COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Job Title: Community Development Officer

Location: KaKholwane office

Reporting to: Agriculture Specialist

PROJECT BACKGROUND (The same SAPEMP project background as above, including synergy with EYEOP.)

OBJECTIVE The Community Development Officer (CDO)’s main objectives include the following:

• coordination, community mobilization, conduct training for transformation and capacity building of the communities, business groups, clusters, and community structures.
• Developing, reviewing and documentation of chiefdom development plans, working closely with MTAD to facilitate skills development to ensure sustainable development of project investments.

MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Coordinate the mobilization of community leaders, authorities and entire community members on SAPEMP and liaise with the relevant partners, including EYEOP to ensure targeting project beneficiaries.
• Work with MTAD in the developing, reviewing and documentation of chiefdom development plans.
• Facilitate training for transformation (involving group formation and dynamics, conflict management, communication and leadership, and participatory gender-transformative approaches such as GALS) for communities, community groups, clusters and establishment of community institutions and proper communication structures in partnership with EYEOP to strengthen youth-led enterprises.
• Ensure that the project activities are implemented in an integrated manner and the beneficiary selection criteria is inclusive of target groups making sure women, youth and vulnerable groups are represented.
• Support the integration of gender, nutrition-sensitive programming, environmental approaches, and climate/livelihood resilience strategies in the strengthening of community institutions.
• Conduct targeting activities and identify food deficit poor households to participate in food and nutrition security interventions, conservation agriculture and permaculture gardening, and climate-resilient livelihoods interventions through collaboration with the Community Development Committees (CDCs), MTAD, DPMO and MoA extension staff.
• Mobilize and organize smallholder farmers into functional groups and build trust and collaboration between the groups, community development committees, traditional leaders and local authorities.
• Attend to grievances arising amongst project participants, stakeholders and have capacity to manage conflicts within the project area.
• Coordinate with community development committees and other stakeholders to harmonize community interventions and strengthen collaborations that will enhance the sustainability of community-led initiatives through joint targeting and youth beneficiary selection that utilizes the SAPEMP cluster mapping and EYEOP social registry to identify eligible youth.
• Ensure that SAPEMP-identified youth in clusters are included in final list of youth to be enrolled for EYEOP training programs.
• Support EYEOP value chain alignment and assessments for vegetables and legumes.
• Participate in joint selection committees to validate selected youth readiness for EYEOP foundational support.
• Coordinate the establishment and capacity building of Community-based Natural Resources Management Committees.
• Participate in review meetings, evaluations and community reflection sessions to gather feedback from beneficiaries through the Grievance Redress Mechanism to improve project delivery and responsiveness.
• Provide technical mentorship, ongoing coaching and post-financing monitoring to youth beneficiaries and local community facilitators, including those supported under EYEOP to ensure sustainability of youth enterprises and local community facilitators and strengthened local capacity.
• Support monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) activities at the community level, including data collection, analysis, reporting, and providing adaptive management recommendations to the PMU.
• Prepare periodic progress reports, training reports and share lessons learned for knowledge sharing documentation.
• Documentation of all project interventions and reporting from the communities to the M&E framework of the project.
• Collects, verifies, and documents all in-kind contributions from project stakeholders, including government at community level and community beneficiaries, ensuring accurate recording, transparency, and compliance with IFAD in-kind contribution guidelines.
• Coordinates with community structures and government partners to mobilize and track in-kind contributions.

QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE

• University degree in social sciences, Agriculture, Community Development, Social Work, Sociology or Anthropology, Rural Development, Development Studies or Humanitarian Studies or a related field in rural community development.
• Postgraduate qualifications in Community Development, Rural Development, or Gender Studies are an advantage.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in community development and empowerment.
• Experience in gender mainstreaming at project and institutional level including participatory gender-transformative approaches (e.g., GALS).
• Experience in participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methodologies.
• Experience in design of training material and delivery of such trainings.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) for community-level interventions.
• Knowledge of rural agricultural value chains and smallholder livelihoods is highly desirable.
• Strong facilitation and training skills.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Proven ability to work with stakeholders and as a team member.
• Excellent computer skills.

MODE AND DURATION OF CONTRACT

• 1 year contract with a probation period of three months. The annual contract will be extendable based on satisfactory performance.

CLOSING DATE AND APPLICATIONS

Applications must be addressed to

The Human Resources Manager

The Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (EWADE)

Siphofaneni and emailed to recruitment@ewade.co.sz.

All applications must be submitted not later than Monday, 13th April 2026.

Applications should be accompanied by the following: a) a cover letter stating the position that you want to be considered for, and describing how your qualifications, experience, and competencies are relevant to the position. b) Not more than five (5) pages updated curriculum vitae; and c) certified copies of your degree(s), Diploma(s) and Certificate(s)

N.B. Please note that applications received after the above-mentioned closing date will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, and any personal representations made will be considered as intimidation tactics; as such, the candidate responsible will be disqualified immediately from the recruitment process.

For further details on EWADE and the position that you want to apply for, refer to the EWADE Website: www.ewade.co.sz