CABI Technical Editor Jobs in Kenya

CABI Technical Editor Jobs in Kenya


Introduction

Agricultural extension and advisory services, and plant protection services are challenged in
many countries in Africa.

These challenges include inadequate financial resources, low staff coverage and capacity, weak pest and disease surveillance mechanisms and low priority
allocated to interventions in agriculture despite agriculture being touted as the backbone of
many of these economies.

In the past 10 years, the Eastern African countries of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, where
the Plantwise programme is being implemented have experienced occurrences of new pest invasions that not only caused huge losses in crop yield but have also increased cost of production for these crops..

These include maize lethal necrosis disease and fall armyworm in maize, tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta), potato cyst nematode, papaya mealybug on
pawpaw, Asian citrus psyllid in citrus and fruit flies affecting fruit crops.

Between the months of February and April 2018, a study was conducted to assess the role of Plantwise and the use of ICTs in pest detection and surveillance in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

Data collection was done through interviews with key informants in plant health in
partner countries utilizing the snowballing technique, with respondents selected for purposes
of providing information based on their knowledge and understanding of Plantwise in their respective countries, and their knowledge of the various plant health issues under investigation.

Among the key informants were the Plantwise country teams, staff from partner national research organizations, plant protection departments, plant health inspectorate services, plant doctors, and CABI staff knowledgeable about details for each
pest case.

The study involved:

  • Identification of cases where new pests or pest outbreaks had been identified in the PW partner countries
  • Collection of detailed information about the pest cases, through interviews with individuals that were involved from detection, identification, reporting, diagnosis, providing feedback and advisory services to farmers regarding the pests or pest
    outbreaks.
  • Developing a timeline of steps taken from detection to response to estimate the time
    taken from detection to identification.
  • Selected pests and diseases for assessment by country included maize lethal necrosis disease, tomato leaf miner and fall armyworm.
  • Although staff have narrated findings in a Plantwise report, support is sought to turn the
    findings into a technical working paper that is well supported by a thorough literature review.

    Scope of work

    The consultant will be expected to:

  • Read and review relevant documentation provided by CABI, including the protocol for
    the study, draft findings from the 3 countries and distil the key messages.
  • Interview key CABI staff based in Kenya to gather additional information
    and fill gaps.
  • This is expected to be from the consultant’s home base, so remotely or face-to-face, depending on location of consultant.

    Knowledge for Life

  • Undertake a rapid literature review on general surveillance, early detection and rapid
    response to pests to inform the working paper. CABI will provide the consultant with some key references.

    The review will cover:

  • How early detection takes place in other countries
  • Role of data to inform early detection and response to pest outbreaks
  • Role of data in general
  • Role of ICT

  • Draft narrative in an iterative manner and seek inputs from the Plantwise team Expected outputs
  • A working paper in the CABI working paper format that will be approximately 15 pages long.
  • The technical writer would be expected to be acknowledged as a technical writer, or included
    in the list of authors depending on their technical contribution Candidate profile

    The preferred candidate will have the following preferred skills:

  • Excellent technical writing skills, particularly technical papers on qualitative studies in
    agriculture and/or plant health systems
  • Experience in agriculture and/or plant health systems
  • Ability to support scientists to extract and articulate key messages from findings
    Knowledge and understanding of the Plantwise programme is preferred but not essential

    How to Apply

  • Interested individual consultants must submit a short letter explaining why you are the most
    suitable person for the work together with a quote giving daily rate and number of days to
    complete the task.
  • Consultants should note that the agreed amount would be fixed and payable only on completion of the task.

    In addition candidates should share the following documents/information alongside their proposals to demonstrate their qualifications:

  • Personal CV including past experience in similar tasks.
  • Three sample documents/reports from similar assignments worked on by the applicant as a consultant.

    How to apply

  • Interested consultants should send their submission letter, CV and sample documents to
    f.williams@cabi.org by CoB September 30th, 2018.
    It is expected that the assignment will be completed as soon as possible and request consultants to propose a deadline no later than 31st October for a final version, with intermediate drafts to be submitted earlier.

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