ILRI Market and Capacity Development Specialist

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to enhance the roles that livestock plays in pathways out of poverty in developing countries.  ILRI has two main campuses in East Africa and other hubs in East, West and Southern Africa and South, Southeast and East Asia. 
http://www.ilri.org/

ILRI is a member of CGIAR, a global agricultural research partnership working for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 research centres that are members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. 
http://www.cgiar.org/

The Position

This position would be part of the team developing, piloting, assessing the impact of, and scaling-up index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) products.

Given the recent IBLI strategy revision that emphasizes the efforts necessary to develop the capacities of institutions and services to improve market effectiveness, to catalyze informed demand, and to ensure the sustainability of the IBLI industry in the course of the project’s second four year phase, the responsibilities for the current IBLI Program have necessarily grown. The considerable increase in their mandate resulting from a required scaling from one pilot District (Marsabit) to at least seven counties in Northern Kenya, we are also supplementing the team to include one more staff, as the Market and Capacity Development Specialist.

Key responsibilities:

1. Partnership and stakeholder engagement:

• Identification and coordination of technical, implementing and commercial partners to interesting and capable of playing a key role in a relevant node along the IBLI market chain.
• Developing and/or enhancing institutions for more cost-effective delivery of IBLI services (sales provision, information dissemination, extension and indemnity payments) and building their capacity.
• Engaging government agencies and new County government structure to leverage implementation and offer regulatory support.
• Contributions to relevant policy-making and regulations in the agricultural insurance space.
• Support in the identification and coordination of technical partners who will announce and verify the index.
• Support project partners in Marsabit and the scaling out sites in implementation of the project in activities such as identification of extension and sales staff and community engagement 

2. Project implementation support:

• Oversee the planning and actual implementation of the project in the field
• Set up the commercial partners for implementation; building delivery channels and linking them to the IBLI ICT based transactions platform.
• Support the commercial partners in the development of marketing and publicity materials, sales plans etc.
• Support implementation partners with the execution of their various agreed roles.
• Drawing up relevant Memoranda of Understanding or other documents clearly specifying the roles and responsibilities of the various partners etc.
• Documentation of the implementation process, the challenges and the lessons learnt
• Contribute to the development of project reports for donors and other partners.
• Contribute to the development of proposals to advance the teams agenda. 

3. Capacity Development:

• Support in the development of a range of curriculums for targeted IBLI training relevant to a range of stakeholders and functions.
• Lead in the training of commercial partners on IBLI
• Support in the training of technical partners and policy makers
• Support on the ground training of insurance company staff. 

4. Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Development of a Monitoring and evaluation framework for IBLI
• Support in monitoring and evaluating the projects in the field
• M&E documentation and reporting 

5. Fund raising:

• Support in the development of proposals for funding IBLI’s market and capacity development agenda 

Requirements

• Master Degree in Business Administration, Program Management, or a relevant Social studies (e.g. economics, agricultural economics, agricultural extension and education) from a recognized university
• At least 4 years relevant experience in project management and implementation of innovative projects
• Experience with training, extension provision and implementation of development projects at community level
• Previous experience in and demonstrated ability to maintain good relations with project partners and stakeholders.
• Experience in proposal writing and previous success in winning grants
• Knowledge in livestock and familiarity with arid land issues
• Good presentation and oral/ written communication skills
• Creative and dynamic person who can operate both individual and as part of a team.

Terms of Appointment

This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based at ILRI’s Nairobi campus.  The position is on a 2 year contract with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and continued funding.

Job level and salary

This position is in job Grade 3A with an attractive salary and benefits package.

Location: The position will be based at the ILRI, Nairobi.

How to Apply

Applicants should send a cover letter and CV combined as one document addressed to the Human Resources Director, explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience. Applications should be submitted online to the Human Resources Director at our recruitment portal: 
http://ilri.simplicant.com/job/boardon or before 5 July 2013. The position title and reference number REF: MCDS/IBLI/06/13 should be clearly marked on the cover letter. Only online applications will be considered, and only short listed candidates will be contacted.

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