Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the Cluster Leader for Technology Adoption and Impact Analysis and Country Representatives in select countries in WCA as well as the Global Program Director – Enabling Systems Transformation and other scientists to perform the following tasks:
• Assist with efforts to integrate monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) in the design of projects/programs. This includes working with the digital agriculture cluster team of ICRISAT in the use of real time dashboard and mobile project monitoring tools to track project implementation and the adoption of innovations;
• Assist in refining existing and developing new robust analytical tools for implementing, monitoring, learning and evaluation framework, including period tracking of relevant indicators of select project and other ongoing research and development projects in SSA. Learning-oriented MEL activities should also contribute to the broader ICRISAT and CGIAR’s broader agendas for its Portfolio 25 Science programs;
• Conduct field research to characterize target dryland farming systems, their trajectories and trade-offs, including a documentation on their cost-effectiveness and risk analysis in target countries;
• Lead and supervise in country baseline, socio-economic data, ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment studies, data encoding, editing and cleaning; and conduct quantitative data analysis using spreadsheets, statistical, econometric and mathematical programming models as may be appropriate;
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative studies to identify opportunities and constraints to technology adoption (particularly including seed), institutional innovation, and food systems change;
• Build the MEL capacity of partner regional and national agricultural research institutions (NARs), public – private partnership initiatives and research assistants where appropriate and promote linkages and networks;
• Work with ICRISAT’s Gender Lead to ensure gender sensitive, socially inclusive, and market-responsive technology interventions and extension approaches for enhancing livelihoods, including demonstration of modern technologies to generate demand and capacity building of local institutions;
• Lead the documentation of impact related success stories and publish research results in high impact peer reviewed journals and influence change among policy makers and stakeholders to support dryland crop livestock systems production, marketing and consumption;
• Lead the communication of research results to a diverse audience, including the science community, change agents, policymakers, the media, and farmers;
• Ensure a system for internal documentation of MEL data, development and maintenance of scientific data management system, where open data standards are met, including uploading data sets, with appropriate meta-data;
• Contribute to, and occasionally lead, the writing of grant proposals;
• Contribute to the design and evaluation of sound scaling methods for technologies and interventions by instituting a continuous process of reflection and learning and ensuring that lessons learned are documented and shared;
• Build, facilitate and inspire multi-disciplinary collaborative teams of researchers, and support overseeing research quality and portfolio development; achieving deliverables and outcomes;
• Performing other duties as assigned by the immediate Supervisor and Global Research Program Director – Enabling Systems Transformation.

Required skills

• Ph.D. degree in agricultural/applied economics, development economics, food economics, or related discipline with some experience in farm management economics and project monitoring, evaluation and learning. Specific training related to dryland farming systems is an added advantage.
• A minimum of 3 years’ hands-on career experience working within agricultural research in food systems interventions, preferably in the SSA region.
• Strong experience in statistical and econometrics analysis of survey data using STATA and other appropriate econometric software packages, and an understanding of farming systems in the SSA, particularly, WCA will be an added advantage.
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative studies, farm household surveys and in the use of econometrics to analyze such data.
• Solid and up-to-date understanding of monitoring, evaluation, learning, impact assessment and scaling-up principles and methodologies with excellent track record in developing and implementing M&E frameworks in agricultural research and development context.
• Experience in identifying opportunities and constraints to technology adoption and food systems change.
• Good and/or promising record of high impact factor peer referred publications and citations.
• Familiarity with database development, storage and management is desired.
• Demonstrated strategic thinking and time management skills with good ability and demonstrated expertise to write, plan research, analyze data and complete timely reports.
• She/he must have strong communication skills: fluency in spoken and written English, along with a very good working knowledge of French, is required.
• Proven coordination/leadership skills, ability to work with multi-disciplinary teams with proven sensitivity to cross-cultural and gender issues and interact effectively with the Institute’s partners and service providers.

• Willingness to travel extensively in the WCA region and to other ICRISAT operational regions as needed.