The Position: The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) seeks to recruit Research Officer II –Agricultural Innovation System for provision of ILSSI Project Leader and other PLs at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia office.

General: The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit international research organization, serving a global mandate to improve management of water and land for food, livelihoods and nature. IWMI headquarters is located in Colombo, Sri Lanka and one of its sub-regional office is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. IWMI is one of the 15 research centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Job Purpose: Under the leadership of the Country Representative and Project Leader based in Ghana, the Research Officer will initiate, provide suggestions for, and monitor the small-scale irrigations (SSI) scaling partnership to promote private and public sector’s investments and interventions in Ethiopia as part of the ILSSI project.  While approximately 75% of time the post holder will work on the ILSSI project, s/he will also provide research support for other activities, including working on the GCRF Water Security Hub and the Smart Agricultural Water Use for Sahelian Wetlands projects.

Key Responsibilities:

Support research on scaling and partnership activities for small-scale irrigation (SSI).

Activities include:

• Conducting field data collection, secondary data collection, literature synthesis, interviews and other forms of research activities
• Analyzing data and drafting scientific publications, policy briefs and technical reports in the areas of private and public sector’s SSI scaling interventions
• Conducting SSI stakeholder analysis and mapping, market margin assessment along SSI scaling pathways, and identification of blocking and enabling mechanisms to SSI scaling    
• Facilitating the collaboration among partners and researchers to pilot joint data collection and analysis, and monitoring and evaluating of SSI scaling pathways to document and present lessons learned to sustainably and equitably incentivize uptake
• Identifying partnerships, policies and institutional requirements for testing approaches, technologies and investment propositions that have strong scaling potential
• Facilitating, coordinating and performing outreach of SSI scaling partnerships
• Under direction of the project leaders, overseeing the development of SSI scaling pilots and partnerships in Ethiopia, researchers and external partners
• Building and maintaining SSI scaling dialogue platforms and processes with national and regional stakeholders and research partners, including the private sector
• Carrying out other project and research related activities as required.

Minimum Requirements:

Education:

• Master’s degree in Human Geography, Sociology, Development Economics, or closely related field relevant to Water Resources Management, Agricultural Development and Agricultural innovation systems and scaling, or similar.

Skills:                 

Essential:

• Ability to facilitate and coordinate multi-stakeholder partnerships in agri-business and irrigation, and gender and youth inclusion issues in Ethiopia.
• Ability to and maintain strong external partnerships and alliances in complex institutional environments, including the private sector.
• Ability to apply technical, economic and institutional reasoning to innovation scaling and policy issues in a critical manner
• Proven ability to work collaboratively and effectively with academic and non-academic stakeholders.
• Open mindset and ability to learn
• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work in a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional and multicultural environment.
• Excellent communication skills in English and the ability to explain complex issues clearly.
• Fluent written and verbal communication skills in English and Amharic.

Desirable

• Experience in conducting research with private sector actors and investment in agriculture
• Fluency in other Ethiopian languages

Experience:

• At least five years relevant work experience, preferably in areas such as scaling of agricultural innovation, and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues and/or innovation platforms.
• Experience in transforming research into knowledge products for outreach and impact in Ethiopia and wider forms of development policy and practice influence.
• Proven track record in communicating research findings in international conferences and other platforms.

Duty Station: Addis Ababa

Job Grade: HG 14

Monthly Base Salary: Birr 43,956 (Negotiable depending on salary history of the candidate)

Terms of appointment:  This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position, initial appointment is for two years. The ILRI/IWMI remuneration package for nationally recruited staff in Ethiopia includes very competitive salary and benefits such as life and medical insurance, offshore pension plan, etc. The ILRI campus is set in a secure, attractive campus on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Dining and sports facilities are located on site. 

Applications: Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. The position and reference number: REF: RO-AIS/63/19 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 3 January 2020.

To find more about IWMI, visit our Website at http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org/      

Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.