Post Doctoral Scientist - Agricultural Economist at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Key Responsibilities

This position requires a proactive, collaborative, and impact-driven individual with the skills to advance ILRI’s thematic area on risk management for vulnerable populations and contribute to overarching goal of leveraging de-risking and risk management solutions for the resilience of communities in Africa and Asia.

• Research Leadership
  • Lead climate and non-climate risk modelling in complex crop and livestock systems and value chains using a systems approach.
  • Lead the design and implementation of experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental studies to assess uptake, adoption, and impacts of de-risking and risk management solutions.
  • Lead and support risk and vulnerability assessments.
  • Lead quantitative analysis of trade-offs and synergies associated with adoption of de-risking and risk management solutions.
  • Lead or contribute to peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, policy briefs, toolkits, and donor reports.
  • Contribute to the project’s activities on related aspects/ themes under the guidance of the supervisor.
  • Identifying evidence-based business models for effective de-risking mechanisms.
• Partnerships and Stakeholder engagement
  • Build and manage strategic partnerships with CGIAR Centers, universities, governments, donors, private sector actors, and civil society organizations.
  • Convene stakeholder dialogues, technical workshops, learning events, and capacity-strengthening initiatives at global, regional, and national levels.
  • Collaborate with communications teams to translate research into accessible knowledge products, campaigns, and influence strategies.
• Capacity Development and Knowledge Management
  • In conjunction with the senior scientist, plan, survey and coordinate the materials and resources required to meet the research objectives of the group.
  • Collect, store and curate data generated from the analytics.
  • Review existing course of actions and support in the development of proposals, milestones and implementation of research.
  • Prepare and assure quality of project reports and papers for presentation.
  • Support fund generation activities by contributing to proposal writing and creating new opportunities.
  • Capacity building for local communities and government institutions, for example county governments on risk assessment and management, climate preparedness, and anticipatory action.

Requirements

• PhD in Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, or Environmental Economics with demonstrable experience of working in complex crop and livestock systems.
• Candidates must be within Two to Four years of PhD Completion
• Advanced quantitative analytical techniques and econometric skills with experience in impact evaluation, experimental design, and data analytics. Proficiency in at least one of the following statistical software/languages: Stata, R, or Python.
• Experience in agricultural risk assessment and analysis, with a proven ability to assess risks across different agricultural value chains and design innovative risk management solutions.
• Experience working in and/or knowledge of fragile ecosystems and with vulnerable communities.
• Strong background in risk management, including familiarity with tools such as index-based livestock insurance, information systems, impact-based anticipatory action, climate-smart agriculture, and market systems development. Experience with crop index insurance and mixed-agricultural production systems is an added advantage. 
• A track record of publishing high-quality work in reputable journals.           
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English with the ability to communicate with diverse audiences.
• Proven ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams with minimal supervision, and experience working across disciplines and different cultural backgrounds.
• Willingness to mentor junior researchers and graduate fellows.
• Willingness to travel frequently to rural and remote areas of project sites in different countries.
• Experience with resource mobilization and contributing to project proposals would be an asset.
• Communication skills for peer reviewed publications
• Programmming skills using R/ Python/ Stata
• Familiarity with CGIAR research programs, platforms, innovation accelerators, or global partnerships.
• Fluency in French would be an added advantage.