POSITION SUMMARY:

Population Council – Kenya (PC – Kenya) is seeking a Research Officer to support the implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and government engagement within the adolescent and education portfolios. The Research Officer will work with the Adolescent Girls Initiative – Kenya (AGI-K) team to monitor and evaluate intervention activities, including supporting county governments in setting up and managing program monitoring data, such as school attendance records, meeting attendance data, and cash transfer payments. They will also act as a key liaison to the AGI-K implementing partners in the field, providing logistical and technical support for the program and meeting with partners as needed to ensure the implementation is on track and ensuring that monitoring data is being collected. The Research Officer will also support day-to-day implementation activities of the Evidence for Gender and Education Resource (EGER) Kenya project including supervising data collection, building, and maintaining partnerships with both national and county governments among other stakeholders, and taking part in evidence-to-policy conversations/meetings.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Oversee the execution and logistics of the AGI-K and EGER project activities.
• Provide technical support to county-level AGI-K focal staff and partners to ensure the successful implementation of project interventions and compliance with project timelines.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of appropriate procedures for dissemination      and research uptake and represent PC-Kenya in project planning, dissemination meetings, and training workshops at the county level where appropriate.
• Support in the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation tools and quality assurance protocols.
• Together with the AGI-K county-level focal staff, manage all program monitoring data – monitor school attendance records, safe spaces data, cash transfer payments, and community incentive payments, ensure submission of accurate, timely monitoring data, and provide accurate and regular updates on program monitoring data.
• Support the development of cash transfers or community incentive lists for AGI-K eligible participants/communities and coordinate with relevant MOH and PC-Kenya teams to ensure the incentives are disbursed.
• Represent the Council in various stakeholder policy or technical working groups and/or networks.
• Support in providing technical assistance to Government of Kenya Ministries, Departments, and Agencies in the development of policies, guidelines, standards, manuals, and tools under the EGER and AGI-K projects.
• Contribute to the development of manuscripts, policy briefs, evidence briefs, blogs, and presentations.
• Oversee the implementation of the EGER formative assessment at the county level.
• Support in the development of the gender and education county guidelines in counties with the greatest gender and education gaps under the EGER projec
• Support in coordinating government and non-governmental stakeholders in the review process for the Kenya gender and education policy.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Completed master’s degree in project management, monitoring and evaluation, public health, social science, statistics, demography, information technology, quantitative sociology, or related discipline.
• 3 years’ post-qualification experience in research, including data collection, management and basic quantitative or qualitative analysis
• Experience and familiarity with issues in the population or public health field and in particular issues affecting girls.
• Excellent diplomatic, representational, problem solving, management, and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent writing skills, especially the ability to translate technical information for non-technical audiences.
• Strong organizational skills
• Willingness to travel throughout Kenya with frequency.
• Ability to balance working independently and as part of a team.
• Fluency in English and Swahili required (written and oral)