ILRI MSc Graduate fellowship: Gender and animal health

  • May 08, 2024
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Full-time
  • CapDev

 

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit an MSc graduate fellow to work on Gender and animal health. The successful fellow will be hosted by the Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods program at ILRI.    

 

ILRI works to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock. It is the only one of 15 CGIAR research centers (https://www.cgiar.org/) dedicated entirely to animal agriculture research for the developing world. Co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, it has regional or country offices in East, South and Southern Asia as well as Central, East, Southern and West Africa. www.ilri.org    

 

The Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods program seeks to maximize livestock-mediated welfare and livelihoods among women and men smallholder and pastoral producers and their communities and increase the availability of quality animal-source food to poor consumers. https://www.ilri.org/research/programs/policies-institutions-and-livelihoods

 

The position

 

The MSc student will join an interdisciplinary team based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) as part of the “Go Heal Mastitis” project. This groundbreaking initiative seeks to pioneer a phage-based intervention to combat mastitis in goats and mitigate the dependency on antibiotics in Kenyan goat farming. Part of the project mandate is to understand gender and social dynamics that influence the potential uptake of the phage-based intervention with the goal of increasing access and minimizing any unintended negative consequences.

 

The student will assist in all aspects of the qualitative gender research activity from start to finish as described in the Terms of Reference. They will be supported by a gender Scientist and gender Research Associate at ILRI and will join two master’s students who will be assisting with the laboratory component of the project.

 

Terms of reference

 

The successful candidate will be expected to;

 

  1. Conduct literature review on goat mastitis and gender in East Africa.
  2. Design a qualitative study including guides for focus group discussions and key informant interviews that address the team’s research questions.
  3. Help recruit and train a small field team (2-4 people) and conduct fieldwork in Kenya.
  4. Transcribe audio recordings from fieldwork.
  5. Thematic analysis of data using NVivo.
  6. Help team in writing a peer-reviewed journal article and be a co-author.
  7. Prepare an output to share findings back with the community (e.g. poster, one page brief, small talk).

 

Minimum requirements for the ideal candidate

 

The ideal candidate should

 

  • Hold a BSc degree in sociology, anthropology, gender studies, community development, or a related topic.
  • Possess work experience (1+ years) on a field-based research or development project an added advantage.
  • Have experience with livestock or agriculture an added advantage.
  • Demonstrate experience with collecting qualitative data an added advantage.
  • Be fluent in English and preferably Swahili.
  • Be enrolled in an MSc degree in the stated related fields at an East African University.
  • Ideally have completed coursework in an MSc degree in the stated related fields above is an added advantage but not required.

 

Location: ILRI Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Duration: 2 years.

 

Terms of appointment and stipend: ILRI will offer a competitive stipend to cover living expenses in the project location, meet medical cover, tuition costs and  research expenses. The successful candidate will be supervised jointly by an ILRI scientist and a JKUAT academic supervisor.

 

All applications MUST include the following (applications without the below documents will not be considered):

 

  • a cover letter expressing their interest in the fellowship position and what they can bring to the fellowship.
  • CV including names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience.
  • academic qualification certificates/transcripts.

 

Applications should be made to the Capacity Development Manager, through our recruitment portal http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 08/05/2024. The position title and reference number ILRI PhD GF/AHH/05/2024 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

 

Apply Now