Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
Field Officer - Maize Storage Project
Position: Field Officer
Deadline to Apply: 29th January 2016
Location: Bungoma
Eligibility: Position
open to local Kenyan hires only
About Innovations for Poverty Action: 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 -- IPA designs and evaluates 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 Project: African agricultural markets are thin and weakly
integrated, often resulting in lower revenues for smallholder farmers and
higher food prices for consumers.
However, agricultural trading firms,
which are responsible for intermediation in these markets, and the market
environment in which they work have long been a black box.
We do not know if market isolation is
the result of traders operating as efficiently as possible within the
constraints of high transaction costs -- poor roads, high search costs, and
limited contract enforcement; or whatever large price dispersion is instead a
sign of imperfect competition among private sector actors, exerting market
power to drive prices away from competitive equilibria.
The answer to this question has
important implications for which market integration policies should be promoted
in order to have the greatest impact on price convergence and welfare, not to
mention productivity of the intermediation sector.
The Maize Traders study aims to
provide quantifiable evidence to guide such policy decisions.
This two-stage experiment aims (1) to
quantify the competitiveness of rural agricultural markets, and (2) to test
whether the entry of new intermediaries into markets, a common policy response
to perceived competitiveness, can enhance competition and increase consumer
welfare.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Accurate & complete survey administration.
- Monitoring of Grants delivered to Traders.
- Ensure data integrity is maintained at all
times and minimize errors in data collection.
- Punctuality: both to determined daily schedule
& appointments with respondents.
- Planning for team activities for specific
project assignments.
- Maintain team cohesion and respect among team
members.
- Accurate daily reporting and tracking for
oneself and within assigned team.
- Demonstrate integrity and understanding during
interaction with community members and partner organization staff.
- On non-field days, accurately perform office
duties for instance translation and data entry.
- Maintaining security and quality of project
assets and materials.
Qualifications:
Required
- Excellent oral and written communication
skills in English and Kiswahili.
- Experience with data collection through market
surveys, household surveys, focus groups or observations
- Ability to recognize when questions are
difficult or unclear to subjects
- Excellent note taking ability during
interviews
- Comfortable with interviewing individuals
within their homes, markets and over the phone.
- Basic computer knowledge and skills
(mandatory)
- Ability to comfortably work with groups and
within groups
- Ability to monitor sales closely in
markets
Desired
- Bachelors’ degree or college diploma in social
sciences, health and /or business administration
- Past experience in data collection
- Experience in data collection using Survey CTO
or Open Data Kit (ODK)
How to Apply:
Please send 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 ONLY by email to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org , please ensure that the subject line reads: “Field Officer” REF NO. Maize Storage: 2016-01-02.
Applications must be submitted ONLY by email to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org , please ensure that the subject line reads: “Field Officer” REF NO. Maize Storage: 2016-01-02.
Only short-listed candidates will be
contacted by email 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.
