ILRI - DAAD PhD Graduate fellowship: Leveraging Digital Technology for Crowdsourcing and Dissemination of Information to Improve Market Linkages in Drylands of Kenya at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Job description

The Position

The position will involve investigating the potential and pathway of the dryland information system the project is committed to developing, in bridging the existing information gap of individuals, market actors and policy makers in northern Kenya

• Analyze the adoption of information by users, understand the drivers of demand, the use of the information and the behavioral/production changes that result.
• Studying the incentives for getting high quality data, optimal price and dissemination strategies that are sustainable and provide leads for commercialization and scaling.
• Study the impact of the developed information system on the market structure, conduct and performance as well as the constraints and opportunities that such a dryland information system pose to the value chain and its various actors.

ILRI Program: Sustainable Livestock Systems

Main ILRI Project Title: Index Based Livestock Insurance

Graduate fellows project title: Leveraging Digital Technology for Crowdsourcing and Dissemination of Information to Improve Market Linkages in Drylands of Kenya

CGIAR Research Program (CRP) linkage: Livestock

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze the status of information systems used by market actors to make production and marketing decisions
• To test efficiency levels of different crowdsourcing protocols as used in dryland markets; which protocol provides the most accurate, timely and consistent dryland information?
• Investigate the uptake of outputs generated from proposed information system--called KAZNET
• Investigate the impact of KAZNET information disseminated on production and marketing behaviors selected market actors

Requirements

• Must have completed MSc in Agricultural Economics/Agribusiness Management or related program.
• Experience in working in Northern Kenya or similar dryland zones
• Experience in developing and implementation of digital solutions for information collection and dissemination, and crowdsourcing would be a plus.
• Knowledge of past and current programs providing similar or complementing information to KAZNET would be of added value.
• An effective and energetic team player with the ability to work in a multidisciplinary and multi-cultural environment.
• Ability to work independently, multi-task and meet tight deadlines.
• The applicant must be a citizen of a country in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Master’s degree must have been completed less than six years ago at the time of application

Duration of contract: The period for this project/fellowship will be 3 years, commencing September 2018

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