Officer, Research and Development

Background/IRC Summary:  

The Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit (ERD TU) provides dynamic support and consultation to IRC’s field offices on livelihoods and market-driven programming — including emergency cash transfers, financial inclusion, agriculture and enterprise development. The unit provides direct technical assistance to field staff, ensuring innovation, promotion of best practices, and improvements to information collection and analysis for all economic/livelihoods programming implemented by the organization, from emergency response to post-crisis recovery.

 

The Research and Development (R&D) Officer will play a critical role within the ERD TU to support, capture and disseminate learning on IRC’s R&D work related to cash-based interventions. The IRC is committed to increasing the use of cash programming in humanitarian settings and sees improvements in operational efficiency and effectiveness of cash delivery as a core part of achieving this. 

 

Job Overview/Summary:

The primary role of the R&D Officer is to spearhead research, learning and global dissemination activities for a cash R&D project in Pakistan. The project will be implemented by IRC Pakistan in partnership with technology company Segovia. Funding is anticipated form USAID/ NetHope and DFID. The purpose of the project is to improve metrics around cost, speed and user experience of cash delivery by focusing on two specific pain points: (1) beneficiary identification and targeting; (2) cash distribution integration with payment platforms.  The project will use a rapid pilot and learning process for continual improvements until core metrics are sufficiently improved. The planned learning outputs for the project include: baseline assessment of core metrics; design and results papers for targeting pilots; full pilot performance evaluation; policy and practice paper with key recommendations.

 

Major Responsibilities:

With support and guidance from the Senior Director for ERD, the R&D Officer will be responsible for:

• Leading the implementation of all research and learning activities in Pakistan, in collaboration with IRC Pakistan and external research and implementation partners.
• Producing learning outputs throughout project implementation – including, assessment/ pilot reports, project updates and memos, blog posts, briefing papers, presentations etc. 
• Ensuring regular communications on R&D progress across the IRC and to key external audiences; working with the communications team to support dissemination.
• Supporting and ensuring broad collaboration across project partners – identifying issues and recommending solutions to accountable parties as needed;
• Serving as the key focal point within the ERD technical unit, bridging communications and support between various HQ departments and technical advisors, IRC Pakistan and external stakeholders.
• Other tasks related to cash-related research and learning, as needed.

 

Job Requirements:

Education: Advanced degree in relevant field such as economics, statistics, international development / public policy, or other social sciences• Advanced training in quantitative data analysis, empirical research, and/or evaluation methodologies highly desired • Technical understanding of economic recovery & development in humanitarian response contexts preferred

 

Work Experience: Minimum three (3) years experience designing, implementing, and supporting research activities, with at least one (1) year international experience managing field-based research. Ideal candidate will also have experience designing research activities that incorporate information communications technology (ICT) for mobile data collection and information management / visualization / analysis.

 

Experience supporting programs in emergency, conflict, and/or protracted crisis contexts highly desired. 

 

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of quantitative research methods.. Experience with cash-based programming is highly desired but not required.
• Experience implementing rigorous research projects in development or humanitarian settings.
• Superior internal and external communication and coordination skills and capable of fostering strong cross-agency collaboration to achieve shared ambitions and goals.
• Excellent writing skills required and proven experience writing reports or documents for publication.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Committed to the central role of evidence-generation and use in humanitarian programming and highly motivated to promote the broader uptake of effective and efficient humanitarian response efforts.

 

Language Skills:  Urdu desirable

 

 

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The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles. 

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