Senior Research Analyst, Sustainable Agriculture, Food, Land and Water Program, WRI India

About your role

The Food, Land and Water Program at WRI India is seeking a Senior Program Research Analyst to support the ongoing work on Landscape Restoration in India. Larger focus of the work is to unlock the potential of a restoration economy to improve rural jobs and livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, build regenerative agricultural systems, and mitigate climate change impacts by protecting and restoring natural ecosystems and biodiversity. Centering the focus on equity and inclusion, your role would be to conduct deep research on benefits of sustainable agricultural practices with an aim to inform private investments and policy decisions, reduce policy barriers and design incentives that can trigger widescale social, environmental, and economic impacts.You will be someone who has an advanced degree in development studies, environmental governance, public policy, or related fields and minimum six years of full-time, relevant post-study work experience. Interdisciplinary research background in agriculture, environment studies. The position holder must be willing to travel to remote locations in the country.

How your day will unfold : I. Research (70%)

• Develop evidence-based research on benefits sustainable agriculture. This would include undertaking research, developing research frameworks, and informed strategies to reduce barriers and increase incentives for a diverse partner to launch, scale, and pivot towards a regenerative restoration economy.
• Support the identification, stocktaking and analysis of important partners, policies and regulations, including barriers to their implementation for the regenerative restoration economy through research. This will include desk-based review of government data, published literature, and grey literature, and primary data collection from key stakeholders.
• Develop high-quality knowledge products (reports, policy briefs, working papers) that encapsulate research findings and communicate these to diverse audiences, to strengthen the enabling (policy) ecosystem and incentives for the regenerative restoration economy to flourish in India.
• Support the key government departments in organizing targeted ‘Restoration Dialogues’- a multi-stakeholder platform for fostering interdepartmental collaborative developing convergence of public funding for integrating ecosystem services in the policy incentives, implementing and scaling sustainable and regenerative agriculture.II. Partnerships, engagement and communication (30%)
• Work closely with food, land and water team in WRI India to incorporate ecosystem services for transforming food systems including production systems and upscaling sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
• Develop networks with important partners including governments, research organizations and universities, civil society organizations, and corporate sector for implementing and upscaling sustainable and regenerative agriculture and building sustainable landscapes in India.
• Support with development of communication and outreach strategy and material like brochures, web content, op-eds, blogs with the communications team.
• Provide capacity-building support to programme partners in understanding frameworks and tools developed for assessing ecosystems services flowing from landscape level interventions around sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
• Support different activities of the programm including organizing roundtables, workshops, seminars, meetings etc. related to Restoration Dialogues.
• Support in identifying important mentors through the knowledge network Qualifications and requirements we seek :
• Master's degree in agriculture, Development Studies, Environmental studies, Natural Resource Management, or similar fields.
• At least 4 to 7 years of experience in policy research relating to relating to ecosystem service valuation in food, agriculture, and natural resource management sector.
• Knowledge of agriculture, landscape restoration is essential.
• Knowledge of and experience with quantitative and qualitative tools for both primary and secondary research.
• Excellent / Research, interpersonal / written communication skills
• Ability to present complex information
• Ability to work calmly under high pressure and ability to think creatively.
• Demonstrated skills preparing program documents, reports, policy briefs etc. and team management.
• Communicate clearly and effectively in conversation and writing, including professional-quality writing for policy and communications products.
• Fluency in spoken and written English and Hindi is essential.
• Take the initiative, brainstorm, think creatively, juggle multiple priorities and work under pressure with tight deadlines. You must be willing to try new approaches and ideas.
• Flexible with capacity to multi-task and prioritize, having ability to manage the tasks with minimum guidance
• Proficiency in Microsoft Suite is a requirement. Salary and Benefits : INR 11,00,000 to INR 13,00,000 CTC

Salary shall be commensurate with experience and skills. WRI offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package. Location :   New Delhi, India

Duration : The position is a one year position (extendable based on performance and project requirements). The start date is as soon as possible.