IPA Job Vacancy For Research Coordinator

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a United States-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering, and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. IPA designs, rigorously evaluates, and refines these solutions and their applications together with decision-makers to ensure that the evidence created is used to improve opportunities for the world’s poor.

Job Description

• Reports to: Deputy Country Director
• Location:  Accra or Tamale, Ghana
• Desired start date: As soon as possible
• Deadline to apply: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until position is filled
• Job Code: RC-MUL-12122018

Summary

IPA Ghana seeks a Research Coordinator to oversee a portfolio of 2 to 3 research projects, most of which will be in the SME development, financial inclusion and agriculture sectors. This portfolio may include for example evaluations of a digital credit scoring application for cocoa farmers, cash grants for female entrepreneurs and seed markets for maize producers. Lead researchers that the Research Coordinator will work with include Christopher Udry and Dean Karlan.

The Research Coordinator position is a unique opportunity to combine significant management experience with an involvement in cutting-edge development research. He/she will join the very dynamic and passionate IPA Ghana team and contribute to the development of new projects, policy outreach, and capacity building. Developing and fostering good relationships with local stakeholders and implementing partners, such as the National Board of Small Scale Industries and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, is another core element of the Research Coordinator role.

This position will be based in Accra, Ghana.

Position Summary

The Research Coordinator (RC) will be responsible for the overall management of a portfolio of 2-3 research projects and will include wide scale surveys across multiple regions of Ghana. Each of these projects is expected to be staffed with a permanent team of 1 or 2 staff and up to 50-100 short term staff during survey periods.

Responsibilities

• Manage the projects in the RC’s portfolio and work with Principal Investigators to ensure their adherence to research design, sample selection, data collection, data management and general research protocols, as well as overall project objectives timelines;
• Directly supervise 2 to 5 permanent research staff, including project staff, with an eye on their professional growth;
• Keep the (Deputy) Country Director apprised of all developments on the projects within their portfolio, and serve as a key link between the field office, project staff, and Principal Investigators;
• Support in the development of new projects, in coordination with the (Deputy) Country Director and the Policy team, as well as potential researchers, implementing partners, and donors;
• Promote inter-project best practices and take a lead in sharing best practices with projects through formal and informal trainings;
• Work with field office staff to ensure sound human resource and operational management of projects;
• Oversee project financial management, including creation and monitoring of project budgets, and ensuring smooth integration of projects into IPA financial systems;
• Take part in regular meetings with local government officials and other partners to ensure success of programmatic activities; and
• Support the dissemination of interim results via presentations and reports to non-academic audiences.

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s degree in related field, such as development economics, public policy, international development, business administration
• Strong budgeting and financial management skills; experience with writing reports and/or grant proposals
• Strong written and oral communication skills and complete fluency in English
• Excellent management and organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work independently and be supervised remotely
• Knowledge of Stata
• Experience managing randomized controlled trials is a strong plus
• Ability to present research findings, including to non-research focused audiences
• Resilient and flexible, with a can-do approach and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances
• Cultural sensitivity and demonstrated ability to work successfully with diverse constituencies required
• At least 2 years of relevant work experience
• Experience supervising data collection, teams of field workers, survey design and implementation and data management is strongly preferred
• Prior work experience in developing countries is highly preferred