Post-Doctoral Fellow (Impact Assessment of Aquatic Food Systems)

Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow (Impact Assessment of Aquatic Food Systems)

Location: Penang (Malaysia-HQ)

Application Deadline: 27 February 2022

Type of contract: 2 years f**ixed-term contract (option to renew based on performance and budget)**

Language(s) required: English (native/fluent writing and oral skills)

About WorldFish

WorldFish is an international, non-profit research and innovation organization reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty across Africa, Asia and the Pacific. For over 45 years, our work on sustainable aquaculture and fisheries has improved the lives of millions of women, men and youth.

Fish and other aquatic foods grown in and harvested from oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds provide income for more than 800 million people and provide 3.3 billion with 20% of their animal protein intake. Our focus on sustainability makes sure that the way we produce and use these foods today means a plentiful future of generations to come.

Our evidence-based solutions range in scale from households to global policies and spans across six interlinked themes: nutrition, gender, climate, sustainability, economy and COVID-19.

We champion aquatic foods for healthy people and planet and believe that a sustainable blue planet of well-nourished children, women and men is within our reach.

About the Position

The recruited Postdoctoral Fellow will work with WorldFish Scientists and International Partners in designing and conducting research to understand drivers of change and constraints (social, economic, environment and institutional and policy) that support and guide policy development and investments for sustainable transformation of Aquatic Food Systems.

The Postdoctoral Fellow will also work on benchmarking Aquatic Food Systems performances through

(a) Aquatic food systems characterization,

(b) The testing of tools and models to integrate aquatic food systems data with socio-economic, climate and environmental information.

The successful candidate will be responsible to:

• Undertake and deliver research and analysis to characterize socio-economic and environmental performance of aquatic food systems.
• In collaboration with other scientists within and outside the CGIAR, develop and implement socio-economic and environmental research and analysis to evaluate performance of WorldFish innovations and impacts of interventions.
• In collaboration with scientists at WorldFish, testing of local and system level performance tools and models to integrate production with socio-economic, climate and environmental data into research and analysis of aquatic food systems.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis on selected case studies related to WorldFish interventions.
• Plan and conduct workshops and other capacity building activities to reinforce the capacity of country offices to adopt a systematic approach to policy analysis and impact assessment.
• Plan and conduct data collection activities in countries where WorldFish operates.
• Initiate research proposal development and contribute to the design of new projects.
• Work with WorldFish scientists to collaboratively develop a portfolio of high-profile peer-reviewed publications.
• Perform other relevant duties as requested by the supervisor(s).

Requirements

• PhD Degree in an appropriate field of social science (rural/development sociology, agriculture economics, agriculture/fisheries and aquaculture extension, or related field.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in statistical analysis, quantitative/qualitative questionnaire survey design, and data collection and management.
• Demonstrated knowledge in using mobile data collection platforms (e.g., CommCare, Open Data Kit) and statistical software, such as STATA, GAMS, R, and Matlab.
• Demonstrated experience in qualitative/quantitative research and evaluation, and agriculture/aquaculture impact assessment.
• Experience to carry out quantitative socio-economic and environmental analysis with particular reference to on-farm trial and on-farm-performance studies.
• Competency with quantitative research analytical tools, methodologies and analyses.
• High degree of cultural sensitivity and proven record of effective working relationships in multi-disciplinary, diverse teams particularly in developing countries.
• Able to multitask and work within deadlines with minimum supervision.
• Strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to work in multi-cultural and interdisciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication skills and high proficiency in written and spoken English.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Previous experience in the aquaculture or fishery sectors.
• Experience to design social network studies and conduct cluster analysis (hierarchical clustering, latent class analysis, etc.).
• Ability to design social network studies and conduct graph theory analysis (e.g., centrality measurements).
• Ability and willingness to lead and carry out field work in developing countries.
• Fully familiar with state of the art computer programs and other software for data capture, storage, retrieval and analyses of data.
• Publications and resource mobilization track record.
• Experience from the private sector and international organizations.
• Good project management skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel.

Salary & Benefits

This is an Internationally Recruited Staff (IRS) position and WorldFish offers a competitive remuneration package including comprehensive benefits including (but not limited to) housing allowance*, relocation and repatriation assistance*, dependent education allowance*, home leave entitlement*, comprehensive insurance coverage for staff and eligible dependents, and pension/provident fund contribution.

Note: Items marked () are not applicable to staff recruited as Home Country Internationals (nationals of the country of posting). All benefits are subject to terms and conditions.**

Recruitment Process

The position will be based at WorldFish headquarters in Penang, Malaysia. Interviews are expected to be held in March 2022 and only shortlisted candidates will be notified and expected to attend the virtual interview. The successful candidate should be available to commence as soon as possible for an initial of two (02) years fixed-term contract, with a high probability of contract renewal depending on performance and funding situation. Due to the high volume of applicants for WorldFish positions, we appreciate all interest, but only shortlisted candidates will be notified.