RTI International is an independent
organization dedicated to conducting innovative, multidisciplinary research
that improves the human condition. With a worldwide staff of more than 4,000
people, RTI offers innovative research and development and a full spectrum of
multidisciplinary services. Universities
The project is part of the Feed the
Future program, America’s initiative to combat global hunger and poverty. The
project will spur competitive, resilient market systems in Kenya’s horticulture
and dairy sectors.
in North Carolina founded RTI in 1958 as a centerpiece of the Research Triangle
Park.
RTI has partnered with USAID on a
5-year cooperative agreement project, Kenya Crops & Dairy Market Systems
(KCDMS) Activity, to help increase agricultural production and reduce poverty
and malnutrition in Kenya.
RTI is currently seeking to fill
vacancies for the KCDMS project.
In this regard, we are currently
seeking applications for the following positions:
Sr. Agricultural Policy and Institutional
Capacity Building Specialist – Nairobi based
1 Position
The Sr. Agricultural Policy &
Institutional Capacity Building Specialist is responsible for leading Priority
Area 3, Policy Environment for Market Systems Development. S/he will facilitate
public-private dialogue forums, engaging public sector stakeholders, including
county governments to improve national and county level policy formulation
related to target value chains.
This position will be based in
Nairobi, Kenya, with frequent travel to Western, Nyanza and Eastern Kenya.
The Sr. Agricultural Policy &
Institutional Capacity Building Specialist will lead and coordinate the
implementation of the project activities and provide technical expertise.
S/he maintains relationships with key
sector partners, donors, consultants, host country counterparts and
stakeholders; collaborates with colleagues across RTI on technical,
administrative, and strategic planning initiatives; ensures successful implementation
of project.
Ensures best practices and lessons
learned are captured and disseminated across project; may serve as a
representative of the project to clients, stakeholders, and partners, providing
key inputs for technical or management decisions and is responsible for
managing program deliverables including planning and coordination of all
activities.
Key Responsibilities:
·
Support initial value chain
assessment and strategy development, including serving as the primary liaison
for RTI home office governance short-term technical experts.
·
Develop and maintain relationships
with national and county level public and private sector stakeholders in
agriculture sectors.
·
Lead the project’s strategy for
working through county governments and improving policy formulation processes.
·
Facilitate public-private dialogue
between county governments and private agribusinesses.
·
Develop, adapt, and oversee
implementation of governance self-assessment and participatory tools.
·
Build capacity of county governments
to make productive investments in agriculture and utilize data to drive
decision-making; provide ongoing support to government counterparts to
implement action plans and evaluate investments; organize cross-county learning
and exposure visits.
·
Train local partners as service
providers for the public sector.
·
Lead interventions to improve
accountability of public sector agricultural service delivery
·
Design and lead capacity building
interventions for national-level private sector associations to analyze and
advocate for enabling policies.
·
Oversee grant management in the KCDMS
project, with special focus on project Priority Area 3
·
Manage a team of approximately 3
staff based in regional hubs (Kisumu, and Wote).
·
Contribute to grants management with
attention to Policy matters.
·
Contribute to monitoring and
evaluation, learning, and reporting and provide technical oversight and support
all data tracking by the in M&E staff of the sub-grantees with attention to
policy matters.
·
Contribute to Social Inclusion
activities in line with policy matters.
Qualifications:
·
Master’s degree in public
administration, economics, business, agricultural or rural development and at
least 9 years of experience in agricultural policy or market systems projects;
·
Experience in economic growth, agricultural
development, or governance programs is required.
·
Demonstrated understanding of private
sector agribusiness and investment; Knowledge of market facilitation approach
(or M4P) is preferred.
·
Demonstrated knowledge of Kenyan
agricultural policy environment, including county-integrated development plans,
food safety standards, traceability systems, seed and fertilizer policies, and
animal feed policies.
·
Demonstrated success building
relationships with Kenyan government and private sector stakeholders.
·
Knowledge of global best practices
for local governance and accountability.
·
Experience with organizational
capacity assessments and institutional capacity strengthening.
·
Experience in Kenya is required.
·
Experience with USAID grant-making is
an added advantage.
·
Ability to build consensus and
demonstrated ability to recruit and develop high performing teams; demonstrated
ability to manage international and national staff.
·
Experience and demonstrated capacity
to build and sustain partnerships to achieve development results.
Nutrition & Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) Specialist – Nairobi based
(1 Position)
The
Nutrition/BCC Specialist will support Priority Area 2, Diverse production and
improved agricultural productivity providing technical assistance for the
development of Agri-nutrition implementation strategies and interventions.
The
Specialist will oversee implementation of the programme by the partners,
provide supportive supervision, evaluate program effectiveness, identify
obstacles and institute corrective measures, if needed while maintaining
productive relationships with relevant stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
·
Lead the development of the
activity’s strategy for applying a nutrition-sensitive agriculture approach
throughout all project interventions.
·
Lead, design and oversee
implementation of SBCC strategies to promote production, consumption, and sale
of local nutritious foods.
·
Collaborate with project partners on
research and learning related to behavioural barriers to nutrition practices;
continuously design and adapt interventions to overcome identified barriers.
·
Partner with private sector firms and
associations to co-develop marketing strategies for nutrient-rich agricultural
products.
