Job Opportunity for Research Support Assistant – Gender Sensitive at Poverty Action Lab

Job Description:

J-PAL SA is entering into a partnership with Punjab Police to design and evaluate gender-responsive police interventions, specifically on reforming and upgrading community outreach practices, empowerment of female officers and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. The project will use mixed-methods research, combining qualitative fieldwork, surveys, and randomized impact evaluation, to analyze whether and how gender-targeted policing can improve the responsiveness of police officers. The RSA’s immediate role requires working closely with the Principal Investigators (PIs) on strengthening the intervention design and formalizing it for a full-scale RCT.

Research Support Assistant Roles and Responsibilities:

The RSA will work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:

·      Working closely with PIs to develop the intervention ideas to be scoped and piloted.

·      Effectively communicating field observations for fine-tuning research design components.

·      Maintaining relationships with the partner at both headquarters and field levels.

·      Collecting admin data from the partner for informing the research design.

·      Maintaining close communication and reporting with the Policy team overseeing the state partnership in Punjab.

·      Reporting to PIs on all of the above mentioned activities.

·      Maintain compliance with all J-PAL protocols and policies.

Desired Qualifications and Experience:

·   Bachelor’s/ Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, mathematics/statistics, public policy, or related fields

·      Experience: 0-2 years

·      Experience working in a developing country setting

·      Excellent management/ organizational skills and able to solve unexpected problems

·      Strong quantitative skills

·      Working knowledge of Stata

·      Familiarity with RCTs

·      Flexible, self-motivating, independent and manages multiple tasks efficiently

·      Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments

·      Attention to detail

·      Familiarity with Punjabi, Hindi (both spoken and written)

Note on Work Authorizations: Candidates must have work authorization to work in India. This covers citizens of India, Nepal, or Bhutan, Persons of Indian origin (PIO), and an Overseas Citizens of India (OCI).

About J-PAL South Asia:

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) J-PAL was established in 2003 as a research center at the Economics Department at MIT. Since then, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL is propelled by a first-rate team dedicated to research, policy, training, and other vital work, supporting J-PAL’s mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

 J-PAL South Asia, which is based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, analyses and disseminates research results and builds partnerships with policymakers to ensure that policy is driven by evidence, and that programs proven effective are scaled up. We have a growing number of partnerships in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.