Project Research and Learning Officer- Children Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Project at CARE

JOB SUMMARY

Working closely with the Project Manager, the Research Officer will be the primary person responsible for implementation of the project’s Research and Learning component. The role will support the project develop strong and strategic relationships with the county governments’ structures specifically the County Executive and County Assembly to improve the policy and legal environment for collaborative learning in water service and resource management. This will be achieved through coordination of efforts of various partners at the sub County and County levels targeting departments of water, health and education. She/he will lead in facilitating roll out of project’s learning pieces and carry out further needed analysis of the enabling policy and governance environment including supporting collaborative and influencing of funding at the county level. He/She will be required to collect data and identify linkages between social determinants and WASH, campaign for gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as engage local leaders to enhance integration of research and learning in community governance.

ROLES AND RESPOSIBILITIES

Research, Documentation, Dissemination, and Implementation - 40%

• Identify research gaps on water quality, gender integration and community governance.
• Compilation and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and contribute into subsequent donor reporting requirements and timelines flagging updates, successes, and emerging reporting issues.
• Responsible for mobilizing communities, capacity building and community governance research and learning issues ensuring tasks are undertaken on schedule.
• Actively promote gender sensitive research methodologies at all levels of project implementation.
• Conduct research on WASH governance within the broader context of water management planning at county, catchment wide and national levels.
• Support the project manager in identifying, developing, and testing innovative technological approaches that promote sustainability and scalability to schools and community.
• Lead in preparation and development of research reports and manuscript for publication.
• Document and report research progress to the project manager and CUSA water team.
• Project’s influencing activities targeting national and county government in WASH services co-investment, co-design, and co-monitoring to address the identified service gaps within WASH and water quality governance sectors.
• Responsible for driving, managing, and coordinating the day-to-day project’s Advocacy, Policy and Governance actions ensuring effective and efficient delivery of the activities.
• Support project manager in providing guidance and thought leadership on all water policy, advocacy and governance.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Data Analysis - 30%

• In cooperation with project manager, program quality manager and CUSA teams design and coordinate the internal assessments, studies and research including water quality, gender inclusion and governance.
• Support the project manager in developing data collection tools for use throughout project implementation period and ensure quality project data is collected and regularly used to inform project improvement decisions.
• Ensure dissemination of lessons learnt and maximize opportunities for capacity building.
• Undertake monthly quantitative and qualitative data analysis as part of the project’s monitoring routine and produce regular monitoring reports to present and disseminate information to inform monthly discussions amongst project partners.
• Support the project officers in data collection for research pieces within the project including periodic surveys to monitor uptake of water purifiers by schools, health facilities and households.
• Support the project officers to identify potential most significant change stories, human interest stories, case studies, best practices that can be further developed to improve the project portfolio.
• Support the Project Officer to conduct post-distribution monitoring (PDM) of WASH NFI distributions to understand beneficiary satisfaction levels.

Community Engagement and Communication-15%

• Assist in developing and coordinating implementation of water quality communication strategy for government collaboration and influencing.
• Support in community strengthening and support for policy implementation and governance Advocacy, community engagement and Communication.
• Support the project manager in the mobilization of political will to increase budget allocation and financing for water, sanitation and hygiene in schools and communities.
• Lead integration of research and learning approaches in community dialogue that promotes effective delivering and financing of community and school WASH interventions.
• Support the project manager and communications officer in developing key advocacy messages and strategy at the county level to promote county and community level water quality service improvement through dialogues and advocacy tools.
• Ensure that research and learning methodologies and findings support advocacy and campaigning actions and provide relevant feedback to communities partnering with the project.
• Support the Infrastructure Officer to develop, implement, and capture learnings from a water quality communications model at the community-level; this will be linked with IEC materials developed under the WASH NFI and POU distributions.

Advocacy, Capacity Building, Liaison and Networking -10%

• Lead the project’s advocacy activities involving civic and stakeholder engagements to identify gaps within WASH and water quality governance frameworks, policy, budgeting, and practice through application of governance tools including but not limited to Community Score Card.
• Ensure that local stakeholders and local partners are provided and included in MEAL training opportunities when appropriate.
• Seek opportunities for information sharing and learning exchanges with local actors/INGOs to promote learning and coordination at national and sub-national level.
• Map learning and training opportunities for project and partner staff and, in consultation with PD and Field Teams, develop a MEAL training plan for key programme and partner staff, including field-based MEAL positions.

Any Other Duties -5%

• The officer will be assigned any other duty deemed relevant by the project manager.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• A Minimum of a first degree from a recognized institution/university in the following areas: community Health, Environmental Health Sciences, Public Health, Biostatistics, or another relevant field

Experience

• Experience in working with communities, county /national government structures and organizations promoting capacity development in water, sanitation, and health activities.
• 5 years’ experience working with an INGO or a recognized institution in both development and emergency-related programming capacities.

Other Competencies

• Analytical, conceptual, and innovative skills.
• Good interpersonal skills and must be a team player.
• Good communication skills with good report writing ability.
• Good computer knowledge and skills in word and excel.
• Must be able to meet deadlines.
• Knowledge on behavior change approaches.
• Results oriented with ability to work well under pressure with minimum supervision while undertaking multiple tasks.
• Dedicated to maintaining high quality standards.
• Industrious with creative skills.

Desired

• A second degree (master’s or otherwise) in community health, environmental health sciences, or public health.
• General understanding of WASH stakeholder coordination and management in rural communities.
• Experience in the Rural WASH sector.
• Experience with research, learning, and WASH activities in the development and emergency sector.