TA Ethiopia Food Safety and Quality Manager – Land O’Lakes, Inc
Agriculture, Business and Administration
Land O’Lakes, Inc
In 1921, 320 dairy farmers met in St. Paul, Minnesota, to form the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association. Their idea was simple—join together to effectively market and distribute members’ dairy production across the country.
From there, we quickly set our sights on growth. Just eight years after establishing our butter marketing organization, we expanded into the ag services and feed businesses. Our international journey kicked off 52 years later, as we began relaying the lessons we'd learned to support local agriculture in developing nations around the world. Those efforts have also helped us expand our commercial business beyond the borders of the United States.
Today, our four businesses give us a farm-to-fork view of agriculture. Pair this with our farmer ownership and we're uniquely qualified to fulfill our purpose of feeding human progress around the world, while always delivering on our responsibility to member-owners through our core values. We're united in a common cause, committed to excellence and inspired by our place in the world—but there are no shortcuts. We've never lost sight of the value of a hard day's work.
Project Summary:
Land O’Lakes Venture37 is a subcontractor on the RTI-led consortium implementing the USAID-funded Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture (TA) project. The purpose of the USAID/Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture activity is to increase access to healthy diets, particularly for women and children, by improving competitiveness, inclusiveness, and resilience of the Ethiopian food and agriculture system. This program is the core component of a suite of food and agriculture activities funded by USAID. As such, TA must collaborate intensively with other USAID-funded projects working in the food and agriculture sector.
TA will build on previous USG-funded activities to sustainably improve access to healthy diets for all in the targeted communities using a food systems lens. Acknowledging that economic transformation tends to bring new malnutrition challenges, TA will support transformation of the food systems so that a healthy diet is increasingly easy to access. TA will also support the food and agriculture systems to become more sustainable, resilient, and responsive, increasing its long-term capacity to adapt to change, shocks, and stressors. Finally, TA will facilitate increased public-private partnership and collaboration to spur a more favorable policy environment for private sector investment, sustainable and resilient food systems, and innovation that serves the population’s economic and dietary needs.
Position Summary:
The Food Safety and Quality Manager (FSQM) will work directly with the Transforming Agriculture team, technical assistance recipients including animal and plant-based food enterprises, Ethiopian governmental agencies and regulators such as the Ethiopia Food and Drug Authority (EFDA), and other development and private actors in Ethiopia to lead the development and implementation of activities to build capacity for adoption and effective execution of food safety and quality protocols relevant to the supported animal source and plant-based food value chains.
This position will report to the Food Environment Manager.
Primary Responsibilities:
Primary responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Provide strategic leadership for TA activities aiming to build capacity of public and private sector enterprises in the animal-based foods (namely dairy, meat, poultry, eggs and fish) and plant-based foods (such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, honey, and coffee) for adoption and effective execution of food safety and quality standards
- Closely coordinate TA efforts with Government of Ethiopia policy and institutional reform actions to help optimize implementation of improved food safety and quality as it relates to animal and plant-based food value chains in Ethiopia
- In collaboration with TA technical teams and external partners, provide guidance on food safety and quality improvement to position the Government of Ethiopia and Ethiopian animal- and plant-based food enterprises and market actors for domestic and regional competitiveness improvement and increased trade
- Collaborate with relevant public and private actors and build internal capacity to more effectively assess, develop and enforce standards that apply to livestock farms and businesses
- Coordinate with the Government of Ethiopia on efforts to promote use of third-party certification bodies by businesses working within the animal- and plant-based food industries
- Assist Government of Ethiopia agencies and regulators (such as Ethiopia Food and Drug Authority (EFDA), Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE), and Ethiopian Standards Authority (ESA)) in achieving goals for national compliance with food safety assurance programs for animal- and plant-based food processors
- Provide support to the Ethiopian industry and the Government of Ethiopia to increase efficacy in rollout of labelling requirements, livestock identification efforts. and other traceability initiatives contributing to food safety and quality assurance
- Work with the Government of Ethiopia, animal-based food sector operators and industry associations to increase farmer, agribusiness, wholesalers, retailers and consumers awareness for food safety and quality
- Support the increase connectivity of Ethiopian government agencies to global industry platforms including Global Food Safety Initiative Emerging Market Program
- Support food system private enterprises to gain Quality Assurance certifications
- Support Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team on food safety activities, real-time data collection and other duties as needed
- Liaise with stakeholders such as government, private sector, and other donor-funded programs working directly or indirectly on food safety and quality
- Advise TA regional teams working on food safety and quality issues, as needed.
- Any duties and responsibilities given by his/her immediate supervisor.
Required Skills and Qualifications:
- Bachelor degree in food science / food technology, business administration, public policy, agriculture, or related field
- Solid understanding of both United States and European food safety regulations and requirements
- Seven (7) + years’ experience working with the private sector and government bodies on development and execution of food safety protocols
- Strong leadership, and interpersonal skills, including proven ability to work with a government agency, private enterprises in the food production and marketing sectors and influence change
- Demonstrated ability to create and maintain effective working relations with host country government personnel, stakeholders, NGO partners, and international donor agencies
- Strong communication, writing and oral presentation skills in English and Amharic.
- Ability to work independently and manage the needs of multiple clients
- Relevant computer software skills (including, at a minimum, the standard applications in MS Office).
Desired Skills and Qualifications:
- Advanced degree in food science / food technology, business administration, public policy, agriculture, or related field
- Extensive working experience in Ethiopia.
- Animal-based (fish, meat, dairy, poultry, eggs) and plant-based food safety and quality improvement experience.
- Experience developing trade and partnering with government, local and multinational private sector companies.
- Experience working in conjunction with a foreign donor funded development program.
- Ability to extensively travel in rural Ethiopia.