Overview

Assistant Scaling Specialist
IITA-TZ-19-R4D-010-NRS-DSM

IITA is seeking an experienced, highly talented and digitally savvy candidate to fill the position of Assistant Scaling Specialist for ACAI project. 

Background: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.

Duty Station: The position will be based at the IITA Regional Hub for Eastern Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Criteria for Success / Qualifications

• The candidate should have a minimum of a Master’s/first degree in any of these fields: Agriculture, Economics; Agribusiness; Technology Adoption or other relevant development-related disciplines
• Minimum of 3 years of experience working with partners (public and private for the dissemination of agricultural-related technologies).

Core Competencies:

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in scaling innovations within the Research-for-Development agricultural domain in sub-Saharan Africa
• Proven support in the development and fostering partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders (farmers, extension workers and other service providers, public and private sector entities, national programs)
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate well across disciplines (Partnerships, ME&L, etc) and with key collaborative institutions and colleagues.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multicultural settings.
• Demonstrated ability to participate in the writing and publication of technical documents in relation to the project goals.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English

Responsibilities

The Assistant Scaling Specialist will perform the following duties, among others:

• Support the development and maintenance of partner dissemination strategies and networks for the dissemination of the ACAI DSTs in Tanzania
• Support the development and integration of the DSTs recommendations in development partners’ work plans and monitor the use of the recommendations in collaboration with relevant project staff
• Monitor the implementation of recommendations (in line with agreed processes) through the use of various formats supplied by decision support tools integrated in the activities of primary development partners in Tanzania
• Document processes to align tool functionality and format to the needs and dissemination strategy (ies) of development partners based on feedback from MEL data, partner meetings and field observation
• Support the development and use of appropriate training (and communication) materials and digital tools (in line with partner dissemination strategies) for the promotion and capacity building events
• Organize in-country training workshops with development partners on tools and processes for DST dissemination and ME&L
• Support organization and participate in technical, review and planning meetings, learning reflection workshops, training workshops for DST dissemination, as required in liaison with the Project Coordinator in Tanzania
• Engage with the Project Coordinator for Tanzania, Project ME&L Officer, Scaling Specialist and partners to ensure M&E is integrated in the dissemination, evaluation and validation activities to assess project results and obtain timely feedback on the tools’ formats and benefits of recommendations from different gender dimensions,
• Collaborate with Scaling Specialist in Nigeria for effective dissemination and application of the project scaling strategy for the decision support tools across the two countries
• Collaborate with the ME&L team to build capacity of partner staff in the use of ACAI MEL system/tools
• Follow up on partner MEL staff to capture relevant data for project ME&L, data uploads and quality checks

General information:

The duration of contract for the position is one and half years.

This is a nationally recruited position and IITA offers a competitive remuneration package.

Applications:

Applications including curriculum vitae, copies of certificates, telephone number, email address, and names and addresses of two referees should be sent to the Country Representative, IITA-Tanzania, Plot No. 25, Mwenge – Coca-Cola Road, Mikocheni Industrial Area P.O. Box 34441, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania or by email to IITA-Tanzania@cgiar.org

Applicants are requested to please indicate the reference number for the position as indicated on the heading of the announcement in your application as well as on the subject of your email if sending by email. If sending by post or hand delivery, please indicate the reference number on your application as well as on the left-hand side of your envelope. Please note that any applications without the reference number indicated will be automatically disqualified.

Closing date: Two weeks from the date of advertisement appearing in the newspaper.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.