Vacancy Announcement: Researcher (Food Systems) – APHRC

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a leading Africa-based, African-led, international research institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. APHRC conducts policy-relevant research on population, health, education, urbanization and related development issues in sub-Saharan Africa.

APHRC seeks to recruit a Researcher towork in the Nutrition and Food Systems Unit within the Research Division, mainly focusing on research on food systems.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Conduct research on food systems which may include community-based, school based or desk-based research including applied research. Tasks may include study conceptualization and design, project management and coordination including training of field workers, supervision of field work and data management, data analysis, report writing.
• Conduct research to understand linkages between climate change, food systems and nutrition to inform food systems transformation and climate action.
• Develop and test strategies to inform policy & practice to catalyze food systems transformation to enhance food security and nutrition as appropriate.
• Lead and contribute to proposal development.
• Lead and contribute to scientific writing.
• Supervise, mentor and train junior research staff at the Center.
• Lead policy engagement, knowledge translation and communication to appropriate audiences.

Qualifications, Skills, and Experience

• PhD in Nutrition, Public Health, Food Systems or closely related fields.
• Strong writing skills and good record of publications on relevant areas in sub- Saharan Africa.
• At least three years’ post-doctoral experience in research in Food Systems including research related to food production, distribution, value addition, consumption and relationship with nutrition and health.
• Experience in developing proposals and attracting research grants, particularly in maternal, child, adolescent nutrition or food systems.
• Demonstrated experience in managing research teams and partnerships.
• Proven experience in conducting household surveys.
• Strong quantitative skills (managing, analyzing and interpreting data), with extensive familiarity with quantitative statistical packages (e.g. STATA, SAS or SPSS).
• Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (e.g. MS Word, MS PowerPoint and MS Excel).
• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills and ability to work in a culturally diverse team.

Desirable

• Expertise/experience in maternal, infant and young child nutrition/nutrition in the first 1000 days plus, child nutrition including preschool and school going children, and adolescent nutrition.
• Expertise in human-rights based approach to food systems.
• Experience with work on climate change including linking climate change and nutrition and health.
• Expertise in qualitative methods, including familiarity with qualitative analysis software packages (e.g. NVivo).

The successful candidate may be appointed at Associate Research Scientist (3-5 years after PhD), Research Scientist (6-11 years after PhD) or Senior Research Scientist (12+ years after PhD) levels depending on experience and track record. These positions are classified under Internationally Recruited Positions (IRP), Grades II to V in our scales.