·
Train project partners (such as
sub-grantees, field staff, public extension agents, etc.) on the promotion of
homestead food production, particularly of vegetables, to increase the
year-round availability, access and consumption of nutrient-rich foods.
·
Collaborate with other USAID (and
non-USAID) projects supporting Agri/nutrition activities; share learnings;
ensure consistent messaging; leverage existing materials and curriculums.
·
Design and oversee interventions to
promote hygienic food handling and preparation at the homestead and community
levels.
·
Collaborate with other technical
staff on the promotion of practices and technologies to reduce aflatoxin and
other contaminants in target commodities as food safety measure.
·
Contribute to grants management with
particular attention to Nutrition and behavior change communication.
·
Contribute to monitoring and
evaluation, learning, and reporting and provide technical oversight and support
all data tracking by the in M&E staff of the sub-grantees with attention to
nutrition and behavior change communication,
·
Contribute to Social Inclusion
activities in line with nutrition and behavior change communication.
·
Ensure project activities meet USAID
(SUAP) and NEMA environmental compliance requirements
·
Collaborate with staff and partners
across all priority areas to ensure cross-fertilization of ideas and
coordination of activities.
·
Identify and document technical best
practices and lessons learned and compile biweekly/monthly reports on project
activities accomplished during those periods.
·
Report directly to the Director for Productivity
Component 2 on all aspects that pertains to the achievement of results.
·
Any other duties as assigned by your
supervisor.
Qualifications:
·
Bachelor’s degree; Master’s-level
degree in nutrition, public health, or related field preferred.
·
Minimum 8 years’ experience in
nutrition or health programs in Kenya; Experience in nutrition-sensitive
agriculture programs preferred.
·
Demonstrated technical expertise in
nutrition sensitive agriculture; Understanding of agriculture-to-nutrition
pathways.
·
Experience overseeing behaviour
change campaigns.
·
Knowledge of food safety practices.
·
Familiarity with dairy and
horticulture sectors in Kenya preferred.
·
Reputation for professional
excellence (as evidenced by references and achievements).
·
Strong written communication and
effective cross-cultural interpersonal skills.
·
Language Ability: Oral and written
fluency in English required.
Communication Specialist – Nairobi Based
(1 Position)
The
Communication Specialist will oversee the internal and external USAID-KCDMS communication
functions.
S/He
will develop, and facilitate the implementation of KCDMS’ integrated
communications strategy using a two-pronged approach including;
·
Development Communications- design
messages and Behavior-Change Communication strategies for multiple market
systems stakeholders to promote increased technology adoption and innovations,
good agricultural practice, improved nutrition as well as social inclusion.
·
Corporate Communications-focusing on
enhancing USAID-KCDMS’ increased visibility and credibility among key
stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
·
PR Communications (KCDMS’s increased
visibility and credibility among key stakeholders)
·
Communicate KCDMS performance by
processing, packaging and disseminating a wide range of Information, Education
and Communications (IEC) materials including county profiles, commodity
brochures and reports among relevant stakeholders.
·
Technical Documentation and
Reporting: work in collaboration with component leads to edit, brand, and
finalize KCDMS technical reports including but not limited to Bi-weeklies,
Value chain analysis studies, quarterly and annual reports, and work plans.
·
Knowledge management: Facilitate the
development of USAID-KCDMS Information, Education and Communications (IEC)
materials and effective dissemination of the same through the most appropriate
channels.
·
Maintain the USAID branding and
Marking plan: guide teams internally and externally on the required USAID
branding on a need by need basis while ensuring that the branding requirements
are met.
·
Maintaining the USAID-KCDMS photo
database/video library: Continuously highlight the activity’s interventions
through photography and video documentation.
·
Documentation of success stories:
Production of Snapshots for quarterly reports and success stories for wider
dissemination to stakeholders.
·
Events management: Support the teams
to plan and execute both the internally initiated and industry driven events
and guide on branding requirements.
·
Grantee communications support:
Provide communications support to onboarding grantees on a need by need basis
to help achieve the activity objectives.
·
Development of strategic promotional
materials: work with the component leads, grantees and consultants/service
providers towards the production of messages and tools targeted at diverse
audiences and channels on a need by need basis.
·
Media and publicity support: be a
liaison for USAID-KCDMS media engagements.
·
Digital communications: Provide
support for social media visibility on approved platforms through consistent content
generation.
·
Contribute to the monitoring and
evaluation, learning, and reporting process of the activity.
Qualifications:
·
Bachelor’s degree in Communications,
PR, Mass Media, Information Science or any other relevant course coupled with
training Developmental communication,
·
At least 4 years of relevant
experience in the development space
·
Experience in working with
USAID-funded projects is an added advantage.
·
Experience in designing and
implementing communication strategies.
·
Experience in media relations/management.
·
Experience in designing, developing,
branding, editing and disseminating communication materials to various
stakeholders.
·
Experience in managing digital
communication platforms.
How to Apply
To
apply, please email your cover letter and CV to hrapplications@nb.rti.org by
29th January 2019.
Applicants
must include the, POSITION TITLE and the project name ie (KCDMS Project) in the
subject line of the email.
Please
do not attach copies of certificates.
We
regret that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Please note: RTI
International does not use agents or require any form of payment in the
recruitment process.
We
are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V