ILRI-DAAD PhD Scholarship: More milk in Tanzania , 2014

Reference Number: PHDIBA/DAAD/05/2014
Location: Dar es Salam/ Morogoro (Tanzania)
Duration: 3 years

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. 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.

DAAD is a German Academic Exchange service which is a publicly funded, self-governing organization of the institutions of higher education in Germany. DAAD promotes international academic exchange as well as educational co-operation with developing countries through a variety of funding and scholarship programs.

ILRI Research Project: More milk in Tanzania (MoreMilkiT) – Adapting dairy market hubs for pro-poor Smallholder value chains in Tanzania (a 'Maziwa Zaidi' project)

The MoreMIlkiT project aims to achieve inclusive growth and reduced poverty and vulnerability among people with dairy-dependent livelihoods in selected rural areas in Tanzania. Rural poor are expected to secure more income through enhanced access to demand-led dairy market business services and viable organizational options.

Graduate Fellowship Project Title: Development of an on-farm dairy sustainability assessment tool

The Position: The Fellow will be part of ILRI's Maziwa Zaidi project team in Tanzania, working on smallholder dairy systems and based at the ILRI office in Dar-es-Salam or Morogoro. S/he will report to the project's Agricultural Economist. The position will also involve close collaboration with the Livestock and Fish CRP team as well as the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project based in Mbeya (Tanzania).

Responsibilities:

• Work with a team of scientists to develop, test, monitor and refine a set of tools at farm and producers organizations levels to assess dairy sustainability, in term of economic, social and environmental dimensions.
• Identify the indicators of farm sustainability for smallholder dairy farmers in East Africa.
• Examine the relationships between the indicators available at producers organisations (using the EADD Stage Gate tool for example) and those available at farm level.
• Use data/ evidence to write his/her PhD thesis and publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals.

Essential Skills and Qualifications will include:

• Holder of a Masters degree in Extension or Animal Science or related discipline from a recognized university.
• Practical experiences in field surveys design and collecting household data and willingness to travel extensively within East Africa.
• Previous experience working with Producers Organizations and Smallholders dairy farmers.
• Familiarity designing Producers Organizations and farm level decision-making tools.
• Good writing skills demonstrated through research reports and journal publications.
• An effective and energetic team player with the ability to work in a multidisciplinary and multi-cultural environment.
• Excellent oral communication and writing skills in English and Kiswahili.
• Ability to work independently, multi-task and work and meet tight deadlines.
• Have completed their last degree less than 6 years ago at the time of application.
• Must be nationals of a Sub-Saharan African Country. Please note that it is not possible to apply for studies in your home country.

Terms of appointment: ILRI will offer a competitive stipend to cover living expenses in the project location(s). The successful candidate will be supervised jointly by an ILRI scientist and the university supervisor.

How to apply:

Interested applicants should submit the following documents;

• A cover letter explaining your interest in the position, what you can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about your professional qualifications and work experience. The position title and reference number:PHDIBA/DAAD/05/2014 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter.
• Curriculum Vitae without photograph; please use the europass CV template athttp://europass.cedefop.europa.eu.
• Certified copies of all university degree certificates.
• Certified copies of all university transcripts.
• Detailed and precise description of the research project (incl. working plan and time schedule until graduation). The proposal has to be in line with the above outlined ILRI's research projects.
• At least temporary admission letter from the host institution.
• Declaration of acceptance from academic/university supervisor.
• Recommendation letter by the affiliate university head of department.
• Proof of employment with certification that you receive an unpaid leave (where applicable).

Applications: All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com by the deadline of 10 June 2014

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

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

Suitably qualified women and citizens of developing countries, with experience of working internationally, are particularly encouraged to apply.