Job Opportunity for Senior Associate MLE – Water at Evidence Action in New Delhi

Position Overview

Job Title: Senior Associate-MLE

Employment Status: Consultant

Term: 11 Months

Position Location: New Delhi

Number of Position: One

About Evidence Action

Evidence Action aims to be a world leader in scaling evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty for hundreds of millions of people in the poorest places. Last year Deworm the World reached 280 million people with deworming medications, partnering with governments to launch, scale, and sustain mass school-based deworming programs, including in India. Meanwhile, Dispensers for Safe Water provided 4M people across rural Africa with clean water, saving thousands of young lives. The approach relies on an innovative and human-centric design to deliver clean water at the source. These serve as just two examples of the work Evidence Action is undertaking.

In addition to running these scaled programs, Evidence Action leverages its unique Accelerator to develop the next generation of programs. These programs are rigorously tested to ensure exceptional scale, cost-effectiveness, and clear evidence of impact. In 2019 we launched an ambitious new strategy, intending to double our impact over the next five years, with much of that impact coming from new programs identified and scaled through the Accelerator.

Evidence Action has a presence across 7 countries, with major offices in Nairobi, Kenya; Delhi, India; and Washington, D.C. Evidence Action’s programs have been recognized by GiveWell, the Skoll Foundation, the Life You Can Save, Giving What We Can, and covered in the Economist, NPR, and the New York Times.

In India, Evidence Action’s technical partner EAII Advisors provides technical assistance to select state government’s ministries of health, education, and women and child development to implement the school and Anganwadi based National Deworming Day program and Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation program to improve children’s health, education, and long-term development. In the long term EAII Advisors aims to expand to provide technical support to more state governments and on other public health & nutrition issues too.

The India program invites applications for the position of Senior Associate– MLE to be based at the Delhi office.

About the Safe Water Program

In 2022, Evidence Action was approached to support Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in their intention to ensure appropriate drinking water quality through households taps through their goal to provide universal access to water to all of India by 2024. Evidence Action first supported JJM to conduct a landscape assessment of water source infrastructure, surveying 152 sites across ten states to better understand common types of water points in India. Simultaneously JJM conducted a technology assessment to shortlist to determine the best-fit water quality technologies.

Based on this assessment, Evidence Action is planning an operational pilot of in-line chlorination technologies to assess the feasibility of various technologies in various already-existing water system/source contexts. These contexts include single-village water schemes (SVS), multi-village schemes (MVS) at the village level, and MVS at the intermediary level (upstream from multiple villages), all of which serve water collection points (WCPs) in villages.

About the Position:

Senior Associate– MLE (Safe Water) will report to the Manager-MLE based at Delhi. The Senior Associate-MLE, is a member of Evidence Action’s Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation India team supporting the Manager MLE in the successful design and rollout of initiatives for the safe water program in India. Senior Associate-MLE must have significant experience and strong interest in monitoring & evaluation in the domain of safe water and WASH.

The position will support the India EAII safe water program team and provide technical assistance and guidance in developing the study tools, coordination with the hired agencies for data collection, monitoring of data collection, quality assurance of the collected data, data cleaning, analysis, and report writing.

The position will also conduct data analysis from various primary and secondary data sources and assist in the planning, implementation and management of data collection and analysis of various research and surveys. The Senior Associate -MLE will be involved in other MLE initiatives and will be required to support delivering projects within an agreed timeline and high-quality outputs. As for all staff, Senior Associate-MLE must possess a sense of collaboration and mutual understanding and a willingness to assist colleagues.

