Internship Opportunity – Policy, Training and Communications Intern at Poverty Action Lab

Location:

 India

Start Date (Earliest):

 1 June 2023

Length of Commitment:

 Less than one year

About J-PAL SA

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.  

The Policy,  Training and Communications (PTC) team at J-PAL South Asia at the Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR) seeks a cohort of interns to contribute to its mission of promoting evidence-informed policy-making. The team engages with governments and partner organisations on strengthening their capacities, and works towards developing a culture of evidence-based policymaking. 

The interns will support the team’s mandates of initiating new randomised evaluations, synthesising and disseminating evidence, strengthening M&E systems and capacities and use of evidence (through CLEAR SA), capacity building and supporting ongoing partnerships with governments, international organisations, philanthropic foundations and NGOs in India. Candidates should have an understanding of impact evaluation methods (especially randomised evaluations), be passionate about social policy, and have excellent communication skills. The PTC team is a close-knit team, so interns will get the opportunity of working with multiple team members. They will also get the opportunity of shadowing senior staff in high-level external partner meetings, thus gaining insight to navigate research and policy stakeholders across sectors.

Key Responsibilities

Policy:

• Work closely with J-PAL SA policy sector, scale-ups and state partnership teams to support the generation, dissemination and synthesis of J-PAL’s evidence across our thematic sectors.
• Work with senior staff and academic leadership to identify policy lessons from J-PAL affiliates’ research.
• Track changes in the Indian policy landscape across different J-PAL sectors and priority thematic areas for informing partner outreach for new project development, evidence-based scale-ups and targeted evidence advisory. 
• Support the policy team in creating and populating trackers to deepen our knowledge of state and central government stakeholders and development priorities 
• Assist the team in identifying and promoting a portfolio of evidence-based programs being scaled up by Government partners in India
• Support the policy team in building a local research pipeline by identifying South Asian Academics 
• Assist J-PAL SA’s policy team in preparing background notes, memos, updates, and presentations for J-PAL SA’s partnerships with state and central governments in India.
• Support the J-PAL SA policy, training and communications teams on any other tasks, as needed.

Training:

• Track changes in the South Asia policy and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) landscape, and create trackers and notes to inform government partnerships.
• Support the training team in conducting literature review, questionnaire development, data collection, analysis and report writing for the center’s ongoing M&E diagnostics exercises with governments to help develop customised evaluation capacity development plans
• Support the team in developing training materials, presentations, manuals and knowledge products for different M&E topics and capacity building initiatives
• Support on  knowledge management activities for CLEAR South Asia and Global Evaluation Initiative
• Support the training team in coordinating events and capacity building sessions. 
• Support cross-vertical collaborations

Communications:

• Assist J-PAL South Asia with its public dissemination activities, including planning events (both in-person and virtual).
• Review existing visual material (including photos, videos, and webinar recordings) to create resources for social media campaigns.
• Support the planning and landscaping for media relations and donor communication activities.
• Assist the Communications Team with tracking its media analytics. 
• Support the J-PAL SA policy, training and communications teams on any other tasks, as needed. 

Qualifications

• Technical knowledge of impact evaluations, keen eye for detail, strong communication and organisational skills, passion for translating research into action, and interest in international development/public policy make you an ideal candidate for the position of an intern.

Education

• Has recently completed a Master’s (desirable) or  Bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, public policy, public health or any related field. 
• Has trained in statistics and/or quantitative research methods.
• A technical understanding of impact evaluations is necessary to ensure that J-PAL’s findings are translated into general policy conclusions in a way that is both simple to follow but also accurate and undistorted.
• Strong interest in international development and public policy, South Asia development, and/or program evaluation as demonstrated by coursework and professional experience will also be preferred.  

Availability: Able to commit to a full-time intern role for two months (June 1 – July 31, however the dates are flexible based on the candidate’s availability). 

Communication:

• Detail-oriented
• Strong writing and presentation skills
• Understands how to translate technical academic work into policy lessons
• Comfortable with public speaking

Attitude:

• Proven ability to independently handle multiple diverse assignments simultaneously, successfully complete assigned tasks and meet deadlines while delivering high-quality outputs.
• Ability to work closely with multiple team members in a collaborative manner.
• Self-motivated, ability to problem solve and to work with minimal supervision.
• Willing to learn

How to Apply

1. Please apply below.

2. Also please click on the apply button on the JD here; the first-time users will be asked to sign up and upload your CV, cover letter, and academic transcripts (optional). 

Any queries, please write to recruitment.jpalsa@ifmr.ac.in.

Applications with incomplete submissions will not be considered. Deadline for applications is Apr 10, 2023.

Given the volume of applications received, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.