Innovations for Poverty Action Kenya Sandalwood Lane, off Riverside Drive
P.O. Box 72427-00200,
Nairobi, Kenya poverty-action.org/Kenya
info-kenya@poverty-action.org 0707
387 429 and 020 271 0237
Kenya Life Panel Survey
(KLPS/Tracking) Project
POSITION: Research Associate (1 position)
REPORTING TO: Research
Coordinator
START DATE: 2nd August 2021
LOCATION: Busia
DURATION: 6 Months
(Renewable)
DEADLINE: Applications
reviewed on a rolling basis ELIGIBILITY:
Position open to local
Kenyan hires only
About Innovations for Poverty
Action: Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy
non-profit Organization that discovers and promotes effective solutions to
global poverty problems. IPA brings together researchers and decision-makers to
design, rigorously evaluate, and refine these solutions and their applications,
ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve the lives of the world’s
poor.
About the project:
The Kenya Life Panel
Survey is a longitudinal study that seeks to rigorously examine the medium-
to-long term impacts of several programs that invested in rural Kenyan youth
then (now young adults). These programs include the Primary School Deworming
Project (PSDP), which provided deworming treatment to primary school students
in rural Kenya between 1998 and 2002, the Girls’ Scholarship Program (GSP),
which provided merit based scholarships to young women in a separate set of
primary schools in rural Kenya in 2001 and 2002, and the Vocational Training
Voucher Program (VTVP), which provided vouchers to a subset of PSDP and GSP
participants allowing them to obtain vocational training between 2009 and 2010
and lastly Start-up Capital for Youth (SCY) program which subsequently randomly
allocated unconditional cash grants to support the start-up or expansion of
small businesses, among the same sample of individuals who were part of the
TVVP. The KLPS panel data collection effort seeks to follow recipients of these
programs into adulthood and collect information on a range of life outcomes,
with particular focus on expenditure, income, health, education, labor market
participation, migration, fertility and marriage among others. We are almost
launching the intensive tracking phase of the second wave of the fourth round
of KLPS follow- up which has both adult and biological Kids component. The
current adult component is mainly a behavioural module (focused on
non-expenditure outcomes) while the Kids component mainly entails a series of
age-specific cognitive tests with two add-on intervention arms dubbed
“storybook” and “sleep” interventions.
About the Position:
The Research Associate,
under the general supervision of the Research Coordinator and within the limits
of Innovations for Poverty Action-Kenya policies and procedures, coordinates
the facilitation of field and data activities and functions within IPAK. This
position will be based in Busia and oversee the day-to-day running of both KLPS
Nairobi and Busia offices in close consultation with the Research Coordinator.
Below is a list of some of the general duties and responsibilities of the
Research Associate, to be carried out as needed according to the determination
of the Research Coordinator.
Duties and Responsibilities
Data Management
- Data Processing, and Storage
- Designing smooth, functioning,
and timely data flow between various project activities according to
Standard Operating
- Using STATA to process and
clean data, prepare summary
- Designing Stata auditing tools
for high frequency checks and back-checks.
- Supporting the Office
Assistant in maintaining proper storage of all paper surveys in a secure,
well-organized, and well-documented repository.
- Ensuring proper storage of all
computer data including regular
- Survey Programming
- Developing data collection
instruments for computer-aided interviews (CAI) using Survey CTO, phone
surveys and field-based paper
- Conducting spot checks for the
field enumerators and providing feedback accordingly
- Data Entry
- Planning and managing data
entry from paper surveys using data entry
- Designing and pretesting data
entry
- Data Protection and Security
- Ensuring all staff comply with
all policies and procedures related to data
- Controlling physical access to
paper surveys, computers, and any other sensitive
- Ensuring appropriate computer
security on devices handling data using password protection and
- Policy and Documentation
- For all areas of
responsibility, contributing to the development of policies, manuals, and
other documentation.
Field Management
- Human Subjects
- Ensure that all field team
comply with human subjects’ protocol and IRB
- Managing IRB for the project
including preparing the documents for submission as well as timely
submission as
- Field Logistics
- Undertaking regular field
monitoring for all the project activities accordingly
- Supporting the process of
locating respondents, ensuring compliance with protocols
- Supporting project guidelines
governing field staff who work remotely and locally
- Aid in preparation supply
procurement, upkeep, and calibration of field equipment as necessary
- Supervising field activities with the other field
management
- Human Resource Management
- With the rest of the project
management team, train and manage the field teams that conduct household
surveys
- Participating in the selection
process for staff hiring and assist with training as needed
- Assisting with staff
evaluations and make recommendations regarding renewal of staff contracts
- Enforce all IPAK policies and
communicate regularly with management team
- Assisting in the writing of
weekly reports
- Other duties related to
project implementation and administrative tasks as needed
- Financial Management
- Keeping track of project
expenses and prepare financial summary reports
- Review expense reports and
share feedback and/or reports as required
Qualifications and
Experience:
- Preferably Master’s degree in management, social
sciences, public policy, or related Bachelor’s degree (required).
- Proven minimum 5 years of field management
experience. Extensive experience supervising, designing, and implementing
data collection and/or field work activities, and managing teams of field
- Previous experience in managing data collection
and survey administration for adult household surveys and the kid’s
assessments (preferred)
- Experience in training staff to improve data
collection efforts and their accuracy (required)
- Advanced experience in programming long surveys
with multiple randomization and skips using SurveyCTO (required).
- Strong problem-solving skills and a good
understanding of team
- Proven experience in managing IRB submissions and
approvals for a
- Ability to manage and clean complex datasets,
preferably, using
- Excellent management and organizational Ability to
effectively manage multiple data collection activities in a project will
be a requirement.
- Excellent financial management
- Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple
teams in different locations and across different complex activities
efficiently, and team
- Demonstrated ability to manage high-level
relationships with stakeholders including multiple PI team(s), partner
organizations and policy
- Demonstrated experience in managing and
maintaining long-term study participants (desired).
- Advanced user of Microsoft Office suite especially
Excel to generate summary productivity reports (Required).
- Proven experience in coordinating and managing
large
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in
both English and Kiswahili and proven ability to make presentations of
field reports to the
How to Apply
Please click here to
apply. Only shortlisted 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 Research Associate-KLPS. 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.