Job Opportunities at Innovations for Poverty Action’

Innovations for Poverty Action’s Right-Fit Evidence Unit is seeking a Coordinator to take a lead advisory role to a portfolio of partner organizations on how to develop and implement adaptive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems. In the first year, the Coordinator will work on a joint program involving implementers working issues surrounding youth employment, SME finance and technical and vocational training. The position may expand to other engagements as the Right-Fit Evidence Unit grows in Kenya.

The position is based in Nairobi, Kenya, will report directly to the Right-Fit Evidence Engagement Manager based in the United States, and will receive additional oversight and support from IPA Kenya’s country management team.

Responsibilities 

The M&E/RFE Coordinator will be the primary on-the-ground staff member delivering technical Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning support to an ambitious program of grants, all of which will be touching on youth workforce development in one way or another. The Coordinator will work closely with implementers from the private, public, and nonprofit sector, in order to build their capacity in using adaptive and learning-oriented M&E. With oversight from the Engagement Manager, the Coordinator will:

• Design and facilitate regular learning workshops in which implementers are taking stock of the results achieved so far, adapt their programming, and draw new priority questions for M&E
• Provide technical advice to partners on the development and maintenance of M&E plans, the design of indicators, data collection methods, and data management, working both with administrative and survey data
• Train client team members in how to collect, analyze and summarize M&E data
• Support clients to draft theories of change (ToCs) for project activities, by reviewing program documents and relevant literature. Assist clients to identify M&E questions to test the assumptions in their ToCs, and to design cost-effective approaches to rigorously test these assumptions
• Assist clients to prepare materials for regular MEL workshops and meetings, including the coordination of an ambitious annual cross-partners learning event
• Help draw cross-implementer lessons relevant to the donor’s own learning agenda and the sector as a whole
• Play a role in the development and performance of new engagements for the Unit

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in economics, public policy, social science, or a related field.
• 2-5 years of relevant work experience, including experience in MEL (public/NGO sector) or organizational performance (private sector)
• Superior analytical, quantitative and conceptual thinking skills
• Strong client facing and presentation skills, and ability to build relationships of trust with stakeholders at various levels.
• Ability to present information in a structured and insightful way, both in writing and orally
• Self-starter, entrepreneurial mindset, versatility and willingness to learn.
• Experience working in developing countries
• Strong proficiency in Excel for data management and analysis
• Passion for making data-driven decision making a reality in the development sector

Preferred additional qualifications

• Master’s degree in economics, public policy, social science, or a related field
• Experience in management consulting or other professional services
• Demonstrated ability to coach and train others in statistics, data analysis or MEL methodologies
• Experience with programs relating to youth workforce development and/or private sector development
• 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 or similar survey software, SMS or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology
• Ability to use Stata, R or similar statistical software

go to method of application »

The Regional Technical Manager is an expert in survey programming, data management, and data analysis, whose primary objective is delivering high quality technical products across projects and countries in the East Africa region. The Regional Technical Manager will also supervise, and build the capacity of, a Kenya-based team of regional technical specialists. This position is part of a global network reporting to IPA’s Global Research and Data Support (GRDS) team based in New York City. The Regional Technical Manager’s role will include, but not be limited to, the following activities:

Responsibilities 

• Partnering with project teams to deliver high-quality technical products (40%)
  • The Regional Technical Manager will work directly with research project teams to code high-quality technical deliverables, such as complex digital surveys, data flow and data quality control systems, advanced statistical analysis, or technical reports.
  • The Regional Technical Specialist will work mainly in SurveyCTO and Stata. 
• Supervising a team of regional technical specialists (40%)
  • The Regional Technical Manager will oversee a small team of regional technical specialists based in Kenya.
  • This will include day-to-day management, as well as code reviews, troubleshooting support, and capacity building.   
• Contributing to technical resource development (10%)
  • The Regional Technical Manager will work with the Global Research & Data Support network on technical resource development.
  • This might include piloting or debugging new technical tools (such as Stata-based data analysis tools), writing documentation, networking with other regional technical teams, or even developing new technical tools for regional and global research staff.
• Supporting other research-related activities as necessary (10%)
  • The Regional Technical Manager may be asked to e.g. troubleshoot technical products, write documentation, or assist with strategic projects and initiatives.
  • The Regional Technical Manager will perform any related duties assigned by the Associate Director.

Travel requirements

Note that this position requires willingness to travel regionally throughout East Africa (and potentially internationally) up to 40% of the time.

