2016 ILRI MSc Graduate Fellowship – Kenya

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a an MSc graduate fellow to implement FEAST training assessment; which will further enhance ILRI’s contribution to the capacity development and learning aspects of several of its CGIAR Research Programs (CRP) and programs.

ILRI works with partners worldwide to enhance the roles that livestock play in food security and poverty alleviation, principally in Africa and Asia. The outcomes of these research partnerships help people in developing countries keep their farm animals alive and productive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, find profitable markets for their animal products and reduce the risk of livestock-related diseases. www.ilri.org

ILRI is a not-for-profit institution with a staff of about 700 and in 2016 an annual operating budget of USD 83 million. A member of the CGIAR Consortium working for a food-secure future, ILRI has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, a principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and offices in other countries in East, West and Southern Africa and in South, Southeast and East Asia. www.cgiar.org

Project: Implementing Training Assessment for Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST)

The Position

The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) is a simple, participatory approach to introducing feed interventions which ensures that the right conversation takes place between feed experts and livestock keepers to develop better feeding strategies. FEAST was initially developed as collaboration between ILRI and CIAT. The tool has evolved over the past 7 years and has been improved extensively through use in real situations across the developing world. The tool has attracted a lot of interest and is being used in over a dozen countries.

To enhance the effectiveness of FEAST as a method for introducing promising feed interventions, a series of training materials were produced by ILRI and partners through the Humidtropics Programme. These materials include 12 training modules (complete with detailed lesson plans), 60 videos, 5 scenario-based interactive exercises and over 200 review and assessment questions.  These materials were recently made available publically onhttp://learning.ilri.org/course/detail/1 and on a dedicated ‘offline player’ for regions without good internet connectivity.

In the current project we will road-test the new training materials in different modes and assess the extent to which the use of FEAST influences feed enhancement approaches and the knowledge of those involved in applying the approaches. This will be achieved by tracking use of the tool in a systematic study in Kenya and applying simple before and after assessments of knowledge and practices of users to assess the utility of FEAST and associated learning materials.

We seek a dynamic MSc graduate fellow with suitable experience to implement the study.

Responsibilities

• Refining a simple participant survey to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of FEAST trainers.
• Supporting trainers as they complete online and face-to-face FEAST training.
• Applying a post-hoc assessment of the impact of FEAST on knowledge, attitudes and practices of trainers through a repeat participant survey.
• Collating data from participant surveys and producing a report on changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices.

Requirements:

• Be a current student at MSc (or equivalent degree level) in Education, Communication, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or other related fields.
• Able to use this assignment to complete an academic requirement of the MSc degree.
• Having completed course work requirements of an MSc programme in one of the above fields before starting research at ILRI is a plus.
• Prior knowledge and experience in the disciplinary area, e.g. instructional design  / learning systems / education & training  / social science – with experience working in developing countries.
• Familiarity with aspects of livestock production, and/or agricultural systems in developing countries a plus.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills. Facilitation, presentation, and/or publication experience a plus.

Terms of appointment and stipend:

The successful candidate will be supervised jointly by an ILRI scientist and the fellow’s university supervisor, and will have the opportunity to interact with scientists at other universities, CGIAR centres, and NGOs, to further develop her/his research programme.

ILRI will provide the fellow a monthly stipend of US$1000 to support personal expenses. Additionally, ILRI will meet the costs of research related travel, as well as medical insurance.

Duration: 4 months (March-June 2016).

Location: Kenya (Nairobi) or remotely from the student’s university (negotiable) with travel to Kenya.

How to apply: Interested applicants should submit the following documents;

• Curriculum Vitae including three references with contact information.
• A cover letter describing the candidate’s interests in and qualifications for carrying out the research, referring to the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae as fitting, and highlighting any particularly relevant qualifications.

The position title and reference number: IDS/CDU/01/2016 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 , screening of applications will start on 15 February 2016 until the position is filled

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

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