Background: The International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) invites applications for the position of Country
Coordinator, N2Africa Nigeria.
IITA is an international non-profit agricultural
research-for-development (R4D) organization established in 1967, governed by a
Board of Trustees, and a member of the CGIAR Consortium. Our R4D approach is
anchored on the development needs of tropical nations. We work with partners to
enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and
generate wealth from agriculture. We have more than 100 internationally
recruited scientists from about 35 countries and 900 nationally recruited staff
based in various stations across Africa. Please visit http://www.iita.org/ for more information
on IITA.
The Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder
Farmers in Africa (http://www.n2africa.org)
Project is led by Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The project will deploy
state-of-the-art legume and rhizobial inoculant technologies to African
smallholder farmers to enhance inputs of free atmospheric nitrogen by
biological nitrogen fixation, thereby improving legume productivity, human
nutrition and farm income, while enhancing soil health. In its second phase,
the project will put a major emphasis on (i) institutionalizing N2Africa
technologies, approaches, and expertise and (ii) fostering sustainability of
the various components addressed by N2Africa, including seed, inoculant, and
fertilizer supply chains, access to profitable legume markets, and knowledge
transfer. The project will primarily work in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda,
and Ethiopia (with a limited range of activities in DR Congo, Rwanda, Kenya,
Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique).
IITA seeks a qualified Country Coordinator Nigeria to
lead the implementation of N2Africa activities in Tanzania. The Country
Coordinator will assemble all project partners towards the development of
mutually agreed upon work plans, monitor their implementation, ensure technical
and financial reporting is completed in line with project requirements, and
facilitate partnerships with the science and development community towards
delivery of N2Africa products at scale. Because of the ‘federal’ organization
of the second phase of the project, Country Coordinators need to be creative in
ensuring that the project works effectively within their country whilst
maintaining standard protocols to allow cross-comparison across countries.
The successful candidate will report to the R4D Director on
Natural Resource Management and the R4D Director for West Africa.
More specifically the Country Coordinator will:
- Lead
the implementation of all project activities
- Constitute
in-country teams with the required expertise for specific action plans
- Facilitate
partnerships with dissemination and market partners
- Lead
technical and financial reporting to the project leadership
- Oversee
the science of N2Africa within the country
- Represent
N2Africa within the country to various stakeholder groups
- Engage
with the M&E specialist to ensure that M&E tools are administered
in a timely manner
- Engage
with the Senior Business Development Officer to explore opportunities for
partnerships for developing input and output market for the target legumes
- Participate
in and/or organize technical meetings, conference calls and consultations
of experts from stakeholder and partner organizations as required in
liaison with the Project Coordinator as required.
- Facilitate
the institutionalization of N2Africa into a national system
- (Co)-supervise
of MSc and PhD projects.
Educational Qualifications
The applicant will have a PhD in agronomy, soil
microbiology, or a related field and have demonstrated expertise (at least 5
years) in research for/or development within African smallholder farming
systems.
Core Competencies:
- Proven
expertise with facilitating networks of partners across the research to
development continuum.
- Excellent
knowledge of legume agronomy and the role legumes play in relation to
rural livelihoods.
- Excellent
knowledge of the essential components and bottlenecks in legume input
supply and output market value chains.
- Ability
to manage own workload without close supervision and work independently,
making decisions and solving problems on routine and complex problems.
- Ability
to work effectively in a dynamic team environment, in a flexible office
environment with periods of high pressure activity.
- Team
player with personality traits that enable him/her to motivate and
communicate with all levels of the professional and support staff.
- Reputation
of integrity, high intelligence, creativity and the ability to exercise
good judgment.
- Strong
interpersonal skills and an ability to establish rapport and credibility
with people at all organizational levels, forming strong relationships,
both internally and externally.
- Committed
to transparency and continuous improvement in a cooperative atmosphere of
constructive evaluation and learning.
- Willingness
to travel extensively.
- Excellent
spoken and written English.
Duty station: Kano, Nigeria
General information: Initial appointment is for
two years. IITA offers a competitive remuneration package paid in US dollars.
Applications: Applications which must include
covering letter, curriculum vitae, names and addresses of three referees should
be addressed to the Head, Human Resources Service. Please complete our online
application form using this link:http://www.iita.org/irs-online-application
Closing Date: 31 December 2013
IITA is an equal opportunity employer and particularly
welcomes applications from women candidates.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be
contacted.
