Postdoctoral Fellow – Climate, Peace and Conflict

The Organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

Through the development of CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security, CGIAR aims to unpack the linkages- and address knowledge gaps- with regard to the relationship between climate change and food security to leverage CGIAR expertise for peace and security outcomes. Using a multidisciplinary methodological approach, our main objective is to generate and align climate security-sensitive climate, land, food, and water systems science and evidence with ongoing efforts to address socio-political security, stability, and peace in the realms of policy, programming, and finance.

About the position

CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security is looking for twohighly talentedpolitical Postdoctoral Fellows. The purpose of this position is to support the delivery of high-quality research on climate-related security risks and climate action-peace opportunities, and how land, food, and water system science intersects with understanding and articulating these. Specifically, this position will contribute to increase understanding and evidence of the potential for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, in general, and CGIAR research, in particular, to contribute to peacebuilding and stability.

With a strong background in peace and conflict studies, policy, and related qualitative analysis, the successful candidates will contribute to the following research areas:

1. Evidence 4 Climate Security: Understanding the complexity of climate and security for informed decision-making that is gender sensitive and socially equitable. This research area will help unpack the main impact pathways that link climate, agriculture, and security in different geographies to enrich our knowledge of the complex, context-specific, socially variable, and dynamic pathways through which climate affects the risk of conflict.
2. Programming 4 Climate Security: Developing climate security sensitive operations in agricultural settings. The main goal of this component is to develop a global framework to inform the design and implementation of integrated programming at regional, national, and subnational levels improving interventions, research, policies, and investments to mitigate and prevent conflicts, reduce people’s inequalities, and vulnerabilities, and increase resilience.
3. Policy 4 Climate Security: Articulating the role of food systems in a climate crisis for policies and frameworks. This research area aims to engage with communities, civil society, and governing actors across multiple scales of governance to assess andimprove the coherence, integration, and performance of policies within climate-related and security domains.
4. Finance 4 Climate Security: Leveraging finance by aligning objectives and incentives along the Humanitarian Development and Peace Nexus. This research area aims to identify and prioritize climate adaptation investments that have the greatest peace potential to align climate adaptation and peace and security objectives of governments and donors.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to climate security workstreams within the CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security research initiatives, including those relating to evidence, programming, and policy
• Contribute to the conceptual and theoretical development of climate security innovation products, such as the Climate Security Programming Proofing Guidelines and the Climate Security Governance and Policy toolkit
• Support the designing, conducting, writing, and disseminating of high-quality research and communicating research findings through research papers, journal articles, reports, policy briefs, and other outlets
• Contribute to networking with relevant researchers, policymakers, and civil society actors at national, regional, and international levels
• Support the preparation of research proposals and related fundraising activities
• To support the global rollout of the Climate Security research.
• To support productive global and regional partnerships, institutional relationships, and joint initiatives with select country offices and regional bureaus
• To support scientific/proposal writing, reporting, and fundraising
• To support on the write up of highly quality scientific papers, suitable for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
• Work in collaboration with climate security, peacebuilding, and security analysts, as well as policy- and decision-makers from relevant country and regional level institutions and bodies
• Contribute to the reporting/communication to supervisor and donors and discover/respond to tendering processes
• Support the development of Climate Security innovations such as the proofing guidelines to make CGIAR and partners research and practice climate security sensitive
• Contribute to the development of a theoretical framework and related methodology to assess the peace potential of climate adaptation efforts.
• Support the development of a Climate Security Governance and Policy toolkit to ensure the integration of climate security risks into national policies across targeted countries
• Contribute to peer-reviewed articles, position papers, policy briefs, and commentary

Qualifications and requirements:

• A Ph.D. Degree or MSc in Peace and Conflict Studies, International and political science, and related field
• Proven experience as a researcher initiating and carrying out their own research projects on issues related to climate-related security risks.
• Experience with international research for applied research and development programs
• Experience in international, multi-cultural settings and in interacting with researchers, policymakers, donors, and civil society across a wide range of contexts
• Knowledge of issues relating to climate-related security risks, either more broadly or in-depth to a specific sub-area (e.g., peace and conflict, development, migration, or organizational responses);
• Knowledge of qualitative research methods;
• A record of publications commensurate with the length of time worked in research;
• Ease of working in oral and written English and/or French, with further language proficiency being an advantage.
• Excellent report writing, communication, and project management skills
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team-oriented, multicultural environment
• Strong conceptual thinking to develop innovative research approaches.

Terms of employment

This is an internationally recruited position and will be based in Pretoria (South Africa) and Cairo (Egypt) but we could consider Nairobi (Kenya), and Dakar (Senegal). The initial contract will be for two (2) years, subject to a trial period of six (6) months, and is renewable based on performance and availability. This is a position at level BG08, on a scale of 14 levels, with level 14 being the highest.

The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with a competitive salary and excellent benefits. We are an equal opportunity employer, and strive for gender, diversity, and inclusion in our staff, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic.