Research Fellow – Growth Corridor Science to Policy Project:
Navigating socially accepted trade-offs for equitable green growth
The WWF (World-Wide Fund for Nature) Tanzania aims to sustain Tanzania's outstanding and globally significant natural wealth and biodiversity, and in doing so support local livelihoods and national economic development. WWF is one of the World's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations and WWF Tanzania continues to maintain the standards of excellence in conservation in delivering its country strategy.
The Luc Hoffmann Institute is an independent research hub at WWF responding to global change. Our mission is to co-create solutions and build capacity to address complex environmental, social and economic challenges to achieve conservation impact. We collaborate with world-class experts to address complex conservation questions where solutions are time-dependent and traditional institutions are ill-equipped to respond.
Summary of the Job:
The successful candidate will be involved in conducting collaborative research to achieve a better understanding of interlinkages, potentials and trade-offs between sectors around the growth of commercial agriculture in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The focus of the project is trans-disciplinary and will require combination of desktop, field work, conceptualisation, as well as social data collection and analysis, participatory and social-ecological modelling or other emerging priority areas of research in partnership with the project’s collaborative research team.
Main duties and responsibilities:
Develop a collaborative research program and methods to generate a better understanding of interlinkages, dependencies and potentials between sectors around the growth of commercial agriculture; Support the development of methodologies for the identification of more socially acceptable trade-offs and overview of risks in the context of commercial agriculture; Undertakesocial data collection, participatory and social-ecological modelling, and the elicitation of stakeholder perceptions to understand the potential benefits and impacts of commercial agriculture on social, environmental, and economic pillars across sectors and the “equitable green growth” implications; Support multi-sectoral decision-making process through identification of issues, policy formulation and assessment and monitoring and evaluation; Support capacity built within SAGCOT and with key long-term partners in participatory tools to navigate trade-offs among sectors with the growth of commercial agriculture; Conduct research and publish scholarly papers.
Required Qualifications
Demonstrated research experience in the area of sociology, political science, economics, natural resource management, ecology, geography, environmental science or a related discipline; Demonstrated expert knowledge on the social dimensions of conservation and in conducting stakeholder research; Experience in cross-sector stakeholder engagement, especially in developing countries; An ability to establish effective relationships and to represent and promote academic discipline at the university and with project partners and stakeholders and the wider community level, including industry, government and professional bodies; Evidence of an established record of contribution to research in the form of peer-reviewed publications in the international literature; Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues.
Interested applicants shall send their applications letters, accompanied by comprehensive curriculum vitae, including a list of list of three referees; to Sustainable Consumption and Production Lead, mvirahsawmy@wwfint.org
no later than Friday 13th May 2016 at or before 4.30 pm.
