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Theme of the project : Comprehensive Assessment of the Nexus between Poverty and Food
Insecurity through Innovative Societal University Villages Initiative (SUVI) approach in the
Kivu Belt, Western Province, Rwanda.
Thematic Area : Food Security and Modern Agriculture
1. Introduction
Food security at the household level remains a major issue in Sub Saharan Africa including
Rwanda. Rwanda has initiated various food security and poverty interventions programmes
aimed at ensuring country level food and nutrition security. Despite previous efforts and those
on-going, food insecurity and poverty are persistent in some areas of the country such as in the
Kivu Belt zone, Western province, Rwanda (NISR, MINAGRI, & WFP, 20161
 ; NISR, 20182
).
This is happening while at the same time this region is one of the main producers of traditional
commercial crops for Rwanda (implying potential income), namely coffee and tea assumed
provide for commercial income (Mutandwa, et al., 2009) 3
.
2. Rationale and objective of the project
The present project is proposed to address three major challenges through the use of the
innovative Societal University Village Initiative (SUVI) approach of the University of Rwanda.
These include poverty and food insecurity among commercial crops growers, negative effects
on the sustainable agriculture from natural disasters such as climate change and the COVID19 Pandemic, and data aggregation and information gaps to inform effective policy action to
address the above.
These will allow the project endeavors to respond to the following three (3) key research
questions such as (1) Why cash crop producing households in Kivu Belt Zone are still food
insecure and poor while directly depending on coffee and tea production which are viewed as main source of agricultural income ; (2) how women benefit from coffee and tea farming
activities for their economic empowerment ? (3) What are the climate change adaptation
pathways towards poverty reduction and sustainable food security ? In responding to these three
questions (among others), the focus is to contribute to the understanding of the nexus between
poverty and food and nutrition insecurity through a citizen and participatory approach
embedded in the innovative Societal University Village Initiative (SUVI). The initiative helps
to collect an in effective manner both qualitative and quantitative data which in turn help to
generate evidence needed for policy and programmatic decisions.
To attain the main objective of this project, the researchers will recruit field team/research
assistants for this specific assessment known as “SUVI champions”. The champions will
mainly contribute in the development of skills at community level and assist in data collection
in the study area covered by the project. Before any field activity, research team will design
and develop training materials necessary to capacitate the SUVI champions in areas of rural
development and research methods before they are deployed to support in achieving the
project’s objectives.
It is planned to recruit 14 university graduates -with one female and one male recent graduate
per village/district recruited in their respective target villages or districts guided by the
following technical focus and responsibilities :
3. Technical Focus
▪ Contribute to the assessment of the nexus between poverty and food insecurity in
target research areas ;
▪ Contribute to different research activities under the project with guidance of
principal investigator and co-investigator ;
▪ Support in data collection for the research activities to be performed by Masters and
PhD candidate(s) to be enrolled in the project’s activities ;
▪ Train members of their respective communities on different themes promoted by
the project ;
▪ Conduct review of enabling environment for poverty reduction and food security ;
and
▪ Support the organization of policy consultations at local and national levels.
4. Tasks and responsibilities
▪ Gather baseline information as needed to inform joint research activities ;
▪ Establish regular pattern of regular data collection to inform project’s interventions ;
▪ Contribute to the training of program beneficiaries and actors in respective villages ;
▪ Contribute to the profiling of villages in terms of development challenges and
opportunities with focus to poverty reduction and promotion of food security ;
▪ Propose innovative ideas for entrepreneurship in order to address some of the
challenges observed during the tenure of the professional support ;
▪ Inform the discussion on the research agenda and policy actions at community
level in collaboration with local leaders ;
▪ Share knowledge and capacitate members of the communities ;
▪ Participate in all capacity development and other events organized by the project ;
▪ Facilitate policy dialogues and discussions at community level in collaboration of
village leaders ; and
▪ Other tasks compatible with the project’s implementation.
5. Minimum Requirements
▪ Bachelor degree in agriculture sciences, veterinary sciences, economics,
development studies, agricultural economics, agricultural education, agricultural
extension, rural development, or other field related to the project’s areas of
research ;
▪ Being a fresh graduate of the University of Rwanda for the last 2 years with a
distinction that is more than 70% ;
▪ Resident of one of the target districts : Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Karongi, Rutsiro,
Ngororero, Nyabihu, and Rubavu.
▪ Fluency in written and spoken Kinyarwanda and English is required.
6. HOW TO APPLY
● To apply, visit the recruitment website window at UR and complete your online
application.
● Incomplete applications will not be considered.
● Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered
● Vacancies will be removed from the recruitment portal at 23:59pm Rwanda time on
the deadline for applications date Friday, October 28, 2022
● We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline
●
The interested candidates are requested to submit all required documents (including Degree,
Transcripts, National Identification Card (ID), CV, a letter from Village leader indicating
you are resident from the study area, and Motivation letter written in English) to
recruitsuvi@gmail.com not later than Friday, October 28, 2022. Under subject indicate
“NCST project : Application for SUVI Champion”. Only pre-selected candidates will be
notified. If you need help, or have queries, please contact the above email.