ILRI Vacancy: Regional Coordinator

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Regional Coordinator (RC) to provide the Livestock Systems Innovation Lab (LSIL) programmatic, operational and logistical support in the LSIL focus countries including Ethiopia.

General: 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.

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 (Mali, Mozambique and Nigeria) and in South Asia (India and Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Laos, Thailand and Vietnam) and East Asia (China). www.ilri.org.

The vision of the Livestock Systems Innovation Lab (LSIL) is to intensify sustainably smallholder livestock systems through groundbreaking research, technology application, significant capacity building, and co-production of knowledge in order to increase productivity and incomes and improve nutrition and food safety. This vision will be achieved with country-focused research programs with priorities set in a gender-informed, participatory manner with key local and national stakeholders (producers, traders, processors, national research and extension systems, government ministries and development partners) to address the complex interactions among livestock, human, and environmental systems.

The objectives of the LSIL will be to achieve measurable and sustainable improvements in livestock productivity as well as incomes and nutrition of livestock holders through appropriate improved technologies, capacity building, and policies. Additional objectives include increasing the resilience of vulnerable populations; reducing the environmental impact of livestock systems; and advancing understanding of evolving livestock systems and their roles in food security, nutrition, and health. 

The Regional Coordinator will be working for the "Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems", which is led by the University of Florida (UF) in partnership with ILRI. With a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly women, the US government's Feed the Future initiative supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth and trade that increase incomes and reduces hunger, poverty and under nutrition.

Main duties & responsibilities:

• Facilitate and support prioritization of research and capacity building activities for Ethiopia, ensuring responsiveness, realism, and added value;
• Develop stakeholder platforms ("innovation platforms") in Ethiopia and possibly at sub-national level, including considering linkages to and learning lessons from other innovation platforms. Ensure broad membership (policy, research, development and education; different disciplines, including the cross-cutting concerns; representation of local, national and regional concerns) and buy-in by partners, and organize annual platform meetings to facilitate review of research progress and results by the country and regional stakeholders;
• Facilitate contacts between country and regional stakeholders and the LSIL Management Entity (ME) at UF, sub-awardees and others affiliated with the Innovation Lab, to ensure successful missions and research. Support and accompany missions as requested;
• Continually assess stakeholder priorities and concerns as well as the evolving research-development agenda and propose future directions, modifications and contributions of the Innovation Lab;
• Working with the Innovation Lab Director, respond to the requests of the USAID Missions and represent the Innovation Lab in USAID, country and regional meetings, as requested;
• Participate in the weekly meetings of the ME, bimonthly meetings of the IAC, quarterly meetings of the IAC and annual regional and global meetings of the Innovation Lab;
• Review country work plans and biannual and annual reports, performance indicator reports and environmental reports;
• Support processes of Monitoring and Evaluation, including environmental compliance, mitigation, and monitoring. Conduct monitoring visits as requested;
• With the Communications Specialist, develop and or support the development of effective and regionally-appropriate communication materials for the Livestock Systems Innovation Lab and develop specific knowledge generation, submission, and translation plans with sub-awardees prior to initiation of and during the research and/or HICD activities;
• Working with the Deputy Director and the Communications Specialist, ensure seamless capture of data and knowledge arising from various projects for subsequent dissemination to all stakeholders and that messages reach a wide group of stakeholders in a culturally sensitive manner.

Minimum Requirement:

Education:

• Masters's degree in Animal Science, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture or Business Management

Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant work experience

• Livestock or agriculture research experience, with a demonstrated record of publications
• Experience in management of agricultural research and/or development projects in developing countries
• Experience with project monitoring and evaluation systems and tools and results based management
• Experience in management of partnerships

Skills:

• Good facilitation skills,
• Excellent communication skills both spoken and written English,
• Willingness to travel frequently, sometime to rural settings,
• High level of cultural sensitivity to understand the needs of all staff and partners,
• High level of responsibility and discretion and ability to work under pressure.

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

Job level:   4A. 

Monthly Base Salary: Birr 50,330 (Negotiable depending on experience, skill and salary history of the candidate)

Terms of appointment:  This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position, initial appointment is for three years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and the availability of funding. The ILRI remuneration package for nationally recruited staff in Ethiopia includes very competitive salary and benefits such as life and medical insurance, offshore pension plan, etc.

The ILRI campus is set in a secure, attractive campus with dining and sports facilities that are located on site. 

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 and reference number: REF: RC/15/16should 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 24 March 2016.