Position Title: Project Associate (Bangladesh)
Reports to: Principal Investigators
Location: Bangladesh
Deadline to apply: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis
Desired start date: June, 2014
Length of commitment: 1 year commitment is
required for this position
Background Information:
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), is an international non-profit
research organization. Based in New Haven, CT, with offices in Washington, D.C.
and worldwide, IPA works with development partners and academic researchers to
create and evaluate approaches to solving development problems, to communicate
“what works” in development and to scale up successful projects in a variety of
fields, including health, education, microfinance, governance and agriculture.
Program Summary:
In Bangladesh, as in much of the developing world, early female marriage
remains widespread despite age of consent laws banning the practice, government
and NGO efforts to curtail it, increasing education levels, and economic
growth. Early marriage is highly correlated with low levels of education,
access to resources, mobility, and ultimately, poor health outcomes for young
women and their children. Existing data are not able to distinguish which of
these highly correlated factors causes the others, a distinction which is
critical for policy decision making and allocation of resources.
This study evaluates and builds on a program implemented by Save the
Children (USA), which engaged adolescent girls in 460 communities between the
ages of 10 and 19 in a variety of social, educational and financial
interventions in order to identify effective and efficient strategies for
empowering girls and delaying adolescent marriage. The research seeks to
improve our ability to understand and address the specific channels through
which early marriage influences the health and well-being of these girls as
they enter marriage, become mothers, and enter the work force and their
children.
An additional element was added to the original Save the Children program
to help separate out the impact of education on health and empowerment from the
impact of delaying marriage on these same outcomes. In Bangladesh, the main
government program aimed at increasing age of marriage provides a conditional
cash incentive to families to keep their child unmarried and in school. Unfortunately the government program misses
some of the most vulnerable girls in poor communities where there are no
secondary schools or where the girls are unable to maintain sufficiently high
grades to stay in the program. Partly to reach these marginalized populations
and also to evaluate whether delaying marriage on its own has beneficial
impacts on health and education, a noncash incentive program was added to the
Save the Children program. Under this program, adolescent girls between the
ages of 15-17 receive four liters of cooking oil every four months on the
condition that they remain unmarried.
Position Summary:
The Project Associate will lead the fieldwork for the third phase of a
large scale project that measures the impact of delaying marriage, increased
educational attainment and labor market outcomes on a range of socioeconomic
measures for women in Bangladesh. This position provides an excellent
opportunity to gain more senior level experience managing a large scale field
project in coordination with a survey company (which will run much of the
logistics of the survey). Key responsibilities include: planning new survey
questionnaires on maternal and economic outcomes, coordinating with the survey
company, supporting training of enumerators, hiring and supervising independent
survey monitors, helping with cleaning data, assisting in the writing of
project reports and policy memos, and liaising with key government and
nongovernmental partners. The Project Associate will work closely with the
Principal Investigators, Rachel Glennerster (MIT) and Erica Field (Duke
University) to design data collection protocols. He/she will also work closely
with IPA country management and research staff.
Responsibilities:
·
Developing and piloting new
survey instruments; managing translation into Bangla
·
Coordinating selection and
liaison with survey company who will administer the survey
·
Managing the logistics of a
large-scale field experiment, including managing budgets, timelines, and
procurement
·
Assisting in data cleaning and
analysis
·
Ensuring adherence to data
quality protocols, including managing a team of independent monitors who audit
enumerators and the survey company
·
Participating in meetings with
key stakeholders and presenting research findings
·
Writing reports detailing
research findings and proposed interventions
·
Overseeing funding and approval applications,
and ensuring that all necessary approvals are in place
Qualifications:
·
Excellent management and
organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills;
·
Flexible, self-motivating, able
to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player
·
Demonstrated ability to manage
high-level relationships with partner organizations
·
Experience running a large-scale
survey and managing the survey implementation and data entry process
·
Experience with Computer-Assisted
Interviewing is preferred, but not required
·
A Bachelor's or Master's degree
in economics, business management, social sciences, public policy, political
science or related fields
·
Demonstrated proficiency in Stata
and experience with data management, data cleaning, and regression analysis
·
Experience with quantitative
research, particularly with randomized controlled trials.
·
Fluency and excellent
communication skills in Bangla and English.
Application Instructions:
Please follow the application instructions below. Any applications or CVs submitted outside
this process will not be considered.
Note, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.
Applicants will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Complete the J-PAL/IPA common application. Please select the position(s)
you are interested in applying for on the 'Submit Application' page. Include
two letters of recommendation, statement of purpose (cover letter), CV, and
transcripts. We will consider your application even if you are unable to obtain
reference letters before the deadline, but please be advised that we will be
requiring them should you be invited for an interview.
IPA is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer.
All persons shall have the
opportunity to be considered for employment without regard to their race,
color, religion, national origin, ancestry, alienage or citizenship status,
age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other characteristic
protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
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.
How to Apply:
If you are qualified and interested in discussing this engagement in more
detail,
please submit your resume in confidence to via the link below:
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