Innovations for Poverty Action is recruiting a Policy & Practice Coordinator who will be responsible for advancing IPA Tanzania’s evidence-based policy and practice engagement strategy with our partners, government officials, and NGOs in education and early childhood development, particularly in Tanzania’s humanitarian sector. The Research & Policy Coordinator will lead IPA Tanzania’s engagement in the PlayMatters initiative which will deliver and promote play-based, early learning solutions for pre-primary and primary school aged children impacted by the humanitarian crises in East Africa and living in Ethiopia and Uganda. Partners include the International Rescue Committee, War Child, Plan International, the Behavioural Insights Team, and IPA. The Research and Policy Coordinator will also oversee engagements surrounding building an evidence base for early childhood development for refugee and host community children 0-3.
The Research and Policy Coordinator will report to IPA Tanzania’s Country Director, with dotted line oversight from the global Policy team. The Coordinator will manage a Policy & Practice Associate and will work closely with colleagues from multiple research organizations and implementing NGOs.
Responsibilities
- Lead IPA Tanzania’s stakeholder engagement strategy in support of the PlayMatters initiative
- Continually map and engage with influential NGO, government, and development partner stakeholders who implement and influence early childhood development and play-based learning programs impacting refugees and host communities in Tanzania
- Work together with the global policy and communications team to participate in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to webinars, summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables. Support researchers and country management to participate.
- Lead in identifying and stewarding high potential partner relationships for IPA Tanzania
- Monitor and report on programmatic and research activities
- Participate in regular partner meetings
- Participate in policy and stakeholder engagements with initiative partners as necessary (such as building the relationships required to engage decision-makers around large-scale evaluations of promising play-based learning programs)
- Support the development of project communication materials for various in-country and global stakeholders
- Support the creation of materials and logistics for webinars, workshops, events, and meetings with relevant stakeholders
Support High Impact Opportunities/Relationships
- Continuously scan the education and ECD environment for opportunities for research to policy and practice linkages
- Oversee exploratory conversations with humanitarian organization staff who work in the area of education and early child development sectors
- Lead the development of Memoranda of Understanding and protocols that guide relationships with key players
- Contribute to evidence review by reviewing evidence write ups, gaps in the literature, and innovative interventions in other humanitarian contexts related to early childhood development and play-based learning, in partnership with the initiative’s global teams
- Support IPA Tanzania in continuously prioritizing high impact policy opportunities for evidence-based policy making in the PlayMatters context
- Continuously network and build relationships with implementing organizations
Management
The Coordinator will manage a Policy & Practice Associate based at IPA Tanzania. The Coordinator is expected to support the Associate with the necessary oversight, support, and strategy to execute their duties
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in economics, development, education, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field. Master’s is preferred.
- 3-5 years of relevant experience, including at least 1 year of experience working closely with large NGOs and/or national government officials.
- Knowledge of and demonstrated interest in the use of rigorous evidence for international development policy required.
- Expertise in education, early childhood development, or humanitarian affairs is strongly preferred.
- Attention to detail and advanced presentation skills for communicating policy lessons from academic papers in ways that policymakers understand. This requires clear, precise, non-technical writing, and confident, effective spoken communication and presentation style.
- Proven ability to multitask and successfully complete projects on tight deadlines with little supervision.
- Willingness to work hard, be self-motivated, and learn will be essential for doing well in this position.
- Ability to supervise staff and manage projects independently.
- Preferred: working knowledge of qualitative and quantitative data analysis tools. Eg NVivo and R or Stata
Application Instructions
Complete the J-PAL/IPA common application. After completing a brief registration, choose the Research job category, then select “Policy and Practice Coordinator, Tanzania”. Most applications for research positions require you to include at minimum two letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose (cover letter), CV, and transcripts.
Note that you are able to submit your application before your references complete their recommendation letters; however, you must include their contact information before submitting your application. Given the volume of applications received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.
About IPA
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy nonprofit 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. In recent decades, trillions of dollars have been spent on programs designed to reduce global poverty, but clear evidence on which programs succeed is rare, and when evidence does exist, decision-makers often do not know about it. IPA exists to bring together leading researchers and these decision-makers to ensure that the evidence we create leads to tangible impact on the world. Since its founding in 2002, IPA has worked with over 600 leading academics to conduct over 830 evaluations in 52 countries. This research has informed hundreds of successful programs that now impact millions of individuals worldwide.
Innovations for Poverty Action is an affirmative action equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected class. IPA will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation to a qualified applicant with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business. If you believe you require such assistance to complete this form or to participate in an interview, please contact us at jobs@poverty-action.org or via phone at 1-202-386-6200. The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work to be performed by the specified position. 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 prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the organization. Please direct questions to jobs@poverty-action.org.
** Please note that only qualified applicants will be contacted by the hiring manager.
Overview
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