Capacity Building Officer

Reports to: Program Manager, C4RPWC

Location: Ajman, UAE

Purpose of the position

The CGIAR Consortium for Red Palm Weevil Control (C4RPWC) is a multi-partner initiative funded by the International Affairs Office (IAO) of the UAE Presidential Court and the Gates Foundation. Led by ICARDA, the Consortium brings together international research organizations and strategic partners to develop and scale sustainable, science-based solutions for the management of the Red Palm Weevil in low- and middle-income countries.

The Capacity Building Officer will coordinate and support the design, planning, implementation, monitoring, documentation, and continuous improvement of capacity development activities across the C4RPWC Program. The position will work across all technical workstreams and participating countries to ensure that training and capacity development activities are demand-driven, technically sound, well coordinated, properly documented, and aligned with the Program's research, validation, deployment, and scaling objectives. The Officer will report directly to the C4RPWC Project Manager and maintain a dotted-line technical relationship with the ICARDA Capacity Development and Training Team Lead in Rabat, Morocco, ensuring alignment between C4RPWC capacity development activities and ICARDA's broader institutional approaches, standards, tools, and learning systems.

A major focus of the role will be coordinating the Program's Training-of-Trainers (ToT), technical training, Farmer Field School and extension-related learning, Young Career Program, e-learning and training materials, regional knowledge exchange, and other capacity development activities linked to the C4RPWC innovation and scaling pathway.

About ICARDA

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is a treaty-based international non-profit research organization supported by CGIAR.
ICARDA’s mission is to reduce poverty, enhance food, water, and nutritional security, as well as environmental health in the face of global challenges including climate change. We do this through innovative science, strategic partnerships, linking research to development and capacity development that take into account gender equality and the role of youth in transforming the dry areas. ICARDA works in partnership with governments, universities, civil society, national agricultural research organization, other CGIAR Research Centers, and the private sector. With its temporary Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA operates in regional and country offices across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. For more information: www.icarda.org.

Main responsibilities

1. Capacity Development Planning and Coordination

• Coordinate the C4RPWC Capacity Development Plan and annual training calendar, ensuring alignment with workplans, milestones, technical validation activities, and country priorities.

• Work with Workstream Leads, country teams, national partners, and ICARDA's Capacity Development team to identify capacity gaps and translate them into targeted learning interventions.

• Coordinate capacity-development activities across the UAE, Egypt, Tunisia and other participating countries, ensuring consistency while allowing appropriate country adaptation.

• Serve as the C4RPWC focal point for capacity-development coordination and maintain close technical liaison with ICARDA's Capacity Development and Training Team in Rabat.

2. Training, ToT and Learning Materials

• Coordinate Training-of-Trainers and other technical training covering biological control, biotechnology, digital technologies, Citizen Science, GAP/IPM, data management, technology adoption, impact assessment, and other C4RPWC priorities.

• Coordinate participant selection, trainers, agendas, logistics, learning objectives, training evaluations, documentation, and follow-up.

• Support technical experts in converting research outputs and validated technologies into practical training packages, manuals, facilitator guides, presentations, videos, and field materials.

• Coordinate development and deployment of e-learning and CPD-accredited learning modules and support translation/localization of materials where required.

3. Young Career, Farmer and Stakeholder Capacity Development

• Coordinate implementation and monitoring of the C4RPWC Young Career Program, including PhD, MSc, postdoctoral, research-assistant and other early-career development opportunities.

• Maintain records of participating young researchers, supervisors, research topics, institutions, outputs, and progress.

• Coordinate capacity development for farmers, extension personnel, researchers, government staff and other stakeholders through Farmer Field Schools, field days, demonstration activities, stakeholder platforms, and Communities of Practice.

• Facilitate regional and South-South knowledge exchange, including sharing lessons from UAE validation activities with RPW-affected and threatened LMICs.

4. Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

• Maintain a consolidated capacity-development tracker covering training events, participants, outputs, learning materials, and follow-up activities.

• Work with the MEL team to ensure training indicators, evidence, participant information, and results are systematically captured in the Program MEL system.

• Apply appropriate pre/post assessments, participant feedback, and other tools to assess improvements in knowledge, skills, and institutional capacity.

• Prepare concise inputs for quarterly, biannual and annual reporting on capacity-development achievements, challenges, lessons learned, and upcoming priorities.

5. Partnerships, Knowledge Management and Continuous Improvement

• Coordinate capacity-development activities with C4RPWC partners, national institutions, universities, government agencies, and technical teams.

• Work with MEL and Communications and Knowledge Management teams to document good practices, lessons learned, training outcomes, and success stories.

• Maintain an organized repository of training curricula, manuals, presentations, participant records, evaluations, and related capacity-development products.

• Periodically review training effectiveness and recommend improvements to strengthen quality, relevance, sustainability, and potential for scaling.

Education, qualifications, and experience

• Bachelor's degree in agricultural sciences, agricultural extension, education, capacity development, international development, or a related discipline; master's degree desirable.

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in capacity development, training, agricultural extension, learning and development, or research-for-development programs.

• Demonstrated experience designing and coordinating ToTs, technical training, workshops, Farmer Field Schools, e-learning, or similar capacity-development activities.

• Experience translating technical or scientific knowledge into practical learning materials for different audiences.

• Knowledge of adult learning, training-needs assessment, curriculum development, and training evaluation.

• Experience working in multi-country or multi-institutional programs and with government, research, university, and development partners is desirable.

• Strong digital skills, including Microsoft 365 and online learning/training tools; familiarity with MEL systems is an advantage.

• Excellent English communication and coordination skills. Arabic is highly desirable. Willingness to travel to project countries is required.

Terms of appointment, salary, and benefits

This is a nationally recruited staff position open for UAE nationals and residence for which ICARDA offers an attractive compensation package including a competitive salary, medical insurance, 30 days of annual leave, maternity leave, paternity leave. The successful candidate will be offered an initial contract of 3 years, renewable subject to continued need for the position and satisfactory performance.

Please be advised that ICARDA accepts applications only in English, as per the organization's standard communication language. Applications in other languages will not be considered.

Only shortlisted applications will be contacted.