Consultant (Climate Information Services) At WorldFish Center

Position: Consultant (Climate Information Services)

Location: Northern and Luapula Province, Zambia

Application Deadline: 15 March 2022

Type of contract: Consultancy Contract

Language(s) required: English (proficient/fluent writing and oral skills)

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

WorldFish is an international, non-profit research and innovation organization reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty across Africa, Asia and the Pacific. For over 45 years, our work on sustainable aquaculture and fisheries has improved the lives of millions of women, men and youth.

Fish and other aquatic foods grown in and harvested from oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds provide income for more than 800 million people and provide 3.3 billion with 20% of their animal protein intake. Our focus on sustainability makes sure that the way we produce and use these foods today means a plentiful future of generations to come.

Our evidence-based solutions range in scale from households to global policies and spans across six interlinked themes: nutrition, gender, climate, sustainability, economy and COVID-19.

We champion aquatic foods for healthy people and planet and believe that a sustainable blue planet of well-nourished children, women and men is within our reach.

ABOUT THE POSITION

WorldFish is implementing the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Bundle, the Integrated Aquaculture Agriculture system in Northern and Luapula Provinces of Zambia as part of the Accelerating Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA Zambia) project. In Zambia’s Northern and Luapula provinces, aquaculture and fisheries have been affected by climate-related extreme weather events such as floods, rising temperatures, and unpredictable rainfall patterns (Ministry on National Development, 2017:35). These climatic hazards ‘have adversely impacted food and water security, water quality, and livelihoods, especially in rural communities’ dependent more on aquatic food systems’ (National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy, Zambia). Aquaculture farmers often lack the resources and information they need to adapt to the effects of climate change. With the frequency and intensity of adverse climate events rising, stakeholders in the sector must take proactive measures to address climate-related challenges to ensure resilience for smallholder farmers.

The CSA bundle seeks to promote integrated aquaculture agriculture and livestock and provide access to improved/quality and resilient fish seed by linking farmers to trained seed producers in their communities.

This CSA bundle will:

i. Promote the integration of aquaculture with small livestock, particularly dual-purpose (village) chickens;

ii. Promote access to improved/quality and resilient fish seed by linking farmers to trained seed producers in their communities;

iii. Strengthen existing fish hatchery operations to ensure availability of high-quality seed/fingerlings of local fish species;

iv. Pilot nutritious ponds and training for a greener environment;

v. Strengthen collaboration with feed companies to bring commercial nutritious pond feed closer to farmers;

vi. Link farmers with off-takers to ensure market access to sell their fish; and

vii. Improve farmer access to climate-smart information services through the integration of aquaculture into the agriculture data hub such as iSAT that will be developed in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

WorldFish is seeking a service provide to contribute to work in the fifth objective on providing climate-smart information services to fish farmers.

WorldFish is soliciting competitive bids from reputable, qualified, and competent service providers/ individual international and/or national consultants to provide services to set up Climate Smart Information services for aquaculture farmers through iSAT. The iSAT system will have some predictive aspects and offer early warnings and other climate related information to help aquaculture farmers make informed decisions.

The service provider will be expected to:

1. Provide significant input into the development and operationalization of a platform to disseminate CIS information on aquaculture to reach a minimum of 70,000 farmers.
2. Develop a Decision support tree based on determination of thresholds for the above mentioned climatic variables for widely cultivated Tilapia species in Northern and Luapula provinces in Zambia Zambia.
3. Develop the algorithm of air-water temperature relationship to link the decision tree to iSAT- decision support system.
4. Participation in stakeholder platform meetings for CIS.
5. 1 Paper publication led by the service provider and co-authored by WorldFish project staff.
6. Ensure gender and social inclusion in the design.

WorldFish and its partners will provide long-term climate data of the communities under focus. WorldFish is also collecting water temperature data from 4 reference ponds from the communities of interest. This data and other relevant baseline information will be provided to the consultant upon request.

Deliverables and Timing

The successful expert or team of experts will produce the following two high-quality deliverables:

1. Technical proposal – 15 March 2022
2. Communication of successful candidate and inception meeting – 30 March 2022
3. Draft Inception report – 15 April 2022
4. Final inception report – 20 April 2022
5. Literature Review on Tilapia species to identify temperature and rainfall thresholds as well as to identify climate-sensitive operations along with management decisions – 15 May 2022
6. Developing the Decision support tree – 30 July 2022
7. Algorithm to link the air temperature with water temperature and the decision tree for Tilapia into the iSAT platform – 30 March 2022
8. Submitted paper manuscript – 15 December 2022

Requirements

This opportunity might be suitable for you if you have the below skills and qualifications:

• Minimum 4 years of relevant experience in developing decision support systems and platforms in agriculture and / aquaculture for providing information and services.
• Experience with climate change research.
• Applied statistical knowledge for developing the air-water temperature relationship.
• Demonstrated research experience as supported by publications.
• Excellent interpersonal skills in working with interdisciplinary research staff.
• Strong fluency in written and oral English.
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines.

Desired Skills and Qualifications

• Working knowledge and experience with ICT, digital services and their application in AR4D.
• Working knowledge and experience working on projects with multiple partners including NGOs and government organizations.
• Ability to travel to research sites and attend at least one face to face meeting with project partners during the course of the assignment. Budget

Applicants should indicate overall budget. This should include indication of fees/per day rates of individuals involved, and any other expenses.
Duration

The successful consultant should be available to commence the consultancy by 1 April 2022. The consultant will have an overall duration of 9 months, with all outputs fully completed by 15 December 2022. This position is open to international applicants only.