Responsibilities:

• Support the MLE Delivery, MLE Strategy, and Program team at EA to lead and operate across all phases of the pilot from pilot establishment to implementation to scale down and transition
• Working closely with the MLE Manager and safe water team at EA to ensure the effective implementation of the MLE initiatives under the safe water program.
• Assisting the MLE Manager and safe water team at EA in developing and finalizing the study tools and digitization in EAII survey application.
• Assisting the MLE team in the drafting of RFPs, contracts, and vendor management as appropriate.
• Assisting the MLE team in the effective implementation of all program monitoring, including sampling, training and independent monitoring in the states.
• Lead water treatment training of the survey agencies for the data collection
• Work with MLE Delivery, MLE Strategy, and Program team at EA to manage and facilitate the data collection and information management firm(s) to capture baseline, pilot, and post-pilot information
• Participate in pilot team meetings as required
• Maintain a learning perspective and throughout the process capture and document in written form lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations on devices, pilot design, and pilot implementation
• Working with the MLE team for the documentation of all data management and analysis processes as needed.
• Assisting in data validation to prepare it for further analysis as per guidelines developed.
• Assisting in contract tracking and ensuring deliverables are being met according to timelines.
• Will be responsible for processing and tracking the payments of partners and agencies and ensure that payments are released on time.
• Assisting the Manager-MLE and team (as appropriate) in identifying literature and sources of data and reports.
• Coordinate preparation and compilation of reports (monthly, quarterly and annual) with state offices for internal use and reporting to global office and donors as appropriate;
• Will support the documentation of lessons learned and potential best practices from field activities under the MLE new initiatives in coordination with state teams and others as appropriate;

Requirements

Essential

• This position is open to postgraduates, with a background in any of these areas: statistics, econometrics, health economics, demography, operations research, public health, or related fields.
• At least 4 years of work experience in MLE related areas and exposure to the WASH/safe water program. Work experience in reputed academic or research/survey organizations will be viewed favorably.
• Strong technical skills and capacity, with at least 2 years of practical experience managing MLE activities under water/WASH and/or health initiatives;
• Experience of developing, managing MIS, dashboard and online applications through professional agencies in the health and development sector;
• Prior experience with mobile or CAPI based surveys are highly preferred;
• Strong analytical skills having experience in using advanced level of MS-Excel is required;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Hindi.
• “People” skills- the ability to manage multicultural and diverse teams with various levels of training and understanding.
• Ability to communicate effectively and assertively with people at all levels of the organization.
• Strong interest in social programs and desire to be a part of a young and diverse team.
• Willing to travel at least 10% of the time, as required.
• Work experience in reputed organizations will be viewed favorably.
• Experience in online data collection tools-ODK, Kobo collect or similar other platforms will be preferred;
• Knowledge of Stata/SPSS and/or programming experience will be viewed favorably;
• Strong knowledge of public health systems, WASH and safe water program in India and experience with government systems will be an advantage;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations with people in a multicultural environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity;
• Strong communication skills (oral and written). Ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels of the organization;
• Highly motivated to achieve exceptional quality of data processes and results, and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to Learn – Willingness to keep abreast of new development;
• Strong project management skills and strict adherence to deadlines. 

Desirables

• Work experience in reputed organizations will be viewed favorably.
• Experience in online data collection tools-ODK, Kobo collect or similar other platforms will be preferred;
• Knowledge of Stata/SPSS and/or programming experience will be viewed favorably;
• Strong knowledge of public health systems, WASH and safe water program in India and experience with government systems will be an advantage;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations with people in a multicultural environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity;
• Strong communication skills (oral and written). Ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels of the organization;
• Highly motivated to achieve exceptional quality of data processes and results, and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to Learn – Willingness to keep abreast of new development;
• Strong project management skills and strict adherence to deadlines.

Disclaimer: The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list and that additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time.

Benefits

Compensation: Competitive and commensurate with the individual’s credentials, experience, and previous pay scale.

All contracting arrangements will be made through EAII Advisors Private Limited. EAII is an equal opportunity employer. Employment at EAII is based solely on an individual’s merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. EAII does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, caste, creed, colour, religion, gender, origin, disability, marital status, or any other basis protected by law.

All candidates applying for the position should upload a resume along with cover letter mentioning current and expected salary.

We may end this search process earlier than the specified close date in case of exceptional candidates. Due to resource constraints, we will only be able to contact shortlisted candidates.