Ref No: DDG-R4D/AE/09/24

Background

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) invites applications for the internationally recruited position of Agricultural Economist.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food-secure future. Please visit http://www.iita.org/ for more information on IITA.

The purpose of the position is to support the socio-economic activities that are under IITA’s responsibilities.

Position Responsibilities

• Contribute to the ex-ante evaluation of key project outcomes; this will involve analysis of the impact pathway of the project and recommendation for successful implementation in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
• Develop farmers’ typologies to facilitate targeting of promising technologies.
• Conducts GESI studies to enhance inclusion within ‘Soil Values’.
• Lead a team that include NARS partners in the project countries in collecting, analyzing, and reporting data that will allow ex ante evaluation of project performance against key indicators as stated in the results framework.
• Support project manager of the IITA component in collating reports to contribute to reporting to primary grantee of ‘soil values’. 
• Assess and regularly report on key program innovations and technologies, major constraints, and challenges as well as emerging opportunities in out scaling them.
• Design performance management plans for the project and monitor the implementation processes to track milestones and report on progress of the selected performance indicators for outputs.
• Participate actively in project review and planning meetings and in reporting on performances and effectiveness of intervention.  Contribute to livelihood and impact assessments of the soil values project in collaboration with NARS and other project partners.
• Conduct evaluation of key project technologies in farmers’ fields to determine B/C ratios and other profitability indicators.
• Analyse the scalability of selected technologies and determine the potential uptake by farmers in order to guide technology development.
• Contribute to publication of action research results and success stories.
• Contribute to publication of peer-reviewed journal articles.
• Contribute to resource mobilization in IITA.

Educational qualifications

• The candidate should ideally have PhD in Agricultural Economics with strong competence in quantitative methods and at least 3 years demonstrated experience as an Agricultural Economist.

Core Competencies

• Strong competence in quantitative methods.
• Proficiency with various econometric and mathematical software packages like STATA, SPSS, GAMS, etc.
• Understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
• Good understanding of the economic surplus method, choice experiments, and randomized control trials.
• Demonstrated ability to handle big datasets.
• Proficiency with Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) like ODK, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to write research reports and publish peer-reviewed journal articles.
• Ability to conduct surveys in difficult environments.
• Willingness to travel for project activities.
• Ability to work in multi-disciplinary team.
• Ability to work independently.
• Fluency in both English and French.

General information: The contract will be for an initial period of three years. IITA offers an internationally competitive remuneration package paid in US Dollars.

Applications: Applications must include a cover letter which should address how the candidate’s background/experience relates to the specific duties of the position applied for, curriculum vitae, and names and addresses of three professional referees (which must include either the Head of the applicant’s current or previous organization or applicant’s direct Supervisor/Superior at his/her present or former place of work). The application should be addressed to the Head of People and Culture. Please complete our online application form using this link: https://apply.workable.com/iita/#jobs

Closing Date: 22nd October 2024

IITA is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building a diverse workforce, particularly welcoming applications from women.

While all applications will be acknowledged, please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.