Research Assistant

International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Recruiting a Research Assistant - Markets and Agro-enterprise Development

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – a member of the CGIAR Consortium (www.cgiar.org) – develops technologies, innovative methods, and new knowledge that better enable farmers, especially smallholders, to make agriculture competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient. 

CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia (www.ciat.cgiar.org).

The Position:

CIAT is seeking a Research Assistant to work as a member of the markets team within the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance-PABRA (http://pabra-africa.org) contributing towards facilitating the scaling out of market linkage efforts, collecting and analyzing data and documentation of the outcomes of the market activities. 

The Research Assistant will provide capacity development to national research programs on market linkages, strengthening bean platforms and other Agro-enterprise development activities related to CIAT’s work in Africa. 

He/she will also provide support in designing and conducting bean product and related market studies and surveys, as well as the statistical analyses of markets data in Africa.

The candidate shall have the following competencies, skills and experience:

• Master’s Degree in Agribusiness, Marketing, Agricultural Economics, Economics and Management or related fields
• At least three (3) years’ experience in research and facilitating marketing activities with multiple stakeholders along the marketing value chain
• Experience in managing market surveys of different actors along the value chain with a good understanding of the problem of market access in Africa
• Experience in both quantitative and qualitative data analysis using statistical and Econometric models, statistical and other software (Stata, SPSS, Ms-Access etc.)
• Good report writing and oral communication skills
• Strong ability to co-ordinate, prioritize and organize workload; take initiative and work under pressure
• Willingness to travel and ability to work in a multi-cultural environment

Terms of employment:

The position is nationally recruited and based at the CIAT Offices in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The contract will be for a two-year period, subject to probation period of three (3) months, renewable depending on performance and availability of resources.

How to apply:

Applicants are invited to send a cover letter illustrating their suitability for the above position against the listed qualifications, competencies, skills together with a detailed curriculum vitae, including names and addresses of three referees. 

All correspondence should be addressed to the CIAT Human Resources Office, PO Box 823-00621, Nairobi, Kenya and email applications to ciatkenyainfo@cgiar.org clearly indicating “Research Assistant-Markets” on the subject line. 

Email applications and CV’s should be saved as one file using the applicant’s last name and first name for ease of sorting.

Closing date for applications: 7th June, 2013

All applications will be acknowledged but only short listed candidates will be contacted.