Consultancy at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

The NORAD-funded project, Establishing an Ecosystem of Data-driven Services, in partnership with Varda Foundation, aims to fill these gaps. The two main outcomes of the initiative include:

• Enhanced access to and use of reliable soil information through an interoperable soil data infrastructure
• Co-design and scaling of successful soil health use cases.

The initiative aims to:

• Develop and launch SoilHive as an open-source platform;
• Establish an international, robust, and scalable soil data infrastructure in Africa;
• Develop national soil health frameworks guiding soil management practices;
• Champion soil health as a solution for addressing Africa’s triple challenge of land degradation, biodiversity loss, and food and nutrition security.
• The consultant will contribute to these outcomes and goals.

Duties and responsibilities

Objectives Of The Assignment Include

• To document and analyze soil health use cases by capturing the co-design, application, and scaling of data-driven approaches that address soil degradation, improve productivity, and enhance ecosystem resilience across sub-Saharan Africa;
• Generate evidence-based insights and best practices to support the development of replicable and scalable soil health solutions, aligned with continental frameworks such as the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan and the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme
• Provide technical support to the project by consolidating progress into high-quality reporting elements and visual assets, while strengthening targeted, data-driven advisory services for smallholder farmers and pastoralist communities.
• This consultancy will focus on documenting and advancing the co-design, application, and scaling of soil health use cases that support sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems, and improved livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa. It will examine how soil health investments and data-driven approaches can address soil degradation, enhance crop productivity, and strengthen ecosystem resilience, while identifying barriers and opportunities for integrating soil health into policy, planning, and investment frameworks.
• The assignment will align with continental initiatives such as the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan and the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Plan. It will document and generate evidence-based insights, success stories, and best practices to support replicable, scalable solutions, with a particular emphasis on strengthening targeted advisory services for smallholder farmers and pastoralist communities. Ultimately, the consultancy will contribute to the project outcomes and outputs and the broader African Union and United Nations priorities, including progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals related to food security, poverty reduction, and climate resilience.
• The consultant will provide technical assistance and implementation of visual assets to support the project reporting, consolidating project progress in the form of written reports and visual assets to summarize the work.

Education, knowledge and experience

• Minimum of five (5+) years of experience producing soil health–related outputs, including technical reports and analytical products.
• Demonstrated knowledge of soil health initiatives and frameworks across the African Union.
• Proven experience producing technical and visual soil health outputs in support of African Union soil health agenda.
• Experience working effectively within interdisciplinary teams across research, policy, and implementation domains.
• Demonstrated experience documenting and synthesizing soil information systems and related data platforms.
• Strong expertise in condensing complex information into accessible, user-oriented electronic and visual knowledge products.
• Proven ability to execute and deliver high-quality digital outputs across a range of electronic and visual formats.
• Experience supporting projects aligned with continental frameworks such as the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan and the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme.