Fresh Jobs at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

Summary

• As an ideal candidate, you not only have a solid technical foundation in impact evaluation methodology, but you can also independently guide and direct the activities that happen both upstream and downstream of any rigorous, randomized evaluation.
• You enjoy contributing to high-performing teams that drive the production of the highest quality research for our clients and partners.
• You excel in solving problems using clear, strategic, and creative thinking.
• You have a strong social acumen and are excited about the opportunity to broaden, deepen, and manage meaningful relationships with high-level clients and partners across the public, academic, non-governmental, and multilateral sectors.

Responsibilities

The Research Associate will perform a variety of tasks related to managing day-to-day research activities, from planning to implementation, and monitoring quality. These include, but are not limited to:

• Coordinating research and implementation efforts with all relevant stakeholders;
• Recruiting, training, and supervising field-based teams;
• Refining and piloting survey questionnaires;
• Supervising and monitoring data collection to ensure high-quality of the data;
• Implementing data quality checks and fixing issues with data collected during data collection;
• Assisting in data cleaning and preliminary analysis and ensuring ready access to all data for researchers and/or supervisors;
• Documenting in detail all activities related to the project;
• Maintaining accurate records of interviews, safeguarding the confidentiality of subjects, as necessary;
• Preparing high-quality progress and results reports to Principal Investigators (PI), research partners, and funding agencies, and sharing them timely;
• Providing timely updates and responses to partner organizations, and participating in meetings with key stakeholders;
• Providing training and supervision for research project staff (Field Manager);
• Managing project finances including budgeting, expense tracking, and financial reporting;
• Ensuring that all team members follow necessary protocols and procedures;
• Handling day to day PI and partner communications;
• Any other task as assigned by Country Director;
• Keep the Country Director apprised of all developments in the project and serve as the key link between the field staff, research team, and Principal Investigators.
• Support the country office in project and policy development as needed

Qualifications

• Education: Masters degree in economics, public policy, or other quantitative social science disciplines;
• Quantitative Skills: Strong technical understanding of economics and econometrics required. Demonstrated proficiency in Stata, and experience with data management, data cleaning, and regression analysis
• A minimum of 2-year of work experience is required. Experience managing field staff in developing countries strongly preferred;
• Ability to collaborate among geographically and culturally diverse teams to drive common goals;
• Interculturally verseded to build capacity, work with, and live in Nigeria;
• Excellent management and organizational skills;
• Ability to successfully complete assigned tasks and meet deadlines, required;
• Experience working on health-related projects will be preferred;
• Communication Skills: Attention to detail and advanced writing and presentation skills are required;
• Language: English fluency required.

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Summary

• IPA Nigeria is seeking a highly motivated and qualified individual with outstanding coordination, operations, and management skills as a Project Coordinator to support the implementation of a project which partners with regulators, civil society, and academia to promote evidence-based anti-trafficking programming in Nigeria.
• The Project Coordinator will work under the direction of the IPA Nigeria Policy and Embedded Lab Manager and will provide operational, logistics, and procurement support to the Policy and Embedded Lab project portfolio.
• S/He will support in planning, scheduling, and coordinating the project's activities.
• S/He will also liaise with the relevant country office and partner staff to ensure resources for scheduled activities are available on time and to required quality and standard in line with IPA policies.

Responsibilities

The Project Coordinator will perform a variety of tasks related to operations, logistics, and procurement activities, from planning to implementation of the project. These include, but are not limited to:

Procurement

• Supervise procurements of project goods, assets and services in line with IPA procurement policies
• Manage relationships with suppliers as well as vendor management
• Ensure all payment documents from vendors and suppliers are properly compiled and presented for payments in line with project budget and the IPA procurement policy

Logistics

• Oversee all logistic arrangements including maintaining an updated record of events, travel itineraries to ensure proper delivery and satisfaction of service to the project
• Support coordination of field travels for project staff, partners, and consultants
• Liaises with project team to coordinate logistical arrangements including booking of air tickets, accommodation, etc. for meetings, workshops, trainings and other events

