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Agriculture and Nutrition Development Worker

Peace
Corps

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COUNTRY
Ethiopia
REGION
Africa
SECTOR
Agriculture Health
LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
None

ACCEPTS COUPLES
Yes
POSITIONS AVAILABLE
24

APPLY BY
July 1, 2017
KNOW BY
Sept. 1, 2017
DEPART BY
Jan. 11, 2018

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Before You Apply

You can only have one active Peace Corps Volunteer application, so choose a
position that best fits your skills and interest. You have the opportunity to tell us if
youd like to be considered for other openings and more about the ones that interest
you most!

Project Description
In Ethiopia, more than half the children under 5 are malnourished. To address this, the Ministry
of Agriculture has made it a priority to teach smallholder farmers new and improved
techniques in home gardening, poultry, beekeeping, and nutrition. Peace Corps responded to
this priority need by creating the Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Project and placing
Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers to serve in rural villages to improve their food
security.

Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers are assigned to farmers training centers
located in small towns ranging from 500-3,000 inhabitants. Working with the local
Development Agents, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers work directly with
smallholder farming families to increase the availability of diverse and nutritious foods;
resulting in farming families improving their nutrition and food security. To do this, Agriculture
and Nutrition Development Workers undertake many tasks, including:
 Building demonstration gardens using bio-intensive gardening techniques, including:
composting, fencing, water management, plant nursery, bed construction, and organic soil
amendments
Teaching local farmers bio-intensive gardening practices at their homes
Constructing poultry demonstrations promoting improvements in nutrition, sanitation and
management of stock
Establishing beehive demonstrations promoting best practices for maintaining sustainable
bee colonies
Teaching smallholder farmers improved poultry management and beekeeping at their homes
Organizing and delivering nutrition lessons paired with cooking demonstrations, using locally
available and affordable foods; including the home garden produce, poultry, and honey

The Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers and counterpart spend a substantial
amount of time in the field working directly with farmers. In the early stages of the assignment
the Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers may work directly with their counterpart
one or more days a week at their office and in the field, and later in service, they will spend the
majority of their time in the field with the farming families. This is a very hands-on assignment
where you will be working directly with at least five farming families to help them establish
and/or improve diverse garden production, adopt new or improved small animal husbandry
practices, and increase consumption of more diverse and nutritious foods.

Along with their agriculture and nutrition work, many Agriculture and Nutrition Development
Workers are involved with school clubs, youth camps, sports, and other extracurricular
activities.

This is a great assignment for someone who is creative, flexible and resilient. You will be the
first group to engage in this project in Peace Corps Ethiopia, as such, you will provide insights
to the staff on what works and what can be improved. This is a very hands-on assignment
where you will be working directly with at least five farming families to help them establish
and/or improve diverse garden production, adopt one or more new or improved small animal
husbandry practices, and increase consumption of more diverse and nutritious foods.

Ethiopia is one of the Peace Corps countries participating in Let Girls Learn, an important
initiative promoting gender awareness and girls education and empowerment. You will receive
training on gender challenges in your country and you will have the opportunity to implement
gender related activities that are contextually appropriate. During your service, you will look
for ways to work with community members to promote gender equitable norms and increase
girls sense of agency. As part of the initiative, you will also report on these efforts and their
impact.

Required Skills
Qualified candidates will have an expressed interest in working in agriculture and one or more
of the following criteria:
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any field
OR
5 years' professional work experience

Desired Skills
Successful candidates will also have some degree of professional and/or volunteer experience
with at least one of the following qualifications:
A high level of comfort working outdoors; AND,
Experience in small income generation activities; OR,
Experience in large scale or family-run organic vegetable gardening; OR,
Experience in poultry rearing or beekeeping; OR,
Comfortable working with bees and chickens; OR,
Knowledge of basic family nutrition; OR,
Experience in facilitating trainings.
Required Language Skills

There are no pre-requisite language requirements for this position. Please take a moment to
explore the Language Comments section below to find out more on how local language(s) will
be utilized during service.

Additional Language Information

Learning the local language is the key to integration and successful service. You need to
arrive with a strong commitment to learning the local language of the village to which you will
be assigned. Volunteers will receive 12 weeks of pre-service training in a local language
(Amharic, Oromifa, or Tigrinya) and must attain an intermediate level of spoken proficiency
before swearing-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Additional language resources will be offered
to you at Peace Corps training events and through independent tutoring during service. Most
of the people Volunteers will work with will not speak English, so it is extremely important to
understand and be able to communicate in the local language.

