Agricultural Data Extraction & Synthesis Consultant

Background

The OneCGIAR Initiative on Livestock Climate Systems Resilience (LCSR) is led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), two of the 15 research centers of CGIAR.

LCSR aims to directly enable 600,000 producers (at least 40% women) in nine countries to better prepare for and manage uncertain futures by improving security of access to resources and adopting management practices that enhance their climate-related adaptive capacities (livestock assets) while ensuring household equity and reducing GHGe intensities. LCSR is part of the CGIAR Action Area on Resilient Agri-food System.

LCSR will engage with various public and private sector climate investors through (Work Package 4, WP4) which this role will support. WP4 will build investor confidence in the livestock sector by better understanding their needs for investment and monitoring, and improving the capacity of SMEs to absorb finance. A key assumption is that we can build trust, understand investor constraints and needs, and respond with sufficient evidence.

To compile and generate the evidence WP4 needs an evidence synthesis of livestock management outcomes (e.g., productivity, gender, emissions, resilience) for various mitigation and climate change adaption technologies will be performed. This synthesis will leverage and expand on the Evidence for Resilient Agriculture database.

The Position:

LCSR is looking for talented, detail orientated and logical professionals who are highly driven and able to balance the use of initiative against following complex instructions. The consultants will play a crucial role in supporting LCSR evidence synthesis for livestock mitigation and adaption technologies. As such they will require a background in agriculture, preferably livestock.

Consultants will be part of the LCSR WP4 team and their main role is to extract data from pre-identified papers and do data analysis as appropriate. This will yield a robust database of the available information. Data will be extracted according to well-established protocols, but we expect critical feedback to improve our systems. Successful candidates will collaborate with the other consultants and project leads. The expected deliverable is quantitative data extracted from literature that will be form the basis of decision support tools and gap analysis to prioritize investments in livestock research and development. The consultants will need to pass an assessment of aptitude, efficiency, and accuracy conducted after a training event and probationary period at the beginning of the contract.

Specifically, consultants will focus on:

Activities

Training course on ERA livestock data extraction

Extraction of peer reviewed or grey literature using the ERA excel tools and/or on-line user-interfaces.

Quality control of team data extractions.

Feedback for iterative user-orientated design of data extraction systems.

Reporting and monitoring of progress using project management tools (such as Jita) and regular communication and engagement with project Team using Slack or Microsoft Teams Teamwork. Being an active part of a cohesive data extraction team that supports one-another to solve problems and answer questions.

Deliverables

Training course completed

Minimum average extraction rate of at least 5 publications per day by one month after training. A rate of 6+ is desirable.

Checks a minimum average 5 papers from the rest of the team each day. A rate of 6+ is desirable (but limited by team output).

Regularly suggests improvements or reports bugs/issues to team leader or design team.

Accurately reports progress and actively engages with Microsoft Teams or Slack channels.

Consultant works well within the extraction team, showing evidence of engagement with other team members on communication channels.

Frequency

Once

Assessed weekly

Assessed weekly

As required

Assessed weekly

Assessed monthly

Requirements

• Advanced degree in one of the following or related field: Agronomy, Agroecology, Environmental Sciences, Livestock Science, Landscape Ecology, Policy, Agricultural or Development Economics, International Agricultural Development, Horticulture, or related field.
• Working experience and/or research outputs for areas related to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation preferably in livestock, but other agricultural experience is also valid.
• Ability to work both independently and in a team-oriented, cross-cultural, collaborative and decentralized environment, and operate under tight deadlines.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; a second language (Portuguese or Spanish) is strongly preferred
• Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills.
• Ability to follow complex instructions whilst being a critical thinker able to problem solve when appropriate.
• A hardworking and positive attitude.
• Willingness to travel internationally if not a resident of Kenya.
• Solid knowledge of Microsoft Office, with advanced Excel skills. Ability to use R, and familiarity with Slack, Jira or Microsoft Teams is preferred.