Operations

• Continuously analyze and review procedures and processes and identify gaps for strengthening project operations activities and implementation.
• Provide input to and oversee the roll-out and implementation of project operations
• Lead the maintenance and management of the project’s risk register and risk management in general
• Ensure project’s assets assigned to partners are properly managed and the asset register is up to date
• Support with operational engagements and implementation of field activities.
• Support to documentation, drafting and collation of finalized project materials and reports

Qualifications

• Minimum of Bachelor’s degree-level education; Master’s degree an added advantage
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience, preferably in an NGO
• Experience managing compliance requirements for an NGO in Nigeria
• Experience with a wide range of donors
• Experience with operations support management
• Excellent management and organizational skills
• High attention to detail and ability to multitask effectively
• Strong communication skills and ability to represent an organization professionally
• Sensitivity to working in a culturally diverse organization
• Ability to work independently in an organized manner but within an integrated team
• Budget development, work-plan Implementation and Expense reporting
• Experience organizing events, such as conferences, workshops or round table discussions
• Highly numerate and analytical
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team

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Summary

• Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a global research and policy nonprofit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. As its core business, IPA brings together researchers and decision-makers to design, rigorously evaluate, and refine these solutions and their applications, ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve the lives of the world’s poor. IPA has conducted hundreds of randomized evaluations across sectors, learning both whether programs work, and how they can work better.
• Complementing this core business, IPA has developed the Right-Fit Evidence Unit aimed at helping organizations build strong and tailored Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) practices, which balances the need for information on impact with operational data to support management decisions.
• In close collaboration with IPA’s sector programs and country office teams worldwide, the unit provides consulting and direct services to implementers, donors, and governments, with the goal of helping them figure out what reliable data and evidence to gather, how to do it in a cost-effective way, and how to make the promise of data-informed programmatic decisions a reality.
• IPA is seeking a Policy and RFE Coordinator to work closely with a financial services regulator in Nigeria. IPA has established an embedded evidence lab with the regulator, putting a strong focus on equipping them to regularly use evidence to improve their decision-making, policies, and programs.
• This position will support these activities, reporting to a Consumer Protection Embedded Lab Manager and dotted line reporting to the Right-Fit Evidence Unit and Policy & External Relations Team.

Responsibilities

• Support mapping of the data needs of specific departments within the regulator against the existing data available, complemented with an assessment of its quality
• Support the analysis and visualization of both primary and secondary data using statistical software such as Stata or R.
• Support the development, design, implementation, and supervision of pilot projects aimed at generating evidence for policy implementation.
• Work closely with the Project manager, Sector and RFE teams to conduct capacity building “learning-by doing” workshops in data analysis, visualization, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of high-quality policy and research outputs such as policy reports, briefs, concept, and notes.
• Support the project manager to prepare and deliver presentations, briefings and other content to CBN.
• Support a variety of strategic MEL activities, including crafting of theories of change and MEL frameworks for programs, designing indicators and data collection tools, and facilitating the dissemination of findings.
• Contribute to dissemination of results from the various lab activities.
• Support the design and delivery or other potential policy and RFE engagements.
• Manage and coordinate administrative and logistical requirements for the lab. Other Duties
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in economics, public policy, social science, statistics, or a related field 2-5 years of relevant work experience, including experience in research implementation/ data analytics/ M&E (public sector) or organizational performance/R&D/operational research (private sector)
• Experience in analyzing large data sets using R, Python, Stata.
• Experience in both qualitative and quantitative data collection.
• Superior analytical and conceptual thinking skills
• Familiarity with statistical methods, data analysis, and visualization
• Demonstrated ability to coach and train others in MEL methodologies or data analysis.
• Ability to present information in a structured and insightful way, both in writing and orally
• Self-starter, entrepreneurial mindset, versatility and willingness to learn.
• Passion for making data-driven decision making a reality in the development sector.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in economics, public policy, social science, or a related field
• Experience in management consulting or other professional services
• Experience with programs relating to financial inclusion and/or consumer protection
• Experience working in developing countries
• Familiarity with the concepts surrounding the Theory of Change and the core tools of MEL (both quantitative and qualitative research methods)
• Familiarity with SurveyCTO, Open Data Kit, Kobo or similar survey software