Job Opportunities at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) seeks a Research Associate to manage a study that investigates whether providing migration-relevant information to a random sample of subjects in high-migration areas of Nigeria would have effects on migration-related beliefs and behaviors. The study will be implemented in two states: Edo and Delta. The Principal Investigators are Alexandra Scacco (WZB Berlin Social Science Center), Bernd Beber (WZB Berlin Social Science Center), Macartan Humphreys (WZB Berlin Social Science Center), Florian Foos (London School of Economics), and Dean Yang (University of Michigan).

The Research Associate will work closely with the Research Manager, Principal Investigators, and other IPA country office staff to oversee all aspects of the research study. The Research Associate will be based in Abuja, with frequent travel to Edo and Delta.

This position provides an excellent opportunity to gain extensive hands‐on experience in a field setting and to have significant management responsibility in a vibrant organization undertaking cutting‐edge development research. Key areas of involvement will include: designing survey questionnaires, recruiting, training and managing survey teams, designing and supervising logistics for the field activities, cleaning and analyzing survey data, assisting in the writing of project reports and policy memos, and liaising with key government and nongovernmental stakeholders. The work will develop your analytical and management skills and require your full commitment in a challenging environment.

Responsibilities

• Throughout the life of the project, the Research Associate will be expected to carry out the following activities:
• Coordinate research and implementation efforts with all relevant stakeholders.
• Develop and pilot the survey instruments, including programming digital data collection, managing the translation and back-translation of the survey into applicable local languages.
• Hire, train, and manage the field teams that will conduct the data collections.
• Manage all field logistics, procure products, and get approvals from local authorities.
• Ensure all data quality protocols are followed including auditing enumerators and performing daily checks of the incoming data; correct the errors of staff iteratively to ensure the data is of the highest quality.
• Manage the data from collection at the household to delivery of a final, cleaned dataset.
• Manage the budget including tracking all expenses to ensure costs are within project funds.
• Manage the project budget and field expenses.

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:

• A degree (Master’s preferred) in economics, public policy, international development, health, or related fields.
• Excellent project management skills and attention to detail, with a quality-focused mindset.
• Experience interacting with partners, government officials and other key stakeholders.
• Cultural sensitivity and demonstrated ability to work successfully with diverse constituencies.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Ability to work independently, problem-solve, and enlist support when needed.
• Strong quantitative skills and very good knowledge of Stata.
• Must be able to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Experience working in Nigeria or the West African context.
• Knowledge of randomized controlled trials and econometrics.
• Knowledge of measurement and instrument development.
• Experience supervising data collection and teams of field workers.

go to method of application »

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