is expected to have a high level of autonomy. He/she will be collaborating with the project’s team and directly supervised by the Area Manager in close collaboration with the Technical Assistant and the capitalization manager.

[1] FAO. A J Kitalyi http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w8989e/w8989e00.htm

• BSc in agriculture related field
• Major or experience in farmers’ organisations support and diagnosis
• Excellent analysis and reporting skills

• Legal french gratification (around 560€ per month)
• Round trip flight Paris-Lilongwe