Innovation for Poverty Action
EMERGE Storybooks for Promoting Early
Literacy Project
Position: Field Officer
Deadline To Apply: September 11, 2015 (early applications encouraged)
Location: Kisumu
with frequent travel throughout Nyanza
Eligibiligy: Position open to Local Kenyan hires only
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA): Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a
non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting effective
solutions to global poverty problems.
In close partnership with decision
makers - the policymakers, practitioners, investors, and donors working with
the poor around the world - we design and evaluate potential solutions to
poverty problems using randomized evaluations, the most rigorous evaluation
method available.
We also mobilize and support these
decision makers to use these solutions to build better programs and policies at
scale.
About the EMERGE Project: EMERGE is a randomized control trial which aims to
improve early childhood literacy and school readiness. In Kenya and throughout
sub-Saharan Africa, many primary school children read below grade level.
While there are many causes of low
literacy in primary school, a key contributing factor to the widespread lack of
literacy is low level of child readiness for primary school.
Our research focuses on an
innovative, light touch early childhood intervention to improve school
readiness and classroom-level pedagogy through the provision of children’s
books and dialogic reading training to parents of children between 2 and 6
years of age in rural, Western Kenya.
We will work in partnership with a
local NGO, Maria’s Libraries, to distribute storybooks in official and local
languages.
This impact evaluation measures the
impact of distributing children’s storybooks and supporting family reading on a
range of child, household, and school-level outcomes.
We seek: first, to quantify the
effects of inexpensive literacy interventions on learning outcomes; second, to
quantify parent behavioral responses to the availability of the new educational
materials; and third, measure the change in classroom environment brought about
by improved student preparation before school age.
The Position: The
Field Officer, under the supervision of Senior Field Officers and Field
Managers, will be primarily responsible for field data collection activities,
including interviews and observations of children, mothers, and other household
members.
The Field Officer will also be
expected to assist with office tasks such including translations and data
entry.
The Field Officer may also play a
role in delivering the intervention training to mothers and will be expected to
learn and practice the training script in advance of delivering the
intervention.
Specific Duties:
- Conducting surveys in EMERGE evaluation sites
throughout Nyanza
- Visiting and tracking of survey respondents to
administer questionnaires
- Data collection prep work, including
translations, pretesting, and piloting
- Assisting with intervention training delivery,
including prep and practice
- Diligent completion of checklists and other
means of monitoring data
- Data entry tasks as assigned by the Project
Management
- Helping to have materials organized in
readiness for field work and for data processing and organizing data
collected from the field
- Ensuring high data quality (low error rates)
- Proper use and maintenance of project
equipment (phones, GPS machines, headphones, etc)
- Prompt arrival at work and completion of
scheduled activities each day
- Successfully working in a team and
avoiding/minimizing conflicts with the rest of the team members
- Participating in staff trainings and making
efforts to improve one’s capacity
- On non-field days, conscientious performance
of office work (respondent phone calls, translations, data entry,
photocopying, organizing data, etc.)
- Other tasks as assigned by Project Management
Qualifications and Experience:
Required:
- Diploma in relevant field (social sciences,
development studies, early childhood education, or community development)
;
- Excellent oral and written communication in
both English, Kiswahili, and Dholuo;
- Excellent management and organizational
skills;
- Computer literate.
Preferred:
- Bachelor’s degree in relevant field (social
sciences, development studies, early childhood education, or community
development) ;
- Experience working with children and mothers;
- Experience working on health, education, or
early childhood development projects;
- Experience in data collection and survey
administration, preferably using CAI (SurveyCTO).
How to Apply:
Please send by email a cover letter
and detailed CV, 3 references, daytime phone number(s), and email
address.
Your CV should include your scores or
grades and other measures of academic achievement, and details about any relevant
work experience.
Applications must be submitted by email to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org.
Please ensure that the subject line
reads: “Field Officer” REF NO. EMERGE- 2015-08-01.
Only short-listed candidates will be
contacted for an interview.
Applicants are encouraged to apply
early, as applications will be reviewed on a Rolling Basis
Disclaimer: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by the (Field Officer). The statements are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all possible duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Management reserves the right to amend and change responsibilities to meet organizational needs as necessary. Please note that IPA will never request any form of payment from an applicant. Applicants are encouraged to confirm the information listed above with IPA prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the organization. Please direct questions to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org.