Jobs at African Population And Health Research Center (APHRC)

Responsibilities (dependent on level appointed):

• Provide leadership to scientific research teams or projects in an area related to early childhood development (ECD), education and/or youth empowerment;
• Contribute to policy engagement and the theme’s strategic planning activities;
• Lead and contribute to proposal development and fundraising for research projects in the Theme;
• Mentor young researchers, and facilitate sessions in the Center’s training programs as needed;
• Secure and manage the necessary human, financial and material resources in the Theme, project or program;
• Represent the Center at high level national, regional and international forums, including relevant technical working groups and expert committees;
• Contribute to institutional publications including and not limited to lay dissemination materials such as policy/research briefs and fact sheets; and
• Oversee data quality and analyses.

Qualifications and Experience:

• PhD in educational psychology, developmental psychology, early childhood development, sociology of education, education administration, education management, economics, tests and measurement, linguistics, teaching methods, comparative and international education, technology education, special education, curriculum studies, gender studies with a focus on education, policy studies with a focus on education, statistics with application in education, development studies, youth and community studies or any other related discipline;
• Experience working in a research institution, conducting research, leading or managing research programs or projects;
• Experience with conducting impact evaluations of ECD and/or education interventions will be an added advantage;
• Fluency in English; being multilingual (English and French) will be an added advantage;
• Excellent scientific writing skills;
• Good quantitative or qualitative skills, experience with mixed methods will be an added advantage provided one is very strong in quantitative or qualitative methods;
• Strong proposal writing skills and track record of winning research grants.

Date: 30 Fri Sep 2022

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Duties / Responsibilities

The officer will report to the HDT Lead, while working closely with the Advocacy and Knowledge Translation team at APHRC.

Externally, s/he will work closely with local community leaders, youth/education/early childhood development (ECD) networks, national parliaments, government officers, sub-national government officers, Civil Society Organizations, funders, UN agencies, and regional economic groups such as EAC, EALA, SADC PF and ECOWAS/WAHO, among others.

The Policy and Advocacy Officer will:

• Coordinate and work with the HDT team in management of EIDM activities;
• Coordinate policy engagement, communications and capacity strengthening activities for HDT policy audiences;
• Respond to rapid response requests from policy actors while managing the rapid response service;
• Work closely with the HDT research teams to develop knowledge translation products such as policy briefs, fact sheets, and blogs;
• Conduct policy analysis on relevant issues related to HDT’s areas of focus.
• Work closely with the research teams in ensuring compliance with donor requirements such as writing of annual progress reports and updates to the project funders;
• Support the wider HDT mandate as requested including writing reports and fundraising efforts.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in ECD, education, public policy, public administration and social policy, anthropology, economics, politics and internal relations, sociology or any other relevant field
• At least three years’ post-qualification experience in advocacy, policy engagement and a year in research and analysis in ECD and/or education (including quantitative and qualitative).
• Excellent communication (written and spoken) skills
• Good interpersonal and organizational skills
• Experience of policy development and advocacy in ECD and/or education and/or youth empowerment and/or economic policy areas at a national, regional or international level
• Production of high-quality written work to influence policy outcomes
• Experience working with different stakeholders including communities, NGOs, CSOs, government ministries, and government bodies such as EAC, AU, SADC and ECOWAS/WAHO to inform and influence policy development would be an advantage
• Experience and evidence of fundraising work
• Flexible and adaptable approach, in order to respond to shifting priorities and a rapidly evolving external environment
• The ability and desire to acquire and maintain knowledge of a policy area or areas with a focus on ECD, education and youth empowerment
• This position is classified under Nationally Recruited Positions (NRP) Grade IV in our scales

Deadline: by July 08, 2022.