Associate Scientist: Behavioral Change - Alliance Bioversity & CIAT

The Alliance of Bioversity International (www.bioversityinternational.org) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (www.ciat.cgiar.org) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.

The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

About the position

This position will strengthen social science and behavioral change aspects within the Excellence in Agronomy Initiative of the CGIAR. The position is based in Ghana with much of the focus in the West and Central Africa Region. The position will support EiA Use Case teams in implementing user and behavior research considering the diversity of needs, preferences and behavior determinants of different user groups with a particular focus on gender and other marginalized groups.

This will require creating and coordinating strategies that catalyze behavioral change among implementing teams and partners, including training of these teams and supporting the designing of protocols and tools.

Thus, the position is aimed to integrate and monitor behavioral science research activities/interventions within EiA implementation mostly in the West and Central Africa region and if needed in other EiA regions, including a timely collection of robust data. It will function as part of the behavior change the working group of the EiA

Main responsibilities

• Contribute to EiA use case teams in implementing user and behavior research in order to understand the diversity of needs, preferences, and behavioral determinants of different user groups with regard to particular solutions, with a particular focus on gender and other marginalized groups
• Co-develop and deploy user research and behavior change toolkit for the Use Case Teams
• Contribute to the integration and monitoring of user and behavior change research into the protocols of the EiA Use Case workflow
• Support the behavior change, a working group within EiA
• Advise use case teams on how to integrate user and behavior change research results into the product design process, collaborating closely with the human-centered and UX Design experts in EiA.
• Design and coordinate training of CGIAR and NARS scientists and partners in user and behavior research methods especially within West and Central Africa region or as needed
• Collaborate with colleagues and teams across EiA that have methodological links to user and behavior change research
• Lead the design of a user and behavior change research database that integrates qualitative and quantitative data on the different user groups across use cases and target countries
• Undertake and support synthesis of multiple datasets and embed learnings into the program MVP solutions
• Identifies opportunities to collaborate and develops, in timely manner, new projects with various partners.

Education and requirements

• PhD with relevant research experience in social science or anthropology
• Proven experience in applying user and behavior change research, experienced in mixed methods research.
• Author of at least 5 articles published in ISI journals.
• Contributes to the development and implementation of at least one (1) successful proposal.
• Knowledge of Design Thinking, human-centered design, or user-experience design approaches
• Experience with working in the global south, ideally in the agricultural sector
• Previous experience in CGIAR or similar organizations is a plus.
• Good analytical skills to communicate Science at a higher level and also communicate with policymakers.
• Deep knowledge of the ongoing national needs and regional priorities of the Western African region and how this position can ride on this.
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills in the English language.
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary and multi-cultural environment.
• Ability to liaise with other project-implementing multi-disciplinary teams.
• Must be able to work independently with minimum supervision, but also participate as a team member in the accomplishment of duties.
• Strong ability to coordinate, prioritize and organize workload; take initiative and work under pressure.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Commitment to Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT’s mission and core values