Consultant - Research Assistant at Jhpiego - John Hopkins University

Category: Program/Project Management
Duration of Contract: 9 months
Theme: Gender
No of Consultants: 20 per State.

Overview

• The “MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership” (MCGL), is a four-year USAID funded project led by Jhpiego in consortium partnership with Save the Children, PACT and The Manhoff Group (TMG).
• The project focuses on Prevention and Mitigation of the consequences of violence against women and girls and addressing possible drivers of Forced Early and Child Marriage (CEFM) and will be implemented in Sokoto and Ebonyi States, to address four technical areas viz: Sexual violence (SV), Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), CEFM and Early adoption of family planning.
• As part of its learning agenda to identify effective GBV response strategies, the project will be conducting a quasi-experimental, matched-pair, cluster-controlled study in Ebonyi and Sokoto State (s) to evaluate the integration of first line response to gender- based violence (GBV), particularly intimate partner violence (IPV) within family planning (FP) and antenatal care (ANC) services. The study will cover 40 selected health facilities in Ebonyi and Sokoto.

Specific Objectives

• Assess effectiveness of the intervention in reducing IPV, increasing utilization of modern contraceptive methods, and improving safety and self-efficacy among clients seeking interval FP services.
• Assess effectiveness of the intervention in reducing IPV and improving safety and self-efficacy among clients seeking ANC services.
• Explore factors influencing feasibility, acceptability and ability to implement GBV first-line response as part of FP and ANC services.

Overall Responsibility

• Participate in the process of collecting quality data for the First Line Response Study during pilot and implementation phase. One Research Assistant will be assigned to a health facility where he/she will work throughout the duration of the study.

Specific Responsibilities
Working closely with the field supervisors and the data manager, you are to:

• Participate in the data collection training for data collectors and field supervisors in Ebonyi state
• Participate in field testing the data collection tools in selected health facilities in Ebonyi/Sokoto State.
• Screen, recruit and consent study participants in accordance to the study SOP or research protocol
• Collect quality data for the study in assigned health facility through clinical observation, qualitative and quantitative interviews, as well as data abstraction.
• Interview at least 12 persons per week across ANC and Family Planning units. Two separate interviews (baseline and exit) will be conducted per participant during the period of enrolment, where each interview is expected to last for at least 30 minutes.
• Facilitate lessons learned workshop and pulse surveys with service providers and also administer the GBV Quality Assurance Tool at month 1, 3 and 6 of the study.
• Review data with supervisor for completeness and send complete data collected to MCGL central server as directed.
• Notify the study team on any Severe Adverse Event, protocol deviation or any other ethical issues during the data collection process.
• Ensure data security and keep custody of the android tablet devices
• Provide daily update on activities to the Study Team.
• Submit monthly report of activities carried out using the MCGL format and other required documentations.

Qualifications / Experiences / Competencies

• Degree in Sociology, Medical or Health Sciences Research or biostatistics is required.
• At least, three years’ experience leading or supporting similar research projects.
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods, health facility level surveys are desirable.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are critical.
• Good spoken and written English as well as local languages of the preferred state (Ebonyi/Sokoto).
• Ability to multitask and meet deadlines at short notice.
• Excellent report writing skills
• Good computer skills and competence with mobile real-time electronic data collection is compulsory

Deliverables:
Your specific deliverables are:

• Daily activity report detailing work done on a centralized platform
• Monthly activity report with picture evidence.
• Quality data collected and sent to central server.
• Report of lessons learned workshops facilitated.