Call for applications: Research Coordinator – Migration Study in Niger

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Statement of Work

The Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University and the Penn Development Research Initiative (PDRI) -DevLab at the University of Pennsylvania are seeking to engage the services of a Research Coordinator for a multi-site, multi-partner randomized controlled trial evaluating a program to support productive migration opportunities for young men in West Africa. The contractor will be based in Tahoua, Niger, and travel to program sites within the country. This work may be particularly attractive to individuals considering future graduate study in international development, economics, political science, or related fields.

The Immigration Policy Lab (IPL) evaluates and designs policies surrounding the integration of immigrants and refugees worldwide. By producing new evidence and translating it into creative solutions, we seek to improve the lives of these newcomers and strengthen the communities receiving them. We engage with community-based organizations as well as local, state, national, and international governmental agencies to test the effectiveness of current policies. Our team of faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students is creating an innovative applied research model that combines the quality and rigor of an academic unit with the efficiency and innovation of a civic-tech lab.

The Penn Development Research Initiative (PDRI) – DevLab@Penn brings together faculty and graduate students from seven schools across the University of Pennsylvania whose research seeks to identify solutions to the challenges facing developing countries. PDRI-DevLab seeks to foster impactful international development research by harnessing the expertise of its affiliates from various disciplines and utilizing diverse methodological approaches.

Project background

IPL and Mercy Corps have jointly designed a new program to support young Nigeriens interested in safe, legal, and productive migration within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This is a first-of-its-kind program designed to equip young people in rural areas with the information and means to pursue livelihood opportunities where there is demand for their labor elsewhere in Niger and the broader ECOWAS region.

This collaboration between IPL, PDRI-DevLab, and Mercy Corps will produce rigorous evidence on the effects of the program on the economic, social, and psychosocial well-being of participants and their families.

The randomized control trial (RCT) builds on a pilot study implemented in early 2022. The RCT will begin in Spring 2023, with ongoing monitoring and data collection through 2025.The study will include the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data, including regular surveys of participants and members of their households, observation and evaluation of training delivery, and interviews with participants.

The Research Coordinator is expected to live in Tahoua, Niger during the period of this contract to interface and facilitate collaborative work with both the survey firm and Mercy Corps, the implementing organization. This will be a contract position.

Scope of Work

The period performance is expected to last from February 2023 through November 2023 and is full time. The Research Coordinator will perform activities to reach specific landmarks according to the following list of deliverables:

Multi-organization data management

• In partnership with the research team, develop, implement, maintain, and update policies and procedures for data collection during the program implementation period
• Coordinate with the Mercy Corps project team to design a data collection infrastructure and track key indicators throughout the program implementation period
• Create data summary reports and spreadsheets to provide regular updates to the research and implementation teams, and support reporting to donors

Survey management & support

• Attend and support in-person enumerator trainings
• Support the survey firm in managing data collection during the baseline in-person survey period and follow up phone surveys with the survey firm
• Troubleshoot and debug survey deployment issues during data collection
• Inform the research and program teams of survey progress

In addition to the specific deliverables described above, the contractor will also support partnership management and facilitate secure two-way data transfer processes between IPL and the implementing partner organizations.

Qualifications

Required qualifications

• Professional working proficiency in both in English and French
• Undergraduate or graduate degree in data science, economics, political science, international development, statistics, computer science, engineering, or related field
• One to two years of relevant experience, such as programming surveys, cleaning data, managing field research, or working on a research team at an NGO
• Demonstrated ability to engage and interact with diverse research partners (e.g., government agencies, nonprofits, universities)
• Demonstrated experience designing and collecting data using ODK or SurveyCTO (preferred)
• Demonstrated experience in data analysis using Stata, Python/ R (preferred)
• Demonstrated ability to manage work across many different projects simultaneously, learn skills quickly and efficiently, work well within collaborative team settings, and be highly accountable to deadlines and partner needs
• Mastery of Microsoft Office and/or Google Suite for word processing, spreadsheet management, and presentation development

Preferred qualifications

• Experience working in West Africa or the Sahel
• Experience supervising data collection teams, in a research or programmatic M&E role
• Experience working with social scientists or NGOs working on development
• Understanding of or prior exposure to causal research designs and interventions

Required materials

• A resume/CV
• A 1-page cover letter that describes your relevant experience in detail, and your interest in this work
• The names of three references (a letter of reference is not needed at the time of application, and we will ask for permission before reaching out to any reference contacts)

Please submit application materials at: https://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0SAUMvTMwBWt8Ro

For any questions you may have, please contact Jessica Wolff at jswolff@stanford.edu.

This position is based in Niger and requires Nigerien work authorization.