Principal/Senior Researcher

Work base location: This position will be based in Accra, Ghana or Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Role:

• creatively lead, and provide strategic direction on, IWMI’s research on water quality, agriculture, ecosystems and human health, and synthesize interdisciplinary research in these areas in low-income countries and emerging economies;

• assess different scenarios of environmental and human health impacts of poor water quality use in urban and rural Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-Saharan Africa across scales, preferably based on quantitative risk assessment and geographic information systems (GIS);

• provide institutional, policy and economic solutions for water quality challenges as they derive from agricultural and non-agricultural land use;

• assess risks and risk mitigation options for safeguarding human and environmental health in the developing country context, i.e., also without conventional wastewater treatment;

• assess options for using ecosystem services (e.g., wetlands) for water quality amelioration;

• assess options for resource recovery from waste streams (nutrients, water, biogas), from a technical, institutional and/or (preferably) business perspective;

• develop policy recommendations for assessing and mitigating negative externalities of low water quality in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Health Organization (WHO);

• write project proposals commensurate with IWMI’s strategic objectives;

• supervise staff, and design and supervise field data collection and analysis;

• prepare research reports, journal articles, conference papers and other scientific manuscripts for the dissemination of research results;

• integrate research findings into effective policy recommendations and disseminate information through relevant guidelines and policy briefs, etc.; and

• liaise between IWMI research activities, projects and themes, and, in particular, with the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems, national and international partners, authorities, governments and donors.

It would be useful if you have:

• experience of working and living in developing countries;

• knowledge of WHO 2006 guidelines on safe wastewater irrigation;

• ability to work harmoniously in interdisciplinary and multicultural teams;

• effective project and people management skills to oversee a range of activities and motivate people to successfully complete them;

• ability to analyze, synthesize and write persuasively;

• high degree of innovation, originality and creativity; and

• sound qualitative and quantitative skills.

About IWMI:

The International Water Management Institute (www.iwmi.org) is an international, non-profit research organization dedicated to improving the management of land and water resources for food, livelihoods and the environment. IWMI is a member of CGIAR, an international consortium of agricultural research centers.

How to apply:

To apply for the post, click here.

The closing date: Tuesday, November 13, 2012