Country Coordinator at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (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 the tropics. We work with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. We have more than 180 internationally recruited scientists from about 35 countries and 1200 nationally recruited staff based in various stations across Africa. Please visit http://www.iita.org/ for more information on IITA.

IITA is looking for a suitably qualified person to fill the position of:

Job Title: Country Coordinator Nigeria

Location: Kano

Job Description:

• Plan and coordinate project activities in-country in conjunction with the Principal Investigator and host institution, and across countries with the two other country coordinators.
• Coordinate and be responsible for financial and technical reporting of in-country activities.
• Lead project activities related to his/her discipline in the country and contribute to cross-country activities and knowledge-sharing systems.
• Project activities include: multi-locational diagnostic agronomy experiments; populating agronomy data bases; yield-gap and soil constraints analysis at different scales; methods and models to link geo-spatial data across scales; development and testing of decision-support systems, tools and APIs with stakeholders.
• Promote and support cross institutional and inter-disciplinary teams with specific emphasis on the integration of bio-physical and socio-economic information at various scales/levels.
• Facilitate partnerships and build capacity of partners to co-develop, populate, and use project databases, tools, models and APIs.
• Contribute to building capacity of national institutions through the identification and co-supervision or mentoring of project supported post-graduate students programs.
• Collaborate with CGIAR and other research institutes to support/ enhance project outputs and develop synergies with other projects to maximize impact.
• Communicate research results to various audiences and in various forms, papers for publication and presentations of results of this research.

Minimum Qualification & Experience:
The candidate should have a PhD in one of the following fields: agronomy, agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, earth sciences, agro ecology.

Skills & Abilities:
Core Competencies:

• Minimum 5 years' experience in your chosen field/discipline.
• Ability to conceptualize complex problems into analytical and operational frameworks
• Understanding of gender and social inclusion issues and experience with ways of addressing these in research for development programs in order to promote equality of opportunity and outcomes.
• Clear understanding of the technical and institutional challenges for sustainable intensification in SSA and the role of improved scientific knowledge management for decision support to development interventions.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, experience working and interacting effectively with a variety of stakeholders ( farmers, extension workers and other service providers, public and private sector entities, national programs), and demonstrated ability to collaborate well across disciplines and with key collaborative institutions and agencies.
• Strong publication record in peer reviewed journals.
• Fluent written and spoken English.
• Knowledge of farming systems in the respective countries.

Terms & Conditions:
The contract will be for an initial period of three years with possibility of renewal based on performance and availability of funding. IITA offers internationally competitive remuneration package paid in U.S. Dollars.

Application Closing Date:
28th November, 2014

Method of Application:
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, 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, Human Resources Service. Please complete our online application form

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