Header

ILRI Vacancy: Research Assistant – IBLI


Vacancy Number: RA/IBLI/12/12
Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI)
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: 2 -year contract renewable
General: 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 of the CGIAR Consortium. ILRI has campuses in Kenya (headquarters) and Ethiopia, with offices located in other regions of Africa (Mali, Mozambique, and Nigeria) as well as in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) and East Asia (China).www.ilri.org
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
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.  A comprehensive pilot has already been launched in Marsabit county of Northern  Kenya and Borana Zone of Southern Ethiopia.  The IBLI project (www.ilri.org/ibli) conducts two annual socio-economic household surveys in Northern Kenya (924 households) and Southern Ethiopia (515 households) and several other specialized modules throughout years.  The successful candidate will play a central role in preparing logistics and supervising these socio-economic surveys largely in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. He or she will also support other IBLI team members and commercial partners for IBLI Sale and Indemnity payout activities.
Key Responsibilities:
  • Prepare logistics for the effective and efficient implementation of large scale socio-economic household surveys and manage the full range of activities related to the planning, implementation, and quality control of the surveys.
  • Manage and supervise focus group surveys, quick participatory appraisals, and field-level stakeholder consultations.
  • Maintain cattle GPS collars and obtain GPS data for herd migration studies
  • Support IBLI team in designing  socio-economic household surveys and focus group discussions
  • Support IBLI tem in conducting with commercial partners for IBLI sale and Indemnity payout activities
Skills and Competencies:
  • At least 2 years of field –oriented research experience in pastoral areas and a degree in agricultural economics, sociology, natural resource management, or any other relevant fields.  Masters degree is an added advantage.
  • Experience of preparing logistics of large scale socio-economic household surveys including recruiting and training enumerators, developing sample frame, and implementing and supervising the surveys.]
  • Experience of identifying and solving problems in field operation and ability and willingness to play a leadership role.
  • Ability to communicate and coordinate with multidisciplinary teams enumerators, commercial partners, and local stakeholders.
  • Ability to prepare budgets and keep and report financial records for field activities.
  • Ability to write plans and logistics before field activities and reports after field activities.
  • Ability to maintain and secure electronic files and data and the various assets required for field activities such as laptops and GPS machines.
  • Experience with computer assisted survey software and GIS software is an added advantage
Terms of Appointment: This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based ILRI’s Nairobi campus. The position is on a 2- year contract renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funding.
Job level and salary: This position is job level 2C with a starting gross salary of KES128,349 per month. The benefit package includes pension, medical and other insurances within ILRI’s Nationally Recruited Staff Scheme.
Location: The position will be based at the ILRI campus Nairobi,Kenya.
Applicants should send a cover letter and CV combined as one document 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 by 25th January, 2013. Log on to:  http://www.myjobsinkenya.com/ilri_jobs to apply.
The position title and reference number REF: IBLI/RA/12/12 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the email application.  Only online applications will be considered, an d only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
To find out more about ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org