Senior Research Associate, Nourishing Food Pathways

Key Responsibilities include

• Supporting the implementation of high-quality, technically sound research activities in alignment with GAIN and other relevant research good practice guidelines, including refining research questions and methodology, developing research plans, and interacting with partners and contractors as needed to carry out the activities
• Carrying out literature reviews, stakeholder consultations, evidence synthesis, and other desk activities from development of the approach through to implementation, report writing, and publication/dissemination
• Supporting in-country field implementation of research, evaluation, learning, and knowledge management activities, including visiting study sites and interacting with project partners (e.g., implementing partners, consultants, contractors) to ensure timely and quality progress
• Contributing to or leading the development of project reports and other knowledge products, including research articles, briefings, presentations, and associated tables/figures
• Communicating technical topics to colleagues and external partners by preparing and presenting reports, and blog posts, organizing and delivering presentations, and facilitating events as needed
• Managing and organising processes such as procurement of goods and services, budgeting and forecasting, and contracting as related to the NFP research work, particularly in country office.
• Serving as the main contact point with local partner organizations, such as data collection firms, and overseeing their work in both technical and logistical aspects
• Supporting the Project Manager in preparing donors’ reports in collaboration with project teams, technical teams, funding team and support teams.
• Proactively identifying and reporting any issues with implementing the project, addressing them where feasible, and proactively seeking support where issues require wider attention and resolution.

About You

• The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience in critical analysis skills to support with evidence generation and reporting. You will have experience in research using both quantitative and qualitive methodologies in policy analysis, political economy, food/nutrition or related fields. You will have hands-on experience doing programmatically relevant research in Kenya, independently, and in collaboration with local research counterparts.
• Candidates with experience in other countries, particularly in East Africa and demonstrable understanding of nutrition and food systems, the policy process or of environmental sustainability or gender issues related to food systems would be an asset.
• The postholder should have strong communication and presentation skills and willing to work with diverse groups/individuals. You will be proficiency in written and spoken English, candidates will knowledge in French would be an advantage. In addition, you should be highly flexible and able to travel domestically regularly and international occasionally.
• A Master’s degree in nutrition, agriculture, sustainable development, economics, development studies, policy/political economy or related field. You will have skills with data analysis software, such as R, Stata, SAS, or SPSS; or nVivo or ATLAS.ti and formal training in research methods.
• The ideal candidate will also have knowledge on both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, including analysis of survey data, in nutrition, agriculture, or closely related field. Candidates with ability to create high quality and innovative data visualizations (for communication of findings to expert and non-expert audiences) would be an advantage.