Cooperative and Agribusiness Development Program Officer (Grade-C)

Vacancy Announcement

Job Title: Cooperative and Agribusiness Development Program Officer (Grade-C)

Report to: Cooperative and Agribusiness Development Program Manager

Place of work: Arba Minch, South Ethiopia Region

Salary: As per the organization pay scale

Application Deadline: November 15/2026

Job starts date: Preferably 1^st January 2027

Annual Salary; 5,500-6,000 USD with additional benefit Packages

Terms and conditions: Annual contract with possibility of extensions depending on performance

Background of the Organization

Nuru Ethiopia is a locally led, non-profit development organization dedicated to building resilience and creating pathways out of extreme poverty for rural communities in Ethiopia. Established in 2012 and headquartered in Arba Minch, Nuru Ethiopia works closely with farmers, cooperatives, unions, government institutions, private sector actors, and civil society organizations to develop sustainable farmer-owned agribusinesses, strengthen market systems, improve livelihoods, enhance food security, and increase communities' resilience to climate change, and other shocks. Guided by a vision of a world without cycles of unjust poverty, Nuru Ethiopia equips communities to unlock their economic potential through locally designed and sustainable solutions that create lasting impact. Nuru Ethiopia is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and respectful workplace. The organization does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, marital status, disability, or any other protected characteristic. Consistent with its commitment to gender inclusion and women's empowerment, Nuru Ethiopia strongly encourages qualified women candidates to apply and seeks to increase women's participation in leadership, decision-making, and professional opportunities

POSITION SUMMARY

The Nuru Cooperative and Agribusiness Development Program Officer is responsible for carrying out the overall program goals and objectives for the Cooperative and Agribusiness program, facilitating training of cooperative leaders and key staffs, providing on the spot technical support for cooperatives and their leaders staffs, facilitating the development of business support services to diversify cooperative revenue streams, Support the cooperatives professionalization process using different tools, collaborate with cooperative society technical team and local government partners to build showcase cooperatives, developing financially sustainable cooperatives business models, and collecting, organize, and report all monitoring data timely.

Further, s/he will foster organizational development, promote Nuru’s values and development model and approaches, promote accountability and high performance, and encourage innovation. S/he will ensure all cooperatives are progressing Nuru’s goal of enabling rural communities to realize meaningful choices to lift themselves out of extreme poverty in a sustainable way.

Duties and Responsibility

Cooperatives Strengthening and Professionalization

• Identify showcase primary cooperatives across unions and mobilize them to establish active, cooperative business relationships.
• Partner with government cooperative officers to update operational policies and standard operating procedures to improve enterprise performance.
• Establish and standardize essential financial and operational documentation, including ledgers, vouchers, receipts, and reporting templates.
• Coordinate with local government to ensure all mandatory legal documents, registries, and regulatory filings are maintained on-site.
• Facilitate cooperative systems-strengthening by operationalizing internal policies, bylaws, and operational procedures, ensuring all activities strictly align with national cooperative proclamations and statutory regulations.
• Coordinate with cooperative leadership and local partners to design and lead targeted mobilization campaigns that drive active member participation.
• Conduct agricultural value chain and market gap assessments to design and execute competitive marketing strategies.
• Identify critical operational, market, and climatic vulnerabilities within the cooperative business model and develop structured mitigation strategies to protect member investments and enterprise assets.
• Advice cooperative unions on strategies to enhance primary cooperative profitability, fostering robust, equitable, and transparent commercial partnerships across the cooperative structure.
• Advise cooperative unions on mechanisms for improving the profitability of primary cooperative
• Conduct routine field-based supportive supervision and performance monitoring in close coordination with cooperative promotion experts and union management teams.
• Facilitate annual financial audits and SCOPE Insight assessment for cooperatives in partnership with cooperative offices and Nuru Ethiopia’s MEL team to ensure transparency and legal compliance.
• Provide cooperative development and agribusiness technical expertise to the Program Manager and cross-functional Nuru Ethiopia teams to drive integrated program delivery and shared organizational objectives.
• Represent Nuru Ethiopia in negotiations with cooperative leadership to draft, execute, and monitor formal Memorandums of Understanding.
• Promote Nuru’s mission and core values across cooperative leadership, member societies, and local government stakeholders.

Training and Development for Cooperative Leaders and Members

• Conducting cooperative capacity Assessments and Training Needs Analyses (TNA).
• Deliver training modules on cooperative governance, bylaws compliance, strategic planning, and leadership succession to executive board members and management committees.
• Deliver practical training on crop aggregation, grading, post-harvest handling, storage management, and quality control to meet commercial standards.
• Facilitate trainings on financial inclusion for cooperatives leaders and women’s.
• Coach cooperative leaders in contract negotiation, collective bargaining, and building structured linkages with institutional buyers, processors, and national markets.
• Guide cooperative leadership through preparing viable agribusiness plans, cost-benefit analyses, and loan proposals to improve their bankability and ability to secure external agricultural finance.
• Provide coaching on operational management, transparent decision-making, member equity management, and conflict resolution to foster organizational accountability and long-term sustainability.
• Conduct regular, follow-up field coaching visits to monitor how well trainees apply newly acquired skills within daily cooperative business operations.
• Facilitate experience sharing events for cooperative leaders.
• Support and facilitate cooperative society actively engage in donors and partners visit
• Facilitate monthly virtual meeting for local government partners, cooperative society managers and key staffs to promote cooperation among cooperatives.
• Develop and share success stories and best practices for business promotion and visibility
• Facilitate a meeting for cooperatives leaders and key value chain actors to create business network
• Track capacity-building indicators and pre/post-training performance metrics, documenting lessons learned and updating development plans to ensure sustainable capacity retention.

Reporting, Communication and Documentation

• Strengthen the quality of cooperatives by identifying areas in which programs may benefit from technical assistance, professional development, and/or training workshops and reporting to CABDPM.
• Report progress of cooperatives in terms of training and business extension, revolving fund management, membership databases management, market linkages, and showcase cooperatives progress.
• Prepare and submit monthly and weekly plans and reports.
• Undertake other assignment given by the program manager.
• Informing Nuru Ethiopia on issues concerning gender awareness in their service areas.
• Participate in weekly team meetings and one-on-ones with the Cooperative Agribusiness Development Program Manager.
• Attending required trainings provided by Nuru.