Website Poverty Action Lab
Language Requirement: Hindi and English. Proficiency in spoken Hindi (native fluency) is preferred.
Length of Commitment: 8 months
Joining Location: New Delhi. Requires field travel to rural areas in North and East India
Sector- Gender and Health
About the Organization
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. Anchored by a network of 194 affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL South Asia, based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in India, leads J-PAL’s work in the South Asia region. J-PAL South Asia conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs. Over more than ten years of existence, J-PAL South Asia has conducted 193 ongoing and completed randomized evaluations.
About the position
J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research seeks qualified applicants for the position of Research Associate to lead impact evaluations in India. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field management experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The Research Associate will join a team of world-class researchers from leading universities in the world and will gain first-hand experience implementing randomized control trials in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research
Read more about our work and projects here.
J-PAL South Asia is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes protected by law. We strongly encourage people from marginalized communities to apply for this role.
Project Specific Details-
In India, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) violations of adolescent girls, such as early marriage, adolescent pregnancies, and a lack of SRHR knowledge, are prevalent, particularly in rural areas. This study aims to understand the efficacy of “Kahi Ankahi Baatein (KAB),” a mobile phone based SRHR infoline run in India by CREA, a feminist international human rights organisation. The objective of this study is to 1) understand the extent of and barriers to access to SRHR information and services for adolescents in India, particularly those in rural areas, 2) understand the unmet needs of this population in terms of SRHR information and services, 3) evaluate the efficacy of the KAB infoline, 4) examine barriers to the take-up of the KAB infoline, and 5) provide recommendations for changes to existing interventions that could lead to better
outcomes for the target population 6) provide recommendations for the scalability of KAB. The study involves a three-phase research design consisting of qualitative interviews which will include personal interviews and focus group discussions, a survey experiment which will include list experiment and vignette experiment, and a randomised control trial.
Principal Investigators: Saravana Ravindran, Dan Han, Kaushambi Bagchi
Research Associates work closely with Research Managers & Principal Investigators who guide and supervise them in their various tasks.
Key Responsibilities
Research Associates work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:
- Work closely with the PIs for designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot exercises, refining study design and survey instruments.
- Work closely with the PIs and the survey team to recruit participants for the study.
- Supervise data collection and data entry to ensure good data quality during all the data collection phases.
- Maintain communications with the client and project partners.
- Train, and supervise both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, data entry operators and other field and office staff.
- Ensure that the project complies with IRB and JPAL data collection and security.
- Co-ordinate with the Administrative and Finance team on a variety of tasks related to field staff contracting and payments.
- Oversee the implementation of the evaluation in accordance with the research design in association with our partner organization.
- Lead the data collection activities, including ensuring proper documentation of all field activities.
- Travel with PIs and field teams for data collection. Take notes, and transcribe qualitative data collected.
- Review and vet project datasets and maintain an efficient data documentation system.
- Data transcribing, cleaning, and management, and put together all the data in a usable format for analysis.
Work with PIs and clients/partners to reconcile any gaps or errors in the data.
● Preliminary analysis and synthesis of data.
● Assist in analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected during the project’s implementation.
● Help in coordinating with the clients and project partners and send them data and statistics as and when required.
● Assist in documenting data collection efforts, including any issues and key decisions taken for improvements.
● Maintain compliance with all J-PAL protocols and policies.
● Assist in preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting and other dissemination activities.
● Responsible for general project documentation
● Reporting to PIs on all the afore-mentioned activities
Desired Qualifications
● A Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in economics, sociology, social sciences, public policy, public health or related fields.
● Previous experience in development research preferred.
● Knowledge of development related issues in India, and an understanding of various socio-economic, gender-related, and cultural issues is essential.
● Previous experience in working in rural India is preferred.
● Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills
● Fluency and excellent communication skills in English.
● Proficiency in understanding and fluency in spoken Hindi is essential. Hindi as native language and native proficiency is preferred.
● Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player.
● Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
● Proficiency in STATA (or other data analysis software) is strongly preferred. Overall proficiency in using MS Office, preparing policy memos, research documents and creating slide decks is required.
● Familiarity with randomized controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments preferred.
● Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments
● Ability to work independently and in rural field locations
Note on Work Authorizations:
Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.
To apply for this job please visit www.povertyactionlab.org.
