Research Officer - Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience

About IRC: The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC has been working in Pakistan for over 30 years and manages and delivers large, complex programs to meet needs in protection, health, education, environmental health, and livelihoods for displaced, poor and conflict-affected communities. The IRC is currently working in partnership with non-governmental organizations and closely coordinating with district and local governments in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan and Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Job Overview/Summary: The Research Officer will provide support to the Project Coordinator in carrying out research to assess the state of seed security and seed banking in Pakistan. The duties include collecting and analyzing data, creating reports and presentations to communicate research results, working with cross-functional teams, and keeping abreast of the latest developments in seed security. The Research Officer will also assist in conducting interactive discussions with stakeholders to gather their views on seed security. They will summarize the research findings and workshop outcomes and provide recommendations for enhancing seed security in the country. The Research Officer will collaborate with key stakeholders, including Unilever, to refine the solution design and work with the technical team to organize the partner co-creation process.

Major Responsibilities: As the Research Officer for the Seed Security/Banking project, your main task is to research and analyze seed security and seed banking practices. Some of your key responsibilities will include:

- Assist the research on seed security and seed production in Pakistan, This may involve collecting data through surveys, interviews, and secondary sources, analyzing the information, and creating reports to document findings.

- Gathering, analyzing and interpreting data on seed security and banking practices and identifying gaps in the existing seed security system.

- Creating reports, presentations, and other materials to present the research findings to internal and external stakeholders.

- Collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure the research objectives align with project goals and NDCs/SDGs.

- Staying up-to-date on trends and advancements in seed security and seed banking, especially in light of changing climate conditions.

- Conducting interactive discussions and activities to allow stakeholders to share their perspectives on seed security.

- Summarizing the outcomes of the workshop and identifying potential collaboration areas to improve seed security in Pakistan.

- Supporting the Project Coordinator and research team in preparing reports and case studies.

- Engaging with key stakeholders, including Unilever, to get their feedback and refine the solution design.

- Coordinating and facilitating the partner co-creation process with Pakistan's technical team, advisory group, and sector experts.

- Based on the research findings, the research officer may need to develop recommendations for improving seed security and seed production in Pakistan. This may involve working with relevant stakeholders to implement these recommendations and promote best practices.

- Building partnerships with other organizations, including universities and research institutions, to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing. This could include organizing workshops, trainings, and other events to bring stakeholders together.

Operational: Work with the operations team to develop, implement and maintain our climate-friendly operational footprints and support the communities' resilience by strengthening local institutional capacities.

Position Requirements

- Bachelor's or master’s degree in agriculture/ agronomy/ horticulture or a related field

- Strong research and analytical skills

- Knowledge of the seed security in Pakistan

- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

- Ability to work in a collaborative and cross-functional team.

Skills and Competencies

- The Research Officer will support the Seed Security and Climate-Smart Agriculture project by providing technical expertise.

- Have a strong understanding of climate and resilience issues and the ability to apply that knowledge to solve problems.

- They will have experience in building capacity and managing knowledge around Farmer Field School, seed certification mechanisms, and integrated learning programs on climate-smart agriculture.

- Have familiarity with monitoring and evaluation frameworks and practices in development, stabilization, and humanitarian response work environments.

- Must be able to work effectively with multicultural and multidisciplinary teams and possess excellent communication skills in both Urdu and English.

- Should also have proficient computer skills, including proficiency in MS Office applications.

Language Skills: English, Urdu, and other local languages will be a plus.

The IRC Core Values and Commitments:

- The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

- IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.

Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children

IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.

- IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.