Description
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center is looking for a competent, self-motivated, and dynamic candidate to join as Research Officer – Resilient Water Management and Livelihoods.
Under the supervision of the country Representative, the research officer will support to achieve research outputs of the agricultural water management (AWM) component of the Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming System initiatives (SI-MFS), and other ongoing projects in Nepal. The position holder is expected to support research for development (R4D) on resilient water management technologies, including farmer-led irrigation, AWM solutions, and institutionalizing gender and socially inclusive water management solutions in local development policies and planning, and capacity development. The person will collaborate closely with local governments, research partners and stakeholders, including women and men farmers, producers, and entrepreneurs in the research sites for capacity building and outreach activities.
Duties AND Responsibilities:
- Support to carry out participatory action research on water management with a focus on socio-technical, gender and institutional aspects of irrigation technologies, water sources conservation and efficient use, and natural resources management.
- Support to co-design, test and evaluate contextually relevant, innovative R4D pilots in the areas of AWM, multiple use water technologies and sustainable intensification of mixed farming systems to reduce water and energy consumption while increasing agricultural productivity.
- Support to primary and secondary data collection, literature review, interviews, data management, analysis and reporting, and other research activities.
- Co-design, under supervision of senior researchers – new approaches, tools and frameworks to close water-related yield gaps in rain-fed and irrigated agriculture under a changing climate.
- Provide technical support to research teams working on the scaling of water solutions with public and private sector partners in relation to technology suitability, crop water demand, etc.
- Collaborate with project partners, research institutions, stakeholders, and IWMI researchers to achieve timely delivery of research outputs.
- Assist to co-design and carry out technical trainings and organize workshops with the aim of transferring knowledge and building capacity of partners and stakeholders, including youth, women and marginalized farmers, students, media, and other knowledge users.
- Support to prepare research reports, journal articles, presentations, policy briefs, guidelines, blogs and other forms of science product for dissemination to wider policy and public audiences.
- Carry out other project and research related activities as required.
Requirements
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES
MINIMUM:
- A Masters in Agricultural Science, Irrigation Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Hydrology, Civil Engineering, Agronomy, Natural Resource Management or a related discipline or with at least three years of work experiences.
- At least two years of research-for-development experience, and technical competence in designing, monitoring and analyzing AWM interventions in farming systems with farmers and local communities.
- Experience of quantitative data collection, analysis, and writing research papers, blogs in the field of water management, non-conventional irrigation technologies, water-based adaptation practices, AWM, and mixed farming systems.
- Experience of working with local governments, farmers, water users, women groups, farmers associations and networks of youth and marginalized groups in agriculture water management and/or natural resources management.
- Advanced knowledge of all main MS Office applications.
- Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and foster teamwork on field-based research.
- An understanding of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus, approaches to sustainable agricultural production systems and on-farm irrigation methods in a changing climate, as well as principles of water productivity and the interaction of irrigation with surrounding ecosystems.
- Ability to travel in remote areas with limited facilities.
- Familiarity with gender, social exclusion and inequity issues of Nepal with the ability to think and act on AWM and water management interventions differently.
- Familiarity with the federal system of Nepal and the resulting restructuring of the agriculture and water resources management sector.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
DESIRABLES:
- Experience in working with public and private sector entities to design, apply, adapt and test the latest technologies to support more efficient water use in agriculture for smallholder farming systems.
- Experience in working with crop-water modelling tools such as AquaCrop, APSIM, DSSAT etc.
- Proven experience in writing and executing scripts in Python/R or other similar programming languages for large spatial and non-spatial data assessments in the field of agricultural water management, irrigation practices and water productivity.
Benefits
What we are offering:
This is a nationally recruited position and only candidates who are eligible to work in Nepal will be considered. IWMI offers a competitive salary and benefits package, inclusive of health insurance, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, and long-term disability coverage. The duration of the contract will initially be for a period of three years with the possibility of extension.
HOW TO APPLY: Apply for the position by following the application instructions at www.iwmi.org/jobs. We will be accepting applications through 24:00 (IST) February 23, 2022 (applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis). Receipt of all applications will be acknowledged, but only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
IWMI believes that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. We offer a multi-cultural, multi-color, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary working environment. We are consciously creating an inclusive organization that reflects our global character and our commitment to gender equity. We, therefore, encourage applicants from all cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
