ILRI -Research Officer – IBLI

Vacancy Number: RO/PGI/IBLI/06/11
Department: Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI)
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: two years with the possibility of renewal

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality livestock science, communications and capacity building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development. ILRI is one of 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ILRI has campuses in Kenya (headquarters) and Ethiopia, with other offices located in other regions of Africa (Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria) as well as in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Laos, Thailand, Vietnam) and East Asia (China).

This position would be part of the team developing, piloting, assessing the impact of, and scaling-up index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) products. A comprehensive pilot has already been launched in Marsabit district of Northern Kenya and research into its implementation in Southern Ethiopia has already begun (see, www.ilri.org/ibli). The successful applicant will play a central role in managing and coordinating the research operations for the team. The IBLI project conducts two large annual household surveys in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia and several other specialized modules throughout the year. It also utilizes a suite of remotely sensed data. This position involves coordinating and supervising the implementation of these surveys and will be expected to contribute to survey and research design as well as data analysis This position also entails overseeing data cleaning and storage, writing reports based on analyzed data and contributing to research papers.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design of the IBLI research for development agenda (survey instruments, implementation strategy, implementation, data collection and analysis).
• Oversee management of project data: data cleaning and storage, data inventory, data analysis, data mapping.
• Prepare comprehensive survey codebooks that fully describe the survey design, data collection methods, cleaning and inventory process.
• Prepare research reports analyzing and summarizing data.
• Communicate and disseminate research findings which should include participation in meetings and workshops, giving periodic presentations to participating institutions, and communicating to policy makers through web and popular media.
• Contribute to help strengthen existing partnerships and build new and innovative research partnerships.

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Requirements

• A Masters in Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Statistics, Rural Development or other relevant discipline
• Minimum of 6 years experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis; experience must involve both field work and survey implementation as well as data analysis and report writing.
• Sound knowledge and experience of STATA, a statistical software package.
• Demonstrated experience with data management and relevant applications.
• Knowledge and experience of GIS and related remote sensing applications is a huge plus.
• Knowledge and experience of programming language such as Fortran 90 is also beneficial.

Terms of appointment: This is Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based at ILRI’s Nairobi campus and is on initial 2 year contract renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funding. Salary and benefits will be in line with those provided within ILRI’s NRS scheme.

Job level and salary: This position is job level 3A and starting salary is KES 164,833 per month. This is exclusive of other benefits provided by ILRI.

Applications addressed to the Human Resources Director, a cover letter, curriculum vitae and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience should be emailed to: recruit-ilri-Ken@cgiar.org by 8 July 2011.

The position title and reference number “RO/PGI/IBLI/06/11” should be clearly marked on the subject line of the email applications.

To find more about ILRI, visit our Website at www.ilri.org