Scientist (Impact Research and Analysis of Aquatic Food Systems)

Position: Scientist (Impact Research and Analysis of Aquatic Food Systems)

Location: Penang (Malaysia-HQ)

Application Deadline: 31 July 2022 

Type of contract: 32 months fixed-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 Scientist (Impact Research and Analysis of Aquatic Food Systems) will coordinate the WorldFish Impact Assessment research at WorldFish and for the CGIAR Research Initiative on Resilient Aquatic Food Systems and various bilateral projects.

The recruited Scientist will work with WorldFish colleagues and international partners in designing and conducting research to explore and 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 Scientist will also work on evaluating interventions related to and performance of Aquatic Food Systems and will be directly involved in the Work package 1 “AquaData” of the CGIAR Resilient Aquatic Food Systems Initiative to fills data gaps to unlock the potential of aquatic food systems.

The successful candidate will be responsible to:

• Lead and deliver research and analysis to evaluate socio-economic and environmental performance of aquatic food systems. Develop analytical frameworks and innovative approaches to assess impacts to 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.
• Collaborate to structure a monitoring, evaluation and learning framework and data ecosystem for aquatic food systems in key target countries.
• Lead and conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis on selected case studies related to WorldFish interventions.
• Coordinate, plan and conduct data collection activities in countries where WorldFish operates.
• Initiate research proposal development and contribute to the design of new projects.
• Publishing research papers in quality scientific journals and ensuring that research findings are communicated to the larger scientific and development practitioner community.
• Developing new research proposals and projects.
• Building capacity, skills and knowledge of researchers and strategic partners in relation to impact assessments and research on aquatic food systems
• Perform other relevant duties as requested by the supervisor(s).

Key Requirements

• PhD in an appropriate field of social science (rural/development sociology, agriculture economics, or related field.
• Minimum of 2 years of post-doc experience.
• Proven competency with qualitative and/or quantitative research analytical tools, methodologies and analyses, with demonstrated ability to link social and environmental systems such as community-based management, governance, rural development, agriculture or fisheries, gender and equity, food and nutrition security.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in statistical analysis, survey design, and data collection and visualization.
• Demonstrated knowledge in using mobile data collection platforms (e.g., CommCare, Open Data Kit) and statistical software, such as STATA, GAMS, R, and Matlab.
• Proven scientific writing skills with record of accomplishment of high quality scientific reports and experience in leading or co-authoring scientific journal articles.
• High degree of cultural sensitivity and proven record of effective working relationships in multi-disciplinary, diverse teams particularly in developing countries.
• Good leadership and mentoring skills. 
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to multi task, including experience in leading or managing donor-funded projects (reporting writing and budget management).
• Excellent communication skills and high proficiency in written and spoken English.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Previous experience in the aquaculture or fishery sectors.
• 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.
• Good publication track record.
• Experience from the private sector and international organizations.
• Good project management skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel.