Program Manager II – Research Coordinator, Expanding Financial Inclusion Project

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the official relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic Community. It works in several countries through local community groups and partner organizations. It promotes microenterprise development.

About the Job: 
CRS is seeking a Research Coordinator. S/he will oversee all research, evaluation, and learning activities for the Expanding Financial Inclusion (EFI) project, including research design, development of scopes of work, selection of researchers and/or research firms.

Note: This position is contingent upon the award of funding from the donor.

Tasks and Responsibilities: 

• Finalize design of the research program, in close coordination with the project director and CRS headquarters’ technical advisor for microfinance–savings;
• Develop, select, and manage the relationships with external researchers, survey firms, and analysts;
• Work with the EFI training specialist to ensure that donor protocols are in place, data collection and analysis is completed on a quarterly basis, and assist with donor troubleshooting, as needed;
• Work with CRS’ information technology teams and CRS Zambia’s country program to create IT tools and data protocols for financial diaries program;
• Oversee data cleaning and quality-control for the financial diaries’ program;
• Analyze financial diaries data, including substantive input on innovative approaches to mining the data;
• Prepare and disseminate the interim and final report on financial diaries’ program;
• Oversee baseline poverty assessment survey process, including direct supervision of the survey firms;
• Analyze baseline poverty outreach data and prepare and disseminate the baseline reports for EFI each country;
• Prepare and disseminate the midterm and final reports on poverty assessment research;
• Monitor and collect data for ongoing poverty outreach observations of SILC members in selected communities;
• Manage the ethnographic research in selected communities in 2 of the 4 EFI countries;
• Monitor and collect data for intake surveys for all incoming agents;
• Conduct merges of agent intake data with productivity data; analyze results, and prepare and disseminate reports;
• Carry out research to evaluate the mobile money linkage program in Uganda, including research design, data collection fieldwork, analysis of results, and preparation and dissemination of results;
• Provide technical support and mentoring to the project training officers to ensure internal data collection is carried out according to protocols;
• Actively keep abreast of research undertaken by other organizations that is relevant to the EFI program;
• Represent CRS and the EFI project in conferences and all other relevant contexts;
• Any other duties, as required by the EFI project director.

Qualifications: 

• Ph.D. in Economics (preferred), International Development, Anthropology, or other closely-related field. Particularly strong candidates with Master’s degrees may be considered;
• Minimum of 3 years' related work or post-doc experience;
• Field-level experience with program evaluation in developing contexts, including instrument design, sampling, fieldwork, and data analysis;
• Experience with quantitative design, data management and analysis, including formal statistical methods;
• Experience with qualitative field methods, including analysis and report writing;
• Familiarity with one or more statistical software packages (e.g., SPSS, Stata, SAS, etc.) required;
• Ability to conduct and supervise quality research on a short timeline;
• Ability to synthesize research into succinct and clear reports;
• Planning and organizational skills;
• Attention to detail and accuracy;
• Interpersonal skills, including with national and partner staff;
• Strong command of English, both written and oral communications;
• Proficiency in French a strong plus but not required;
• Must be able to work independently under general direction of the EFT project director;
• Willingness to travel up to 40% of the time in the four program countries;
• Familiarity with database software including MS Access preferred but not required;
• Familiarity with savings group programming preferred but not required;
• Familiarity with the financial diaries research methodology preferred by not required.

Closing Date: 05 Jun 2013

How to Apply:
Apply Online