Nepal: Systematic Review Specialist for Agricultural Water Management

Jun 23, 2015 | Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research on Glacier and Snowpack Dependent River Basins for Improving Livelihoods
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Background  The Centre is looking for a qualified Special Services Assignment (SSA) for assisting in the  International  Centre  for  Integrated  Mountain  Development  (ICIMOD)  is  a  regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Our aim is to influence policy and practices to meet environmental and livelihood challenges emerging in the HKH region. To do this we bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from the region and around the globe to generate and share knowledge, support evidence-based decision making, and encourage regional collaboration. ICIMOD delivers impact through its six  Regional Programmes of Adaptation  to  Change,  Transboundary  Landscapes,  River  Basins,  Cryosphere  and Atmosphere, Mountain Environment Regional Information System, and Himalayan University Consortium. These regional programmes  are  supported by the four Thematic  Areas of Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services, Water and Air, and Geospatial Solutions and underpinned by Knowledge Management and Communication. ICIMOD seeks to reduce poverty and vulnerability and improve the lives and livelihoods of mountain women and men, now and for the future.          Research Component 3 (monitoring and assessment of climate change adaptation practices) of the Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research Initiative, which is a four-year programme aimed at developing climate change adaptation approaches and increasing the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable women, men, and children in the mountains and plains of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region.  Main Duties and Responsibilities Systematic Review: The SSA will conduct systematic review of selected agricultural water management technologies aimed at climate smart agriculture in South Asia. Systematic review is a specialized field of meta-analysis which originated in the field of medical sciences, but now this methodology is being increasingly used for understanding overall efficacy and cost effectiveness of agricultural and social interventions. A systematic review is a critical assessment and evaluation of all high quality research studies with an experimental or quasi-experimental design (that clearly establishes cause and effect relationship) and which addresses a particular research question, in this case “Is an agricultural water management technology (e.g. micro-irrigation; alternate wet and dry irrigation; mulching; laser levelling; zero tillage etc.) climate smart – that is, does it save water and energy and produce more yield per unit of inputs?”. The researchers use an organized method of locating, assembling, and evaluating a body of literature on a particular topic using a set of specific criteria. A systematic review typically includes a description of the findings of the collection of research studies. The systematic review may also include a quantitative pooling of data, called a meta-analysis, and this often depends on the nature of the primary studies. The incumbent will conduct systematic review of climate smart agricultural water management technologies following these steps:

• Identify technologies that can be considered ’climate smart’ in consultation with partners, especially NARCs (National Agricultural Research Centres) in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan for inclusion in the review.
• Collect exhaustive bibliography/references on all studies that evaluate climate smart agricultural water management technologies using an experimental or quasi-experimental design from all possible sources, including visiting libraries of NARCs and snowballing method.
• Read abstracts of all papers so collected and then devise exclusion/inclusion criteria for the review in consultation with supervisors.
• Select papers that meet the exclusion criteria and develop a comprehensive system of coding those papers using standard Systematic Review Module of STATA (or any other suitable software).
• Read and code all papers and run quantitative meta-analysis, if quality of data so permits, or else, do tabular summaries.
• Write papers targeted at scholarly journals, like Agricultural Water Management or similar.

• A systematic review protocol, which should give details on inclusion/exclusion criteria, coding method, and a list of all studies which will be included in the review.
• A list of all coded studies. Coding is to be done using any systematic review software.
• Draft paper targeted at a journal.
• Final systematic review paper.