Research Associate at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Tanzania

Innovations for Poverty Action

Research Associate
Research Associate at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) April, 2024
Position Summary
Innovations
for Poverty Action (IPA) seeks two Research Associates for the Applied
Research and Methods (ARM) group. Candidates will be considered to work
on the Poverty Measurement team and Research Methods Initiative.

The
Poverty Measurement initiative enables researchers and social sector
organizations to measure poverty rates and develop tools to better
target impoverished and vulnerable households. This includes
collaborating on development and maintenance of the Poverty Probability
Index (PPI), a widely used tool for low-cost survey-based poverty
measurement, as well as collaboration with partner organizations to
develop cutting-edge methods for poverty measurement.

The
Research Methods Initiative, also housed within ARM, is a collaboration
with the Northwestern University’s Global Poverty Research Lab to
conduct and disseminate research on the most innovative methods for
study design, fieldwork implementation, questionnaire development, and
measurement.

The Research Associates will support the team with
data analysis and project management for the PPI and external research
products for the ARM group. The position will provide the opportunity to
work on a wide range of projects, engage with IPA’s research partners,
and participate in different parts of the research process, including
manuscript preparation and grant proposal writing, depending on the
candidate’s skills and interests.

Responsibilities
We
seek individuals with excellent verbal and written communication skills
and a solid technical foundation in impact evaluation methodology,
statistics, or econometrics with experience in data cleaning and
analysis. We are looking for people who are capable of working both
individually and as a part of a team, who can adapt to different
environments and contexts, and who have a continuous willingness to
learn.

• Prepare (clean, merge, recode, and document) raw data for research
• Conduct data analysis under the supervision of a senior researcher
• Support the analysis of research data for presentation or publication
• Create tables, graphs, and other visualizations to tell stories with data
• Conduct evidence reviews on sectors, topics, and outcomes relevant to IPA priorities
• Synthesize and summarize research evidence and prepare materials to disseminate findings
• Support
  other phases of research as needed, such as analysis plans, protocols,
  survey design and testing, IRB submissions, and proposal development
• Provide technical support to IPA country offices and research projects through survey programming in SurveyCTO
• Provide
  technical support to IPA country offices and research projects through
  statistical programming primarily in Stata, but occasionally in R

Duties specific to Poverty Measurement:

• Communicate with national statistical offices in various countries to obtain, understand, and clean survey data
• Use
  statistical programming languages (Stata, R, or Python) to clean and
  analyze survey data and produce poverty measurement models on nationally
  representative survey data
• Write and design briefs, website content, presentation slides, and other materials
• Help prepare results for presentations and reports targeting researchers
• Assist with the development and documentation of research tools
• Support
  the other Research Associates and / or the Management team in other
  projects and / or project development according to their needs

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Qualifications
Required

• At least 1 year of work experience related to research projects and/or data analysis
• Strong
  quantitative skills and knowledge of Stata, or enough knowledge of or
  similar coding languages (R or Python) that can learn Stata quickly with
  good coding practices
• Knowledge of statistical and econometric concepts like regression and hypothesis testing
• Ability to conduct and interpret data analysis using Stata, R, or Python
• Ability to manage relationships with partners and counterparts
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, with a strong attention to detail
• Ability to work and problem-solve under pressure and meet deadlines
• Excellent
  verbal and written communication skills in English, including the
  ability to concisely simplify complex information and present it clearly
  for a variety of audiences
• Bachelor’s degree in economics,
  international development, government, political science, public policy,
  data science, or related disciplines with a quantitative approach

Preferred

• Previous experience working on academic research in poverty or development
• Previous experience working with survey data
• Previous experience and knowledge of SurveyCTO or ODK toolkit survey tools
• Knowledge of R or other similar programming languages

Reports to
Director, Poverty Measurement
Deadline to Apply
May 15th, 2024
Location
Any
country where IPA has a country office see here for a list of the 20+
countries. Please note that this does not include U.S. based locations.

Application Instructions
To be considered for this position, applicants must submit a resume, cover letter, and a code sample.
The
code sample must be in Stata or R (Stata preferred) and it should
accomplish a discrete task related to data cleaning or data analysis and
it should be something the applicant has substantially written and used
themselves in a previous application (academic course exercise, job
assignment, or personal project). Short, simple code samples are
perfectly acceptable. We are looking for coding best practices.

The cover letter must address the following things about the code:

• What does the code do and what is the context in which you wrote it?
• What
  role did you play in developing and debugging the code? Specifically,
  indicate if you collaborated with others and what help you received or
  if you used an AI assistant such as co-pilot, please describe how you
  used it.
• While use of AI assistance is acceptable, the code must
  be your own past work. You should remove anything that is proprietary
  or contains sensitive information.

About IPA
Innovations
for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy nonprofit that
discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems.
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. In recent decades, trillions of dollars have been spent on
programs designed to reduce global poverty, but clear evidence on which
programs succeed is rare, and when evidence does exist, decision-makers
often do not know about it. IPA exists to bring together leading
researchers and these decision-makers to ensure that the evidence we
create leads to tangible impact on the world. Since its founding in
2002, IPA has worked with over 600 leading academics to conduct over 900
evaluations in 52 countries. This research has informed hundreds of
successful programs that now impact millions of individuals worldwide.

IPA’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)
As
an organization, IPA is dedicated to improving the lives of the world’s
most vulnerable populations through evidence and policy. We also
recognize how important it is for our staff to reflect the diversity of
the places where we work and the communities we work with. As such, IPA
is committed to hiring from a diverse pool of candidates, from a range
of backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, and perspectives. We know that
this makes our work stronger and more responsive to the challenges faced
by those we work with and for and we encourage people from historically
underrepresented groups to apply. Click here to learn more about IPA’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Innovations
for Poverty Action is an affirmative action equal opportunity employer.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment
without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin,
disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected class. IPA
will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation to a qualified
applicant with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an
undue hardship on the operation of our business. If you believe you
require such assistance to complete this form or to participate in an
interview, please contact us at jobs@poverty-action.org or via phone at 1-202-386-6200.

The
above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level
of the work to be performed by the specified position. The statements
are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all possible duties, tasks,
and responsibilities. Management reserves the right to amend and change
responsibilities to meet organizational needs as necessary. Please note
that IPA will never request any form of payment from an applicant.
Applicants are encouraged to confirm the information listed above with
IPA prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the
organization. Please direct questions to jobs@poverty-action.org.
** Please note that only qualified applicants will be contacted by the hiring manager.