Short-term Consultancy: Development of E-Learning course content on “Farm Waste Management in Marginal Environments”

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) is an international, non-profit agricultural research center established in 1999 through the visionary leadership of the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD),. ICBA is a unique applied agricultural research center focused on marginal areas where an estimated 1.7 billion people live. It identifies, tests, and introduces resource-efficient, climate-smart crops and technologies that are best suited to different regions affected by salinity, water scarcity, and drought. ICBA helps improve food security and livelihoods for some of the poorest rural communities worldwide through its work. ICBA is an equal opportunity employer and appoints qualified staff regardless of race, creed, color, age, gender, religion, or national origin. 

As part of ICBA’s efforts to reach more stakeholders worldwide and transfer knowledge through capacity development offerings, ICBA is developing an E-Learning platform. This platform will provide a collection of digitized training courses on different topics. These courses will target stakeholders worldwide, including experts, technicians, extension officers, and graduate and postgraduate students.

Job Summary

The assignment for this consultancy is to develop an E-learning course material on “Farm Waste Management in Marginal Environments.” The course targets agribusiness managers, farm owners, professionals, experts, technicians, and extension officers in fields related to farm waste management. The language of the course is English.

This e-learning course on “Farm Waste Management in Marginal Environments” should be designed to provide participants with an understanding of the concept of farm waste management in marginal environments and its role in saving valuable natural resources and sustainability of the agricultural sector. The course will introduce biological processes employed for treating agricultural, municipal, industrial, and agro-processing residues and wastes. It will include biological, physical, and chemical principles related to the characterization and analysis of pollutants, biological and physio-chemical transformation of pollutants, and engineering principles for designing and operating treatment systems. The course will equip learners with a comprehension of the fundamentals, tools, opportunities, and approaches to the challenges of managing farm resources in marginal environments. Learners will explore existing technologies and their adaptability to address these challenges and ensure an understanding of the subject matter.

The learning objectives of the course are:

  • Gain Knowledge in sustainable waste & environmental management systems.

  • Characterization and analysis of waste.

  • Understand and apply different types of waste, their handling, storage, disposal requirements, and their potential effect on the environment for sustainable development.

    • Biological waste treatment.

    • Biological wastewater treatment systems

  • Identify the key challenges and constraints in collecting and re-utilizing farm waste.

  • Understand the modern and best farm management practices.

  • Evaluate the environmental impact of wasted farm resources in marginal environments.

  • Identification of the cost-effectiveness of managing waste efficiently.

Job Responsibilities

The consultancy will include the following deliverables:

  1. Course syllabus, including introduction, learning objectives, and learning outcomes.
  2. Course modules, as per the below-suggested topics:
    1. Key challenges and approaches of farm waste management in marginal environments.
    2. Best farm waste management practices for agricultural and non-agricultural resources.
    3. Environmental and economic impacts of farm waste management in marginal environments.
    4. Case studies and success stories.
  3. Learning assessment for each module.
  4. Reading material – open sources – for each module.
  5. Learning assessment (post-test) to test the knowledge gained by learners. 
Qualifications and Experience
  • Ph.D. in agribusiness or related field.
  • At least 10 years experience in farm waste management.
  • Previous experience in developing educational or training content, especially e-learning content.
  • Fluent in English

Other requirements

  • The consultant will prepare the training content using ICBA templates and branding guidelines.

  • ICBA will keep the right to use the provided material in other training contents and/or translate them to other languages while maintaining the credit to the author.

  • The consultant is expected to finalize the course material within four months after signing the consultancy agreement.

  • The consultant should provide ICBA with an updated CV and a passport copy.

  • The consultant must provide links to all open-source images, videos, data, and similar resources used in the training. ICBA can share their resources to include in the contents, if available

Post Date
20 September 2023
Status
Closed
Vacancy Type
Full-time
Closing Date
4 October 2023
Location
Remote
Report To
Capacity Development Specialist
Job Number
NA
Duration of the assignment
2 months