ILRI Research Officer - Market Intelligence Jobs in Kenya
ILRI Research Officer - Market Intelligence Jobs in Kenya
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Research Officer II - Market Intelligence on behalf of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to support the team in implementing mixed methods approaches to generate and validate market and behavioral intelligence to inform the design of product profiles while engaging with multiple stakeholders.
ILRI works to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock. It is the only one of 15 CGIAR research centres dedicated entirely to animal agriculture research for the developing world. Co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, it has regional or country offices and projects in East, South and Southeast Asia as well as Central, East, Southern and West Africa. www.ilri.org
ILRI hosts the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Nairobi (www.irri.org) with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna in the Philippines. IRRI aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure environmental sustainability of rice farming.
Background
Existing market intelligence used by the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) breeding programs is limited, fragmented and commodity-specific. Moreover, needs of women, indigenous people and minority groups are usually not adequately captured.
Consequently, varietal turnover has been slow partly because products have not met client requirements as investment decisions were mainly informed by supply-side considerations. The new Market Intelligence and Product Profiling Initiative (MIPPI) is a multi-institutional initiative designed to become the priority setting unit of the Genetic Innovation (GI) Action Area of the One CGIAR.
Market intelligence shortens the adoption lag and increases adoption levels as new varieties are targeted to specific market segments. This leads to faster and more complete replacement of existing varieties and accelerated varietal turnover. In turn, development of these new improved varieties with producer and consumer demanded traits improves livelihoods and food security. GI breeding efforts cover not only rice but also 23 other food and fodder crops.
Under the minimum supervision of the team, the Assistant Scientist will support in designing and conducting research studies related to the Bill and Melinda Gates’ (BMGF)-funded Accelerated Genetic Gain in Rice Alliance (AGGRi) project’s Primary Outcome 2 (PO2), that is, the BMGF-AGGRi PO2 on product profiling, and the CGIAR MIPPI as well as communicating the combined outcomes.
The incumbent will support the team in implementing mixed methods approaches to generate and validate market and behavioral intelligence to inform the design of product profiles while engaging with multiple stakeholders across GI’s 24 priority food and fodder crops. Overall, this position will contribute to achieving four primary outcomes of MIPPI in:
Empowering transdisciplinary teams across CGIAR and partners in the co-implementation of market and behavioral intelligence,
Encouraging CGIAR and partners to adopt institutional standards in the co-design of product profiles, the sharing of market and behavioral intelligence as well as monitoring of outcomes,
Supporting strategic decision making by seed industry, food industry and NGOs, and,
Supporting research leaders and investors in market and
behavioral intelligent investment decision making.
Key responsibilities
Purpose
Support in identifying stakeholders’ current and future drivers of demand for crops, seeds and traits, and variation of demand according to gender, age and social groups, farmer types, agro-industry production requirements as well as consumer preferences
Contribute in describing prioritized product market segments through reviewing and synthesizing sets of maps, articles and reports that describe prioritized market segments, to enable market intelligence for design of gender-intentional product profiles
Support in characterizing varietal demand to enable market intelligence for design of seed system strategies. This will be through reviewing regional and crop specific bulletins, reports and articles on demand and supply for seed, among other methodologies
Engagement
Contribute to collaborative engagement on methods and tool design to ensure comparability of results across crops and regions, not only in Africa but also globally
Contribute to the strengthening the technical capacity of One CGIAR and its partners to use advanced tools and methods that convert global and regional challenges into regional impact opportunities for GI
Support in initiating institutional change process by building regional, transdisciplinary CGIAR-NARES-SME teams
Organize regular meetings with partners and stakeholders to discuss, streamline and implement activities
Support in the development and communication of guidelines to internal and external stakeholders to bolster a collaborative implementation of AGGRi PO2 and MIPPI activities
Delivery
Identify resource persons and ensure the logistics are appropriate for defined purposes and engagement tasks
Support in the verification of suggested methodologies and activities as well as draft training materials using both primary and secondary data sources
Establish and maintain strong communication with both AGGRi PO2 and MIPPI’s partners
Implement activities geared towards common framework by the identification and description of product market segments, gender disaggregated assessment of needs and preferences for traits as well as prioritization of product market segments across regions and crops for scalability
Provide inputs into activities geared to inform prioritization via foresight market intelligence analyses
Perform any other relevant duties as assigned by supervisor from time to time
Requirements
Master’s in social sciences, preferred disciplines include agricultural and resource economics, sociology, environmental geography, development studies, or any other discipline that provides suitable advanced knowledge
At least five years progressive experience in agri-food systems research using mixed methods.
Demonstrated ability to perform in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment and team.
Excellent analytical, prioritization and organizational skills.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills
Excellent verbal and written English language skills.
Experience in identifying, setting up and maintaining multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Experience working in developing countries in Africa and Asia.
How to Apply
For more information and job application details, see; ILRI Research Officer - Market Intelligence Jobs in Kenya
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