Country Coordinator, Ethiopia (Closing 20 January 2014)

ILRI seeks to recruit a Country Coordinator, Ethiopia to lead the implementation of N2Africa activities in Ethiopia. The incumbent will assemble all project partners towards the development of mutually agreed upon work plans, monitor their implementation, ensure technical and financial reporting is completed in line with project requirements, and facilitate partnerships with the science and development community towards delivery of N2Africa products at scale. Because of the ‘federal’ organization of the second phase of the project, Country Coordinators need to be creative in ensuring that the project works effectively within their country whilst maintaining standard protocols to allow cross-comparison across countries. The successful candidate will report to a senior scientist at ILRI’s Addis Ababa campus.

The Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder Farmers in Africa Project is led by Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The project will deploy state-of-the-art legume and rhizobial inoculant technologies to assist African smallholder farmers to enhance inputs of free atmospheric nitrogen by biological nitrogen fixation, thereby improving legume productivity, human nutrition and farm income, while enhancing soil health. In its second phase, the project will put a major emphasis on (i) institutionalizing N2Africa technologies, approaches, and expertise and (ii) fostering sustainability of the various components addressed by N2Africa, including seed, inoculant, and fertilizer supply chains, access to profitable legume markets, and knowledge transfer. The project will primarily work in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia (with a limited range of activities in DR Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique. www.n2africa.org

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to enhance the roles livestock play in pathways out of poverty in developing countries. ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a global research partnership of 15 centres working with many partners for a food-secure future. ILRI has two main campuses in East Africa and other hubs in East, West and southern Africa and South, Southeast and East Asia. www.ilri.org

The Centre’s headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, and research is conducted in 31 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We are supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and receive funding from over 50 different donors.

CGIAR is a global agricultural research partnership 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. www.cgiar.org

Responsibilities:

• Lead the implementation of all project activities in Ethiopia
• Constitute in-country teams with the required expertise for specific action plans
• Facilitate partnerships with dissemination and market partners
• Lead technical and financial reporting to the project leadership
• Oversee the science of N2Africa within the country
• Represent N2Africa within the country to various stakeholder groups
• Engage with the M&E specialist to ensure that M&E tools are administered in a timely manner
• Engage with the Senior Business Development Officer to explore opportunities for partnerships for developing input and output market for the target legumes
• Participate in and/or organize technical meetings, conference calls and consultations of experts from stakeholder and partner organizations as required in liaison with the Project Coordinator as required.
• Facilitate the institutionalization of N2Africa into a national system
• Co – supervise MSc and PhD projects.

Requirements:

• PhD in agronomy, soil microbiology, or a related field and have demonstrated expertise (at least 5 years) in research for/or development within African smallholder farming systems.
• Proven expertise with facilitating networks of partners across the research to development continuum.
• Excellent knowledge of legume agronomy and the role legumes play in relation to rural livelihoods.
• Excellent knowledge of the essential components and bottlenecks in legume input supply and output market value chains.
• Ability to manage own workload without close supervision and work independently, making decisions and solving problems on routine and complex issues.
• Ability to work effectively in a dynamic team environment, in a flexible office environment with periods of high pressure activity.
• Team player with personality traits that enable him/her to motivate and communicate with all levels of professional and support staff.
• Reputation of integrity, creativity and the ability to exercise good judgment.
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to establish rapport and credibility with people at all organizational levels, forming strong relationships, both internally and externally.
• Committed to transparency and continuous improvement in a cooperative atmosphere of constructive evaluation and learning.
• Willingness to travel extensively.
• Excellent spoken and written English.

Position level: 4C level 1 scientist. Base salary starting at USD 45,000 per annum dependent on qualifications and experience.

Post location: The position will be based at ILRI’s Principal Campus in Addis Ababa.

Duration: 3 years with the possibility of renewal contingent upon individual performance and funding.        

Terms of appointment: ILRI offers a competitive international and salary and benefits package which includes 15% Pension, Medical insurance, Life insurance and allowances for: Education, Housing, Relocation, Home leave, Annual holiday entitlement of 30 days + public holidays.

*Benefits and salary are tax free subject to compliance with tax regulations of country of citizenship.

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 title and reference number: REF: CC/N2AP/12/13 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 20^thJanuary 2014.