1. Key Responsibilities
The Female Community Mobilizer/Social Worker will be responsible for the following:
a. Community Engagement and Mobilization
- Mobilize women, farmer groups, and other community members to participate in agricultural project activities.
- Establish relationships with women’s groups, farmer cooperatives, and community leaders to ensure community buy-in and participation.
- Conduct regular community meetings, focus group discussions, and awareness sessions on agricultural practices, gender roles in farming, and food security.
- Identify and select the most vulnerable and eligible beneficiaries for the project.
b. Women’s Empowerment and Social Development
- Advocate for women’s involvement in decision-making related to agricultural activities, ensuring their voices are heard in project planning and implementation.
- Work closely with local women to identify and address social challenges (e.g., gender inequality, access to resources, land ownership issues) that hinder their participation in agriculture.
- Facilitate the formation and strengthening of women’s agricultural groups, self-help groups, and savings groups.
- Facilitate empowering women through local agri-business development initiatives.
c. Capacity Building and Training
- Organize and facilitate training workshops for women farmers on sustainable agricultural practices, agri-business development, post-harvest management, value addition, and market linkages.
- Provide guidance on climate-smart agriculture and environmentally friendly practices to improve agricultural productivity.
- Collaborate with technical experts to ensure that women receive the necessary agricultural inputs and tools for successful implementation.
d. Support in Agricultural Extension Services
- Assist in the dissemination of agricultural information and extension services to women farmers, ensuring they have access to knowledge on improved farming techniques.
- Facilitate farm visits, demonstrations, and farmer-to-farmer learning opportunities.
- Support women in adopting new technologies, such as agri-business development, improved seeds, and organic farming techniques.
e. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting
- Collect data on community participation, women’s involvement, and the progress of agricultural activities.
- Contribute to the development of project monitoring tools and indicators that measure women’s empowerment and agricultural outcomes.
- Prepare regular reports on community engagement, capacity-building efforts, and social challenges faced by women in the agricultural sector.
f. Addressing Social and Gender Challenges
- Identify and address any social or cultural barriers that may hinder women’s participation in the project.
- Mediate conflicts related to land access, resource allocation, or social norms that affect women’s roles in agriculture.
- Work with communities to create an enabling environment for women’s participation in agriculture.
g. Coordination with Project Team
- Collaborate with the agriculture technical team, field officers, and project manager to ensure the seamless integration of social and agricultural components of the project.
- Attend regular project team meetings to share updates on community mobilization and social issues affecting the project.
- Ensure close coordination between the social mobilization component and the overall agricultural project activities.
- Qualifications and Experience
- A diploma or bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Community Development, Agriculture, Gender Studies, or a related field.
- Minimum of 4 years of experience in community mobilization, social work, or rural development, particularly in agriculture projects.
- Experience in working with women’s groups and rural communities, with a focus on women’s empowerment, gender equality, and agriculture.
- Knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices, food security issues, and climate-smart agriculture.
- Strong understanding of the socio-cultural context of rural communities and gender roles in agriculture.
- Excellent communication skills, with proficiency in the local language and fluency in English.
- Ability to engage with diverse community members, particularly women and marginalized groups.
- Skills and Competencies
- Community Mobilization: Ability to engage women and marginalized groups in agricultural project activities and ensure their active participation.
- Agricultural Knowledge: Familiarity with sustainable farming techniques, agricultural extension services, and food security issues, particularly in rural settings.
- Gender Sensitivity: Strong understanding of gender dynamics in rural communities and the ability to work with women in culturally sensitive ways.
- Communication and Facilitation: Strong communication skills in both group settings and one-on-one interactions.
- Problem Solving: Ability to identify and address social and cultural barriers that affect women’s participation in agriculture.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Experience in collecting data and preparing reports on community engagement and agricultural outcomes.
- Reporting and Supervision
The Female Community Mobilizer/Social Worker will report directly to the Project Manager and will work closely with the agriculture technical team, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) officers, and other project staff.
- Deliverables
- Detailed mobilization and community engagement plans.
- Regular reports on women’s participation, community challenges, and progress in agricultural activities.
- Training and capacity-building reports, including feedback from women farmers and groups.
- Documented success stories, case studies, and lessons learned from the community engagement efforts.
