Associate Research & Policy Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

JOB TITLE: Associate Research & Policy Manager

JOB LOCATION: Abuja

JOB DETAILS:

• We are seeking an Associate Research & Policy Manager to collaborate closely with our partner (a telecommunication regulator) to strengthen its capacity to use evidence to improve its consumer protection programs and policies. 
• IPA is working to set up an “Embedded Lab” to enable the government partner to use data and rigorous research to design, test, and scale evidence-based programs and policies. 
• The Associate Research & Policy Manager will be embedded within the partner’s office and take a leading role in driving the Lab’s engagement with regulatory partners. 
• They will focus specifically on identifying research and policy opportunities, designing the lab’s strategies to influence national-level policy processes, provide support in strengthening Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) capacity development and work with sector counterparts to build buy-in for a culture of evidence generation and use.
• The Associate & Research & Policy Manager will have a strong policy background, and ideally experience working with partners to use evidence to inform policy and programming.
• We particularly encourage Nigerian nationals to apply. The Associate Research & Policy Manager will report to the Senior Manager, Police and Consumer Protection Embedded Lab, with dotted line oversight from the Global Policy team and the Financial Inclusion Program(FIP) .

Responsibilities
Workplan management and reporting 10%:

• Collaborate with the partner’s team to develop a shared workplan, ensuring alignment with project goals and effective implementation.
• Support with other project management tasks, including progress tracking, financial oversight , and internal and donor reporting.

Stakeholder management 30%:

• Cultivate relationships with key local top-level decision-makers and ensure the project has their sustained buy-in and input
• Coordinate project activities alongside technical staff from the partner in a learning-by-doing approach, fostering active engagement throughout the process
• Promote engagement to raise awareness of the lab and encourage collaborative efforts for collective impact

Generating relevant evidence 20%:

• Lead the co-creation of policy-driven research agenda for the lab, and facilitate the development of research projects to respond to the agenda
• Facilitate engagement with local and international academics to provide input into the lab’ s policy-driven research agenda
• Develop opportunities to leverage administrative data for research, connecting local and international researchers to pursue these openings

Sharing evidence to inform program design and delivery 20%:

• Share existing evidence to inform partner’s program design and delivery
• Produce policy briefs on key policy questions
• Work together with the partner , the project team, sector team, global policy and communications teams to lead and/or participate in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables.
• In collaboration with researchers and in support of the country director, represent IPA locally in policy conversations and at events

Exploring program institutionalization 20%:

• Engage with the partner’s leadership to explore opportunities to institutionalize the lab for sustainability.

Qualifications
Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree and / or Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in International Public Policy, Social Science, Economics, Statistics, or related fields and 3-7 years of relevant work experience. 
• Exceptions may be made for excellent candidates who do not meet this criterion
• Hands-on experience supporting Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning systems.
• Experience working in the telecommunications sector, ideally in close interaction with government stakeholders
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to clearly present information in a structured, non-technical, and insightful way.
• Excellent project management and organizational skills, attention to detail, entrepreneurial mindset, versatility, and strong multi-tasking skills
• Superior analytical, quantitative, and conceptual thinking skills
• Willingness to be a team player and identify connections between work streams
• Cultural and political sensitivity and demonstrated ability to work successfully with diverse constituencies
• Passion for making data-driven decision-making a reality in the development sector.

Preferred:

• Demonstrated ability to coach and train others in statistics, data analysis or MEL methodologies
• Experience working with government
• Familiarity with quantitative and qualitative research methods.

HOW TO APPLY
To Apply for the Ongoing Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Job Recruitment, Visit APPLICATION PORTAL To Submit Your Application!