Research Coordinator, Consumer Protection at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

IPA is seeking a Research Coordinator to join our consumer protection team to help us tackle consumer protection challenges in the Nigerian market. The project will partner with providers, regulators and civil society to conduct research that results in improvements in consumer protection practices, with a particular emphasis on digital financial services. The project will develop and fund two types of research activities:

Measurement & data analysis projects to demonstrate enhanced market monitoring techniques. This research will focus on exposing partners to new methods for collecting and analyzing data that can measure consumer protection issues. This could include the use of transactional data, consumer surveys, mystery shopping and consumer feedback mechanisms such as consumer hotlines or social media chat channels.

Experimental research to advance evidence around consumer protection solutions to address the project’s consumer protection priorities. This research will include design of new interventions or improvements in existing ones, development of A/B testing and randomized control trail experimental design, and impact analysis on how these interventions impact key consumer protection outcomes.

The Research Coordinator will support the Nigeria Country Director and Project Director to successfully administer and implement a range of research activities across the two types envisioned for this project.

Responsibilities

• Support the Project Director and Country Director to prepare and deliver presentations, briefings and other content to current and potential research partners.
• Coordinate the research project development process across all phases: Project design, partnership agreements, budgeting and procurement, implementation and dissemination.
• Monitor project implementation to ensure quality control and adherence to the research specifications agreed upon.
• Build and support project relationships with local stakeholders, including government authorities, multilateral and bilateral partners, and private sector to facilitate the successful implementation of the research projects.
• Sort, clean, analyze and report out on data and findings from the research projects.
• Contribute to the delivery of high-quality policy and research outputs and activities. These include internal and external communications on the progress and outcomes of the research projects.
• Ensure project deliverables, such as reports and financial statements, are submitted on time.
• Take joint responsibility for project management, including drafting workplans, budget management, forecasting and ensuring value for money

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:

• 3 years of relevant work experience in research, international development, and project management.
• Experience supervising large data collection research projects, including leading survey design, implementation, and data management; background in randomized control trials.
• Experience working on both quantitative and qualitative data collection.
• Familiarity with debates around M&E and the use of evidence.
• Knowledge of statistical packages such as STATA, R, Python.
• Master’s degree in development economics, international public policy, or a related field. MBAs also encouraged.
• Superior analytical, quantitative and conceptual thinking skills.
• Ability to present information in a structured and insightful way, both in writing and orally.
• Self-starter, entrepreneurial mindset, versatility and strong multi-tasking skills.
• Passion for making data-driven decision making a reality in the development sector.
• Ability to manage and coordinate diverse teams across stakeholders, including academic researchers, field staff, government and private sector partners.
• Experience working with diverse teams across multiple locations, including extensive remote locations of team members.
• Detail-oriented, flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently and under pressure