Immediate vacancy announcement to hire research and capacity building experts for the CASCAPE-AAU Project

Background

The College of Development Studies (CoDS) of the Addis Ababa University is implementing a collaborative capacity building program in selected Woredas of Oromia and Amhara Regional States with the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands under the project entitled Capacity Building for Scaling Up of Evidence Based Best Practices in Agricultural Production in Ethiopia (CASCAPE). The project operates as part of the BENEFIT (Bilateral Ethio-Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade) partnership, a collaborative partnership between 4 Dutch funded projects and their Ethiopian partners. Nationally, the project is implemented through collaboration between five Ethiopian Universities (AAU, Mekele, Bahir Dar, Hawassa and Jimma) and Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The College of Development Studies implements this project on behalf of Addis Ababa University in two regional states, namely, Oromia and Amhara.

Broadly stated, CASCAPE project is designed to support the Ethiopian government to increase agricultural productivity by verifying and testing best practices and innovations in agricultural production and identifying the circumstances under which farmers are prepared to take up innovations, and scale up these best practices to the wider farming communities as well as contribute to the capacity building of stakeholders.

Under this project, CoDS seeks to hire experts with portfolios stated below.

1. Position: Research expert

• Main duty: Validation and demonstration of agricultural technologies and practices (on-farm research).
• Educational qualification and experience: M.Sc. in agricultural related sciences (preferably agronomy) with a minimum of five years of work/research experience in farm level agricultural development and research.
• Number required:

2. Position: Capacity building expert

• Main duty: Capacity development activities such as developing and organizing specific trainings tailored to the needs of stakeholders in the agriculture sector and supporting the research and scaling activities of the project.
• Educational qualification and experience: MA in agricultural economics with a minimum of five years of work/research experience in capacity building in the agriculture sector, extension and training.
• Number required:one

Terms of employment and preferable skills for both positions

• Terms of contract: contract for 1 year renewable for another 8 months with probationary period set at three months.
• Salary: competitive based on the project’s salary scale.
• Place of work: Addis Ababa (College of Development Studies, AAU) with frequent travel to project sites and village districts in Oromia and Amhara Regions.
• Preferable skills for both positions:
• Understanding of agricultural policies and programs of the country.
• Research and/or teaching experience with participatory approach, with themes of farming systems/practices, innovations/technologies in small holder agriculture, action research and scaling in agricultural domain, value chain and extension.
• Demonstrated experience of working with farmers.
• Demonstrated skills in administration of research projects.
• Demonstrated skills in planning and outreach/extension in agriculture.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience in planning, coordinating, managing and supervising research and capacity building operations and up taking of innovation components.
• Demonstrated experience in statistical packages (knowledge and experience in econometrics is an advantage).
• Strong report writing skills (including policy and scientific reports).
• Strong planning, monitoring & evaluation skills and experience.
• Research experience in gender sensitive agriculture, nutrition, climate smart agriculture, and familiarity to performance tracking tools in small-scale farms is advantageous.
• Fluency in written and spoken English. Working knowledge of Oromiffa is a plus.

Application deadline: May 7, 2018.

Application procedure: Interested candidates who fulfill the required qualification and experience should submit their applications in person in two sets, one set to the Office of Human Resources (HR) of the College of Development Studies and another to the Office of Cluster Manager for CASCAPE-AAU project or either email to tirufatassefa@yahoo.com with a copy to abatemek@yahoo.com. Both offices are located at AAU’s Main Campus (6 kilo). The office for the College’s HR is located behind Kennedy Library at the Colleges Classrooms premise (room no 15), whereas, the office for the Cluster Manager is located in the premises of the former University Registrar’s Office besides the University’s Business Enterprise (room number 26). Applicants should include their credentials, certificates of trainings, and testimonials of past employment/responsibility with letter of motivation. Late applications will not be considered. For further information, call 0911-614581.