Innovation for Poverty Action Field Officer Job 2015

Job Description

Innovation for Poverty Action

EMERGE Storybooks for Promoting Early Literacy Project

Position: Field Officer

Deadline To Apply: September 11, 2015 (early applications encouraged)
 

Start Date: October 1, 2015
 

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).

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