Vacancy title:
Senior Regional Technical Specialist - Natural Resource Management (NRM) & Infrastructure

[Type: FULL_TIME, Industry: Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, Category: Science & Engineering, Business Operations, Social Services & Nonprofit, Civil & Government, Agribusiness, Agricultural Services & Products, Environment, Non-profits, Foundations & Philanthropists, Agronomist]

Jobs at:
International Fund for Agricultural Development

Deadline of this Job:
Wednesday, December 10 2025

Duty Station:
NAIROBI | Nairobi | Kenya

Summary
Date Posted: Saturday, December 6 2025, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

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JOB DETAILS:

Organizational Setting

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at local, national and international levels for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

The Office of Technical Delivery is responsible for providing expert technical guidance to IFAD teams engaged in the design and implementation of projects and programmes to deliver the high technical quality investments that facilitate rural transformation, and which comply with IFAD's mandate and operational policies. The Office ensures IFAD applies and disseminates state of the art knowledge in its investments and evidence on strategic themes and encourages the innovative application of global knowledge and evidence in IFAD investments. This helps countries tackle complex development challenges in fostering inclusive and sustainable rural transformation including mainstreaming areas. The Office of Technical Delivery (OTD) is led by a Managing Director and is comprised of two (2) divisions: the Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion Division (ECG) and the Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division (PMI).

The Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division (PMI) facilitates improved and efficient delivery of IFAD's corporate mandate, predominantly through the quality of the design and implementation of its policies, country strategies and projects. Key functions and activities of PMI include Quality Enhancement, Policy Engagement, Networking and Strategic Partnerships. PMI's technical mandate covers a range of themes, all of which are key to deliver IFAD's strategic framework, including: agronomy, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, markets and value chains, agriculture research for development (AR4D), ICT4D, inclusive rural finance (including PARM, INSURED and remittances), rural institutions and farmers organizations, rural infrastructure, water, land and natural resources management.

PMI is led by a Divisional Director.

Job Role

The Senior Technical Specialist serves as IFAD's technical expert in their area of expertise. The position supports country/regional programs by providing state-of-the-art global technical advice throughout the project cycle (strategic and operational), as well as contributes to the corporate agenda, in their technical area of expertise.

Within their areas of responsibility, the Senior Technical Specialist exercises a high degree of independence in providing reliable programme delivery. The incumbent at this level performs the full complexity range of work independently, including the analysis and approval of complex and/or precedent setting cases with the aim to ensure cohesion and synergy in the application of technical advice and provision of programme development support. The incumbent works collaboratively with the thematic Technical Specialists, Country Directors (CD)/Heads of Multi-country Offices (MCO) and other staff to ensure consistency, cohesion and synergy in the application of technical advice and provision of programme development support.

Position specifics:

The Senior Regional Technical Specialist (NRM and infrastructure) - acts as a regional specialist in the area of natural resources management and infrastructure. This would cover areas such as natural resources governance, participatory landscape approaches involving multi-stakeholder processes for land-use planning and restoration of degraded ecosystems, investments in soil and water conservation, and sustainable production technologies and practices as well as postharvest aggregation, value addition and marketing. The specialist provides guidance on tenure system diagnostics and design of interventions to strengthen the tenure security of targeted communities involving both customary and formal tenure systems with emphasis on women and young peoples- access to land and other natural resources.

The incumbent provides guidance on holistic agroecology approaches and practices including the use of farmer-to-farmer experimental learning. The agroecology practices are grounded in the use of agrobiodiversity to create synergies, resources use efficiency and recycling and build resilience by spreading risks. Guidance is provided on the production and use of bio-inputs and practices for integrated soil fertility and pest management, and effective supplementary irrigation, digital and mechanical solutions that can strengthen the production outcomes and incomes for small-scale farmers transitioning to agroecology systems despite impacts from climate change and thereby support inclusive food systems within sustainable bioeconomies that benefit rural vulnerable communities.

The incumbent provides guidance on infrastructure necessary for sustainable natural resources management, including small scale irrigation, soil and water conservation infrastructure, and other production related infrastructure.

The incumbent supports country/regional programs primarily in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, with some support to other regions as required, by providing state-of-the-art technical advice throughout the project cycle, and contributes to the corporate agenda, knowledge building, technical guidelines and dissemination as well as strategy and policy setting. Within the above fields of expertise, the Regional Technical Specialist exercises a high degree of independence in providing technical support to the design and implementation of country programme and/or investment projects.

Key Functions and Results

1.SENIOR TECHNICAL ADVICE: The incumbent provides technically authoritative advice on their area of specialization to improve the capacity of IFAD to position itself as an influential global player in these domains, and to improve related national government policies and programmes and ensure IFAD is regarded as a trusted and valued partner. Accountabilities may include but are not limited to:

• Providing IFAD staff and partners with up-to-date professional advice on policy, institutional and technical issues.
• Contributing to ensure that IFAD senior management is regularly and adequately briefed to engage effectively in high level fora with policy implications for rural transformation.
• Providing senior level technical expertise.

2. KNOWLEDGE AND ADVISORY SERVICES: The incumbent enhances the development of viable and sustainable policies and supports regional and global thematic input through authoritative technical knowledge sharing for their area of specialization. The position will ensure access to the latest sources of knowledge and innovation, strengthen technical capacity and establish new knowledge and advisory partnerships. Accountabilities may include, but are not limited to:

• Supporting intelligence gathering and analysis of debates relevant to inclusive and sustainable rural transformation;
• Supporting the coordination of the relevant knowledge development and dissemination with institutions outside of IFAD, within the region concerned and national Institutions, disseminating knowledge and lessons learned with external partners and stakeholders through publication of Occasional Papers, journal articles, seminars and workshops, through electronic media and the development of new knowledge products and operational tools that are informed by learning from

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 24

Level of Education: postgraduate degree

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