CHARITY JOBS IN AFRICA

Organization: Development Alternatives, Inc.
Country: Liberia
Closing date: 22 Dec 2014

DAI leads the USAID-funded Liberia Food and Enterprise Development (FED) program, a comprehensive and market-driven effort to improve food security—in terms of food availability, utilization, and affordability—by building indigenous incentive structures that assist a range of agricultural stakeholders to adopt a commercial approach.

USAID Liberia’s programs operate within the US Foreign Assistance Framework for ‘rebuilding countries’ with the respective goal to: “Assist in the construction or reconstruction of key internal infrastructure and market mechanisms to stabilize the economy.” The Mission’s strategy focuses on ‘lifting Liberia’ to the next tier: i.e., from a rebuilding country to a developing country and beyond. As a contribution toward the achievement of this goal, the Food and Enterprise Development (FED) Program will be implemented to achieve the following component objectives:

• Component 1: Increase agricultural productivity and profitability and improve human nutrition;
• Component 2: Stimulate private enterprise growth and investment; and
• Component 3: Build local technical and managerial human resources to sustain and expand accomplishments achieved under objectives one and two.

The FED program is the USAID Mission’s principal mechanism to achieve the goals of its Feed the Future 2011-2015 Multi-Year Strategy.

DAI is seeking a Special Studies and Surveys Advisor to support FED project implementation, under Subtask 1.1 of the project that calls for studies and surveys to inform FED programming as well as to feed into policy development towards improvement of food-based value chains. In FY15, FED will carry out special studies that will help to inform programming towards the pursuit of USAID FED’s mandate. These studies will provide a basis for USAID FED to adjust targets and/or enhance strategies in FY15 and FY16 on specific thematic areas. FED will also continue to carry out surveys on yields of rice, cassava and vegetables to determine impact of the program’s intervention and at the same time provide a realistic benchmark for targets.

The Special Studies and Surveys Advisor position is a short-term technical assistance assignment running from December 2014/January 2015 through September 2015, with an anticipated level of effort of approximately 150 days. The position is based in Monrovia, Liberia with required travel to FED project sites across the country. The Studies and Surveys Advisor who will take the lead in the implementation of the following studies and surveys for FED:

• Yield Crop survey 2015 (Cassava and Rice)
• Agricultural Costs Baseline Survey 2015
• Vegetable Yields and Sales Analyses
• Sales Values and Volumes Survey (rice and cassava) 2015
• Harvesting and Post-Harvest Losses in Rice, Vegetables and Cassava
• Goat Production and Losses using Shelters
• Optimal Goat Shelter Size and Materials
• Household Baseline Study: Dietary Diversity Index (DDI) 2015 (with special focus on women’s diet)
• Assessment of the Voucher Program 2014 (Completion in 2015)
• Baseline study on Women’s Agriculture Empowerment Index in FED’s core counties
• Study on effectiveness of FED’s training and extension support
• Financing needs of FED beneficiaries

Tasks:

• Development of an implementation plan to carry out the studies and surveys including identification of cost-effective methodologies
• Development of SOWs and qualifications for firms, STTAs/consultants and enumerators to be hired
• Development of activity proposals in TAMIS with support from the M&E team and relevant component and sub-component leads
• Take the lead in the hiring of firms, STTAs/consultants and/or enumerators
• Provide oversight to the implementation of the surveys and studies ensuring correctness of methodology, statistical acceptability, data quality and timely completion of the studies
• Provide training to implementing firms. consultants and enumerators as needed to ensure quality of studies and surveys
• Ensure proper coordination with appropriate private sector and government agencies as well as with FED county offices and technical units
• Coordinating review and finalization of study and survey reports for submission to USAID
• Coordination of presentation of findings to partners and relevant stakeholders in knowledge sharing forums
• Ensure that USAID approved reports are uploaded to the DEC
• Preparation of monthly and quarterly report detailing progress of the surveys and studies

Deliverables:

Completion, presentation of findings to relevant stakeholders and submission of reports of the following studies and surveys:

• Yield Crop survey 2015 (Cassava and Rice)
• Agricultural Costs Baseline Survey 2015
• Vegetable Yields and Sales Analyses
• Sales Values and Volumes Survey (rice and cassava) 2015
• Harvesting and Post-Harvest Losses in Rice, Vegetables and Cassava
• Goat Production and Losses using Shelters
• Optimal Goat Shelter Size and Materials
• Household Baseline Study: Dietary Diversity Index (DDI) 2015 (with special focus on women’s diet)
• Assessment of the Voucher Program 2014 (Completion in 2015)
• Baseline study on Women’s Agriculture Empowerment Index in FED’s core counties
• Study on effectiveness of FED’s training and extension support
• Financing needs of FED beneficiaries

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Development Studies, Applied Statistics, Economics, Social Studies disciplines or other relevant fields
• At least 8 years related experience in surveys, research in agricultural and socio-economic studies in developing countries.
• Relevant knowledge in agriculture or rural development quantitative analysis;
• Additional education may substitute for required experience, to the extent permitted.
• Working knowledge of SPSS or STATA;
• Experience leading teams doing a similar assignment
• Experience working with USAID-funded projects a plus
• Demonstrated English language fluency (written and spoken)
• Experience working in agricultural development in Liberia a plus.

Supervisory Responsibilities:The SSSA will supervise the sub-contracted firms, consultants and enumerators for the studies and surveys.

Reporting:The Special Studies and Surveys Advisor will report to the FED COP, but will work closely with the FED M&E Specialist.

How to apply:

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply directly to DAI at: http://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH13/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=DAINC&cws=1&rid=1749