Quantitative Lead at Coffey

The Program

FCDO’s Africa Regional Department (ARD) is the third largest spending department in FCDO’s Africa Divisions. The current ARD portfolio has 13 active programmes. Oversight of this portfolio has been identified as a key risk due to lack of FCDO presence in many countries where ARD programmes are delivered, and a substantial portion of delivery taking place in insecure or inaccessible locations which limit scope for FCDO staff to monitor delivery through field visits. This makes it difficult for ARD to assure the quality of data reported by partners on the delivery of programme activities and results.

FCDO has engaged Tetra Tech (TT) as a third-party monitoring (TPM) supplier to support the verification of programme monitoring in the Africa region across its portfolio of humanitarian, conflict, water, energy, climate change, trade, organised crime, and agricultural development programmes. ARD programmes operate across Africa.

The Position

The Quantitative Lead will design and deliver up to five (5) Rigorous Result Verifications (RRVs) throughout 2021-2022. Each RRV is a type of TPM product that will be based on a quantitative household survey of programme beneficiaries. Each RRV will be conducted for a specific ARD portfolio programme in one or more programme locations, within or across countries.  The Quantitative Lead will need to direct a team of enumerators on the field who will collect the survey data.

Activities include:

1. Design
   1. Understanding the programme specific TPM requirements of the RRV study from the FCDO from calls/meetings and review of programme documents
   2. Develop a sampling strategy that can yield statistically significant results at 95% confidence level with a +/- 5% margin of error
   3. Develop a  Design Document with the Tetra Tech Team Leader which would need to approved by FCDO before any data collection can begin
   4. Understand the workplan, deadlines and task team structure within which the RRV should be delivered
2. Data Collection
   1. Develop appropriate research tools (e.g. household survey questionnaires, forms and checklists for enumerators)
   2. Where enumerator teams use mobile devices for data collection, ensure that these devices are configured with a working version of the questionnaire and help identify any bugs while loading the questionnaire onto these devices
   3. Develop training session for enumerators and deliver a 1-2 day training on-site or to enumerator team supervisors remotely if travel is not possible due to Covid-19
   4. Design, manage and analyse results from a short pilot of the survey questionnaire and incorporate improvements in final questionnaire
   5. Monitor progress of field data collection and conduct data quality checks of incoming data
   6. Participate in internal team catch-ups throughout data collection phase
3. Analysis and Reporting
   1. Clean and code the raw data
   2. Analyse the data using statistical software like SPSS
   3. Present emerging findings to FCDO
   4. Write a draft RRV report and submit for internal review to TT
   5. Address any comments emerging from the TT review process

The Person

We are looking for senior quantitative research method specialists with the following attributes.

• Master’s degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, monitoring and evaluation, or other relevant academic discipline
• At least 10 years of operational experience on quantitative methods research
• Minimum of five years of experience in a statistical or quantitative leadership role, managing teams with some experience ideally in TPM or monitoring and evaluation (M&E) contexts
• Strong quantitative skills in designing sampling frameworks, drawing samples, designing fieldwork and delivering large sample quantitative surveys
• Experience in data quality assurance from raw household survey data
• Demonstrated communication skills to be able to present and defend results of data analysis to an audience of senior decision-makers within FCDO
• Excellent speaking and writing abilities in English
• Demonstrable experience in writing analytical reports based on primary quantitative research
• Ability to work in a multinational, multicultural environment.
• Experience in one or more of the following countries: Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Rep. Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of South Sudan, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Sector / thematic experience in one or more of the following areas: humanitarian operations, emergency response, conflict prevention, renewable energy, climate resilience, agriculture, transboundary water management, forests, social protection