The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center, is seeking a dynamic and multi-skilled candidate to join as a Postdoctoral Fellow: Scaling Climate-Smart Agriculture and Climate Information Services. This position will be based in Lusaka, Zambia, and hosted by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The successful candidate will be responsible for providing technical expertise for activities associated with the science and practice of scaling water solutions and conducting applied, transdisciplinary scientific research in this domain. The postdoc will collaborate with multiple teams within IWMI and relevant public sector stakeholders and development partners to develop scaling strategies for Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) innovations using appropriate research methods, tools, and field experiences.
Under the leadership of the AICCRA Project and in close collaboration with the AICCRA project team, the incumbent will initiate, suggest, and monitor various CSA/CIS innovation bundles. The incumbent will also promote private and public sector investments and interventions in climate-smart agriculture in Zambia as part of the AICCRA, Ukama Ustawi, ClimBer, and AID-I projects.
DUTIES amp; RESPONSIBILITIES:
CSA/CIS Innovation Scaling Research
- Conduct field data and secondary data collection, literature syntheses, interviews, and other research activities related to scaling climate-smart agricultural practices, such as adaptive scaling of solar irrigation, drought-tolerant seed varieties, smart water management, etc., as well as extension and climate advisory service delivery and communication technologies for smallholder agriculture.
- Analyze CSA value chains, irrigation supply chains, and financing modalities to identify opportunities for enhancing access to CSA and CIS practices/technologies in bottom-of-the-pyramid markets.
- Perform adoption studies, tracer studies, and affordability surveys to assess the innovation scaling potential of various CSA/CIS practices in East and Southern Africa.
- Analyze the scaling ecosystem, enabling environment, and blocking mechanisms to enhance the scaling of water and agricultural innovations, including digital agriculture.
- Develop analytical frameworks using quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing the impact of project interventions, including monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive project management. Collaborate on data collection and analysis and monitor and evaluate solar irrigation scaling pathways to document and present lessons learned.
- Analyze data and draft scientific publications, policy briefs, and technical reports in the domains of scaling innovations in the climate-water-agricultural sector within both the public and private sectors.
- Undertake additional project and research related tasks as required.
Scaling Partnerships
- Identify potential partnerships, policies, and institutional prerequisites for testing approaches, technologies, and investment propositions with significant scaling potential. Foster collaboration among partners and researchers to pilot novel technical, institutional, or financial solutions to incentivize uptake sustainably and equitably.
- Facilitate, coordinate, and engage in outreach efforts associated with Scaling SSI partnerships.
- Devise grants for innovation and acceleration within the scaling partnership to stimulate innovations in research, private, and public sector settings.
Multi-stakeholder Engagement
- Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogues involving public and private sector stakeholders, and oversee the creation and distribution of consistent communications (including communication materials and outputs) aimed at participants in the MSD space.
- Establish and maintain CSA amp; CIS scaling dialogue platforms and procedures with local and regional stakeholders, as well as research partners, including those from the private sector.
- Manage the execution of an internship/program, including coordinating placements with collaborating institutions.
- Organize partner deliberations on CIS in relation to digital platforms.
Requirements
MINIMUM EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS amp; EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
- PhD in water resources management, agricultural development, agricultural innovation systems, or a related discipline.
- Demonstrated experience of at least 3 years in scaling climate-smart agricultural innovations, ICT4Agricultural development, value chain development, or agricultural market systems in Africa, specifically within Zambia.
- Proven proficiency and capability in effectively employing a blend of qualitative and quantitative research methods and participatory research approaches to design and