Living Conditions

Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers are placed in rural villages in the Amhara,
Oromia, Tigray, and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regions. Volunteer housing is
commonly a mud house, with a dirt floor, and a corrugated iron roof. Peace Corps provides a
settling in allowance to enable Volunteers to purchase modest furniture and household items.
The house is located on a compound with the landlord, and a pit latrine will be shared with the
compound family. Water is commonly from a hand dug well or protected spring that may be a
15 to 20 minute walk away.

Within the community, cell phone service is fairly reliable, but do not expect electricity or
internet. Internet is in larger towns, generally within a days trip away. The closest shopping
town may be 20 to 30 miles away, though basic foodstuff will be available in your community.
Volunteers must be prepared to accept the living conditions to which they are assigned as
they will be living under the same conditions as the people with whom they work. Pre-service
training will help you learn to adapt to this lifestyle.

Your diet will be local foods such as locally produced injera, a spongy pancake made from the
grain, Tef, and eaten with sauces, spinach, beets, carrots, and various kinds of meat.
Vegetables and fruit may be seasonal. Vegetarians do not find it difficult to maintain their diet
in Ethiopia.

Your transportation will be by foot, bicycle, or local public transportation. Public

transportation is available near Volunteers sites and in most cases goes several times a week
to and from the nearest urban area or trading center. Public transportation is likely to be
crowded, uncomfortable and unreliable. Peace Corps may provide you with a bike for your
work and a helmet, which must be worn at all times. Due to safety risks, Peace Corps Ethiopia
prohibits the use of motorcycles or vehicles by Volunteers.

The Volunteer will engage in physical work alongside farming families and Development
Agents. This can include double digging garden beds, building compost piles or constructing
chicken coops. Travel to farmers homes, demonstration sites and the farmers training center
may require walking 30 minutes or more each way or riding a bike for 5 to 10 miles.

Many sites are at high altitudes, over 8,000 feet. Climate varies considerably from region to
region in Ethiopia, and can be very hot and very cold. The position requires a level of physical
fitness that will enable the volunteer to successfully fulfill the job requirements.

Ethiopians are conservative in professional and casual attire. Although your counterparts'
resources are limited, they will present themselves in a professional way. You will be expected
to dress professionally and maintain a neat appearance. Volunteers are looked upon as role
models, and as such their appearance needs to be clean and neat and their clothes need to be
clean and mended.
Sexual mores in Ethiopia are very conservative and strict, and you are expected to respect
them. Public displays of romantic affection between members of the opposite sex are not
generally socially acceptable. Further information will be provided during your training on
appropriate and inappropriate sexual behavior.

Volunteers who are of an American racial, ethnic, or national minority or whose religious or
spiritual beliefs differ from the majority of their country of service may find they experience a
high degree of curiosity or unwanted attention from host country nationals. Please be aware
that American concepts of politeness and appropriate behavior are not universal. Ethnically,
nationally, or racially diverse Americans may be asked where they are actually from or if
they are really American. Many Volunteers have been able to turn these encounters into
 learning experiences, share their American values, and deepen local community members
understanding of Americans.

Learn more about the Volunteer experience inEthiopia: Get detailed information on culture,
communications, housing, and safety including crime statistics [PDF] in order to make a
well-informed decision about serving.

Medical Considerations in Ethiopia

Ethiopia may not be able to support Volunteers with the following medical conditions:
asthma, including mild and childhood; some types of gynecologic support; insulin-
dependent diabetes; mammography; ongoing behavioral health support; seizure disorder.

The following medication(s) are not permitted for legal or cultural reasons: Adderall, Ritalin
and Vyvanse.

Volunteers who should avoid the following food(s) may not be able to serve: none identified.

After arrival in Ethiopia, Peace Corps provides and applicants are required to have an annual
flu shot, to take daily or weekly medication to prevent malaria, and to receive mandatory
immunizations.

Before you apply, please also review Important Medical Information for Applicants [PDF] to
learn about other health conditions typically not supported in Peace Corps service.

Does this sound like the position for you?

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