Qualifications 

Required qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in economics, statistics, computer science, engineering, or related fields; master’s degree preferred
• Three or more years of relevant work experience, such as programming complex surveys, performing advanced statistical analysis, or managing a highly technical monitoring and evaluation project; additional management experience preferred
• Demonstrated advanced experience with data collection platforms and technologies; ODK/SurveyCTO experience strongly preferred
• Demonstrated advanced statistical programming and data management skills; Stata experience strongly preferred

Preferred qualifications 

• Experience living or working in East Africa
• Experience supervising field or technical teams
• Experience conducting field research in developing countries
• Experience training staff or developing training content
• Experience working with GIS data / maps
• Experience working with academic researchers, especially economists

go to method of application »

The Policy Manager works under the general supervision of the Country Director and receives support from the Global Policy Unit within the limits of Innovations for Poverty Action-Kenya policies and procedures. This position is generally responsible for strengthening the interphase between research evidence and policy making processes. Below is a list of some of the general duties and responsibilities of the Policy Manager, to be carried out as needed according to the determination of the Country Director.

Responsibilities 

Lead IPA Policy Outreach with Government and other Policy Stakeholders

• Lead the development of IPA-K policy outreach strategy
• Serve as the link with policy makers
• Build expertise on the global and local evidence base in 1-2 sectors and cultivate relationships with key local stakeholders in those sectors.
• Work together with the global policy and communications team to lead and/or participate in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables. Support researchers and country management to participate.
• In collaboration with researchers and in support of the country director, represent IPA locally in policy conversations and at events.
• Support research management staff in executing the “Policy Impact Minimum Must Dos” and in identifying and stewarding high potential partner relationships on individual projects, particularly with senior levels within government or large organizations.
• Provide leadership and oversight to a small team of staff within the policy department in accordance with the organization's policies and procedures. Identify opportunities and work with government partners to develop new research projects that have the potential to influence policy.
• Support researchers to understand government policy process and spaces.

Cultivate and Manage high Impact Opportunities/Relationships

• Identify, grow and sustain critical relationships of policy relevance
• Lead the development of Memoranda of Understanding and protocols that guide relationships with key players in the policy space.
• Proactively identify and communicate relevant risks in the policy environment for decision making.
• Continuously scan the policy environment for opportunities for research-policy linkages
• Lead Kenya in continuously prioritizing high impact policy opportunities for evidence-based policy making.
• Cultivate relationships with key local decision-makers in education and other sectors of interest to IPA (financial inclusion, peace & recovery, health, agriculture), particularly those with decision-making authority over particular evidence-to-impact opportunities.
• Continuously network and build relationship with implementing organizations with the aim of identifying potential new partners Launch high impact policy opportunities, including scale-up technical assistance, and either manage small-scale engagements personally with global support, or collaborate with global teams to raise funds for additional staff to realize these opportunities.
• Identify and help launch opportunities for policy relevant right-fit monitoring and evaluation opportunities in Kenya, and either manage small engagements personally with global support, or collaborate with global teams to raise funds for additional staff.   
• Together with the country director, act as lead steward to key partner relationships and support key research partner conversations.
• Identify opportunities and cultivate relationships that lead to developing large-scale policy evaluations with key decision-makers. Support research teams and researchers in development and execution.

Communication, Documentation and Learning

• Communicate our work to relevant audiences (using social media etc).
• Initiate and populate a resource center with relevant government documents, laws, strategic plans, assessment reports relevant to promote research-policy linkages.
• Identify research conducted in various jurisdictions, but are relevant to the Kenyan context, and make them available to constituencies of interest internally and externally.
• Supervise the production of the IPA-K monthly internal learning tool ‘mukhtasari’.
• Manage IPA-K social media outlets, including twitter and facebook.

Coordination internally and externally

• Coordinate county research approval processes so that approval processes are streamlined as much as possible.
• Support project teams to disseminate IPA work and share relevant study updates with specific counties.
• Work with projects to identify their needs on approvals and dissemination and proactively support project teams plan and see these approvals through.
• Map out all IPA-K projects per sector and county for ease of communication
• Map relevant policy contacts of interest at regional, national and county

Qualifications 

• Master's degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field strongly preferred. Will accept additional experience in place of master's.
• 5 or more years of relevant experience, including at least 1 year of experience working closely with large NGOs and/or national government officials.

• Knowledge of and demonstrated interest in the use of rigorous evidence for international development policy required.
• Expertise in education and/or one other priority sector (financial inclusion, peace & recovery, health, agriculture) strongly preferred.
• Attention to detail and advanced presentation skills for communicating policy lessons from academic papers in ways that policymakers understand. This requires clear, precise, non-technical writing, and confident, effective spoken communication and presentation style.
• Proven ability to multitask and successfully complete projects on tight deadlines with little supervision.
• Willingness to work hard, be self-motivated, and learn will be essential for doing well in this position.
• Ability to supervise staff and manage projects independently.