REACH Senior Research Manager

Background on ACTED

ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their interventions seek to cover the multiple aspects of humanitarian and development crises through a multidisciplinary approach which is both global and local, and adapted to each context.

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts, supporting and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. REACH’s field interventions benefit from ACTED’s operational support. REACH/ACTED staff span across 6 regions in Ethiopia, with a central office in Addis Ababa.

ACTED/REACH is looking for professionally confident, self-motivated, experienced and committed team player to fill REACH Senior Research Manager position in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Position profile

The Senior Research Manager will play a pivotal role in the Senior Management Team supporting REACH’s interventions across Ethiopia, which covers a range of thematic topics including the coordination and analysis of multi-sectoral approaches, thematic monitoring assessments on markets, food security, water and sanitation, and nutrition, and other innovative methodologies or analyses to support the wide humanitarian programme cycle. S/he will be responsible for overall team management, external representation, cross-activity analysis, dissemination.

Responsibilities

Strategy Development & Implementation

•          Context analysis: With attention on his/her Unit’s technical, programmatic and institutional focus, and in coordination with the Country Coordinator, the SRM will ensure that the full team has an up to date understanding of:

·       The country’s socio-economic situation, the impact of crisis and the humanitarian situation;

·       The aid/humanitarian coordination and response mechanisms, as well as key stakeholders.

·       Key areas of humanitarian planning, prioritization, and needs analysis facing gaps affecting humanitarian action

•          Develop and oversee the implementation of a Unit Strategy in alignment with country and global priorities, and fully integrated into country strategy; including:

·       Consolidate and strengthen ongoing programming and operations within Unit;   

·       Ensure Unit’s activities are relevant and have a measurable impact on the response;

·       Identify new programs and approaches in which the Unit can add value to the response;

Team Management and Leadership

·       Provide leadership their unit as well as within the country Senior Management Team;

·       Promote team building, productivity and staff welfare;

·       Mentor and support the Unit team to build capacities, and improve efficiency and performance;

·       Support the transparent and timely identification and recruitment of staff working for the Unit;

·       Provide day-to-day management of Officers and/or Specialists, including the development of work plans and performance indicators, and development and implementation of capacity training plans to improve efficiency and performance;

·       Conduct regular check-ins with staff within the unit, and promote team building, productivity and staff welfare as the main pastoral focal point for staff;

·       Be available to provide regular assessment support and technical backstopping;

·       Take on additional work streams and management responsibilities as well as advise in strategic mission decision-making as a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), in coordination with the other research managers.

External Engagement

·       Senior external engagement and output dissemination with relevant UN agencies, local and national government, and NGO stakeholders, as well as coordination of external engagement by all unit staff;

·       Under the guidance of the CC, lead the development of content for country level advocacy;

·       Develop strategic partnerships with key humanitarian stakeholders and decision makers;

·       Develop proposals, concept notes, and budget in close coordination with the IMPACT Country Coordinator, in line with the unit and country strategies.

Research Planning and Implementation:

•          Management of relevant all Project / Grant cycles within his/her Unit (in coordination with CC);

•          Ensure that all research is planned in line with relevant project and program objectives;

•          Ensure relevant stakeholders and partners are engaged in assessment design and planning;

•          Ensure logistics, financial, administration, security and HR processes directly related to the Unit’s work and ongoing assessment have been implemented and coordinated with the relevant departments.

•          Control project budgets within Units to avoid under/over-spending, in coordination with CC;       

Accountability to Communities and Beneficiaries

The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities we work are conducted in a respectful and consultative manner.  Due attention must be paid to ensuring that communities are adequately consulted and informed about IMPACT programme objectives, activities, beneficiary selection criteria, and methodologies.  This is the responsibility of every IMPACT staff member.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All IMPACT / REACH staff are expected to maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. S/he/they will actively take measures to prevent the unauthorized sharing of any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners, or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.

 any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners, or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.

-       At least 8 years of relevant and progressively increasing working experience in applied social research, early warning analysis, food and nutrition analysis, and/or development economics research activities;

-       At least 5 years of direct experience working in emergency humanitarian contexts;

-       At least 5 years of experience in mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) research, design and evaluation, in development and/or humanitarian settings, preferably 1) including international non-governmental organization (iNGO) or United Nations experience; and 2) experience working in the areas of food security, cash transfers, safety net programs, demographic and health surveys, impact evaluations;

-       Progressive managerial experience including field-based survey teams in complex environments;

-       Excellent academic qualifications, with a Master’s degree required preferably in fields related to Development Studies, Statistics, Sociology, Public Health, Economics, Nutrition, International Relations, Applied Research, etc.

-       Proven understanding and experience working within humanitarian coordination structures;

-       Proven communication, coordination and external relations skills including experience with public presentations of technical matters and/or facilitation of technical discussions with stakeholders

-       Excellent organizational and drafting skills for effective reporting;

-       Proven analytical skills, including required skills in Excel and desired skills in SPSS, R or other statistical languages;

-       Written and spoken fluency in English required;

-       Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment; 

-       Ability to work independently and with flexibility;