Reports to: Principal Natural Resources Economist

Location: Tunis, Tunisia

Main purpose of position

Working closely with the Agricultural Resources Economist in the ongoing socioeconomic activities conducted by ICARDA in Tunisia and in the Arabian Peninsula Regional program (APRP). The Senior Research Associate will support various research activities across ICARDA bilateral projects and will be responsible for design and implement quantitative and qualitative socio-economics research and collect and analyze a broad range of primary and secondary social, economic, market value chain and policy research data using standard statistical software.

About ICARDA

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is a treaty-based international non-profit research organization supported by CGIAR. ICARDA’s mission is to reduce poverty, enhance food, water, and nutritional security, as well as environmental health in the face of global challenges including climate change. We do this through innovative science, strategic partnerships, linking research to development and capacity development that take into account gender equality and the role of youth in transforming the dry areas. ICARDA works in partnership with governments, universities, civil society, national agricultural research organization, other CGIAR Research Centers, and the private sector. With its temporary Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA operates in regional and country offices across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. For more information: www.icarda.org

All CGIAR Centers are currently engaged into a reform process (“One CGIAR’”) that will help ICARDA and CGIAR achieve better impact through more strategically integrated research, unified governance, an integrated structure, and new research modalities across participating Research Centers. This transformation is supported by CGIAR donors who have committed to increased funding as a result of these reforms.

Main Responsibilities

The incumbent will:

• Undertake field research activities with a high degree of autonomy.
• Collection, entry, cleaning and processing of primary and secondary data.
• Assist in data analysis using appropriate statistical and econometric software.
• Conducting literature review on agricultural economics related subjects with special focus on economics of pests (i.e., red palm weevil) and desert farming system.
• Draft research papers and prepare technical reports, guidelines, tools, briefs and scientific presentations.
• Assist in converting technical manuals on socio economics into interactive training and technology promotion modules.
• Contribute to capacity development activities and prepare training materials and other documentation, as required.
• Ensure quality technical reporting that includes preparation and timely submission of progress and annual technical reports.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Requirements

Education, qualifications and experience

• PhD degree in economics, agricultural economics, or related field.

• At least 7 years relevant experience in developing countries.

• Experience in publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

• Professional skills in qualitative and quantitative analytical methods used for social and economic science research.

• Knowledge of the software used in agricultural economics research analysis (SPSS, E-Views, Stata, R, etc.).

• Experience in conducting surveys, focus groups discussion (FGD’s), key informant interviews (KII’s), managing, analyzing, and interpreting data.

• Knowledge in preparation, and delivering scientific technical reports, policy notes, blogs, policy briefs, and ISI journal articles.

• Excellent written and verbal communication in English.

• Knowledge of Arabic and of the desert farming systems would be desirable.

Benefits

Terms of appointment, salary, and benefits

This is a nationally recruited staff position open for Tunisian nationals for which ICARDA offers an attractive compensation package including a competitive salary, medical insurance, 30 days of annual leave, five months’ maternity leave, 15 days’ paternity leave. The successful candidate will be offered an initial contract of 3 years, renewable subject to continued need for the position and satisfactory performance. The first year will be a probationary period.

Please be advised that ICARDA accepts applications only in English, as per the organization’s standard communication language. Applications in other languages will not be considered.

ICARDA is committed to increasing women representation in its workforce and strongly encourages applications from women.

Applications will be acknowledged, but only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.