Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Recruits Senior Policy and Implementation Associate

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a United States-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. IPA designs, rigorously evaluates their impact, and refines these solutions and their applications together with decision-makers to ensure that the evidence created is used to improve opportunities for the world’s poor. Since our founding in 2002, IPA has worked with over 350 leading academics to conduct over 450 evaluations in 51 countries. This research has informed hundreds of successful programs that now impact millions of individuals worldwide.

Job Description

Job Code: SPIA-AGR-3102016

Position summary

IPA Ghana seeks a Senior Policy and Implementation Associate who will manage policy work and implementation activities on a portfolio of agriculture projects in Northern Ghana. These include the Disseminating Innovative Resources and Technologies to Smallholders (DIRTS) and Testing Agricultural Technologies (TAT) projects, amongst others. Lead Principal Investigators on these studies are Dean Karlan and Christopher Udry of Yale University. The studies’ interventions are implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ghana Insurers Association, IFPRI and several other partners. The role involves significant supervision of implementation activities and policy engagements with the current partners and others for dissemination and to give results increased visibility. This position will be based in Tamale, Northern Region.

Responsibilities

The Senior Policy and Implementation Associate will report to the Research Manager in the Tamale Office. He/she will have a diverse set of responsibilities in the following areas:

Project management

• Supervise the Implementation Team on DIRTS
• Manage qualitative and quantitative surveys on the TAT projects
• Ensure adherence to research design, integrity of implementation, and adherence to budget
• Manage consultant contracts, vendor agreements and MoUs with partner organizations, as needed
• Assist in the analysis of field implementation monitoring data, and the writing of internal activity reports
• Review monitoring reports and help identify the causes of potential bottlenecks in project
• Make unannounced field visits to audit implementation activities and produce monitoring reports
• Keep project files organized and updated, and write reports with feedback and analysis on relevant project progress
• When needed, contribute to refine the design of implementation interventions and protocols
• Facilitate project staff’s skills development and training

Partner relations and policy outreach

• Responsible for updating and adherence to projects’ policy impact plans
• Liaise with stakeholders in the local and national government, fellow research institutions and NGOs, among others, to give project results greater visibility, share lessons learners, and establish new partnerships;
• Coordinate project internal and external communications (e.g. updates to management and Principal Investigators, newsletters, donor reports,)
• Take lead in promoting dissemination events related to IPA’s agriculture projects, in cooperation with the IPA Ghana Policy Team
• Support the development of new projects in the agriculture sector
• Contribute to the planning of potential scale up initiatives and follow-on research, building on the evidence generated and lessons learnt on  the current projects, in collaboration with the DIRTS PIs, RM and Ghana management team

Finance management

• Contribute to the management of project grants and overall finances
• Manage overall donor reporting for all project grants

Employment period: 1 year, with the possibility of extension based on performance and the availability of funds

Proposed start date:  immediately

Required Skills or Experience

• Fluency in English (mandatory) and Dagbani (highly preferred);
• Prior experience working in the areas of agriculture / rural development;
• Prior exposure and an existing network in the agriculture sector in Northern Ghana;
• Master’s degree in agronomy, agricultural extension, agribusiness, agricultural economics, or related field;
• Experience in grant management;
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint;
• Excellent management and organizational skills;
• Experience conducting research or working in a research environment is highly preferred;
• Team player with excellent communication skills (quantitative skills desirable but not required); and
• Ability to pay great attention to detail, prioritize and multitask.