| Description |
BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH
REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations 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. 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 organization manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.
We are currently looking for a Multisector Research Manager to support our IMPACT team in CAR.
Department: REACH – Multisector Assessments
Position: REACH Multisector Research Manager
Contract duration: 12 months
Location: Bangui, Central African Republic
Starting Date: 01/01/2020
POSITION PROFILE
Under the supervision of the IMPACT Country Focal Point in CAR, the REACH Research Manager (RM) will be responsible to supervise research cycles implemented in CAR to inform humanitarian planning. In particular, the RM will oversee the implementation of:
- Multi-Sector Needs Assessments (MSNAs) in CAR, which serve to inform the People in Need (PiN) calculations and severity analyses made for Humanitarian Needs Overviews, thereby providing guidance to humanitarian actors and donors.
- Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) in CAR to address cross-border gaps in data and information on humanitarian needs in the border zones of the three countries by 1) conducting a secondary data and key informant analysis of the humanitarian situation, 2) conducting a pilot humanitarian situation monitoring in each country, 3) monitoring conditions and needs in these areas over a period of six months, and 4) Combining data collected in the three countries to obtain a regional overview of needs and trends.
The RM will lead and oversee the publication of multisector data and analyses of needs and gaps, providing the information needed to develop a better informed humanitarian plans and programs.
The RM’s tasks would include external engagement and as well as the development and revision of assessments tools, in close collaboration with cluster coordinators, partners, IMWG members, and other relevant humanitarian coordination structures and working groups. The RM will ensure regular training to partners’ assessment team to guarantee that data collected matches REACH standards in terms of quality and reliability.
FUNCTIONS
Under the functional supervision of the IMPACT Country Focal Point in CAR, the RM is responsible for the management of REACH HSM/MSNA activities research cycles in CAR including implementation, resource mobilization and management, partnership framework, dissemination and evaluation. He/she directly supervises all Assessment staff and plays a key role in the development and implementation of CAR REACH HSM/MSNA strategy.
In his/her mission, the RM will be hosted by ACTED and will fall under the direct responsibility and management of ACTED’s Country Director and his/her delegates for all Administrative, Security, Logistics and Finance issues. S/he will therefore fully abide to ACTED’s Security, HR, Administration and Logistics rules and regulations.
The RM will interact on regular basis with IMPACT HQ. These relations will also extend to ACTED country staff including Project Development, AMEU and Area Coordinators.
Externally, the RM will be expected to liaise with OCHA, the Clusters’ IM and coordinators, national and international partners, UN agencies and clusters.
RESPONSIBILITIES
In coordination with the Country Focal Point, the RM is responsible for (1) the overall management of CAR REACH HSM/MSNA research cycles, (2) for the management of the Assessment team, and plays a key role in (3) external relations and (4) the development and implementation of REACH HSM/MSNA strategy in CAR. More specifically:
1. Management of all Research Cycles
1.1 Assessment Preparation and Planning:
- Ensuring that all assessments are planned in line with relevant project and program objectives and with REACH HSM/MSNA’s research cycle and other relevant guidelines;
- Ensure that required secondary data analysis has been conducted in preparation of an assessment;
- For each assessment, review ToRs before they are sent to Geneva for validation and ensure that TORs are validated by HQ before any data collection begins;
- Ensure that ToRs are understood and used by assessment staff and stakeholders, and updated as required; Compose and construct, in close coordination with GIS and data management team, qualitative and quantitative data collection tools; ensure engagement with GIS teams on GIS requirements of research cycle/assessment;
- Keep track of progress and delays of all assigned assessment throughout the research cycle. Ensure that delays or identified challenges for specific assessments are reported in writing and orally in a timely manner;
- Ensure relevant stakeholders and partners are engaged in assessment design and planning.
1.2 Data collection and management
- Ensure that required enumerators are identified and trained for primary data collection;
- Monitor data collection, ensuring its correct implementation in line with agreed TORs;
- Ensure that Country Focal Point is alerted to any issues that prevents full implementation of the methodology in line with the agreed TORs; ensure that all changes to the methodology are documented throughout implementation;
- Ensure logistics, financial, administration, security and HR processes directly related to REACH have been appropriately implemented and with the relevant ACTED departments.
- Ensure regular situation updates on data collection have been produced and circulated to relevant REACH, ACTED and external counterparts. Provide support and follow up on identified challenges during the data collection process; coordinated
- Ensure that all collected data is stored in line with IMPACT’s Data Management Guidelines, and with the ToRs (data management plan Annex);
- Ensure that data is revised and cleaned, and that all revisions are recorded;
- Oversee analysis on collected data as per ToRs;
- Ensure that meaningful techniques are used to analyze the data collected;
- Ensure that data and its analysis are validated by IMPACT HQ before product drafting stage;
- Ensure that data and its analysis do not contain personal information and are validated by IMPACT HQ before sharing to external parties.
1.3 Product drafting
- Maintain regular communication with IMPACT HQ on progress and deadlines for written products;
- Ensure the drafting of timely and accurate assessment outputs (i.e. reports, factsheets, etc.), which comply with IMPACT’s guidelines and quality standards;
- Review all products before they are sent to IMPACT HQ for validation;
- Ensure that all written products are validated by IMPACT HQ before external release.
1.4 Product dissemination and evaluation
- Under the direction of the Country Focal Point, engage in the dissemination of research products, including through articles, IMPACT social media contents, targeted e-mails, presentations, meetings, etc, in line with IMPACT Dissemination and External Communication Guidelines and Research ToRs;
- Under supervision of IMPACT HQ, ensure that research products are uploaded in relevant data portals, as specified in Research ToRs;
- Ensure that lessons learned are gathered and documented at the end of each research cycle;
- Support the Country Focal Point to conduct monitoring and evaluation as specified in the research ToRs and in line with IMPACT Guidelines.
2. Management of Assessment Team
- Conduct regular meeting with all international and senior national Assessment Team members to assess progress in all research cycles and to review work plan;
- Bilateral management of international and senior national assessment team members, including (in consultation with Country Focal Point) the conduct of appraisals, as well as participation in staff career management;
- In coordination with Country Focal Point, conduct induction for new staff members, including training in basic technical competencies for assessment design, implementation and analysis;
- Support to the Country Focal Point in the development and implementation of capacity training plans for REACH assessment and field team member;
- Be available to provide regular support and technical backstopping;
- When relevant, support/ lead staff appraisal and recruitment process in collaboration with Country Focal Point.
3. External relations
- In coordination with the Country Focal Point, ensure that relevant partners are consulted and involved at all stages of research cycle: the preparation of the assessment; data collection; data analysis; review of research products; product dissemination; and lessons learnt; ensure that partner engagement is documented;
- In coordination with the Country Focal Point, present research findings to relevant third parties, to enhance their use and impact;
- Ensure that external communications with partners and key stakeholders, including relevant UN agencies, local and national government, and NGOs has been conducted and documented as appropriate;
- In coordination with the Country Focal Point, represent REACH/IMPACT in technical external engagements related to assessments;
- Support the IMPACT Country Focal Point in external engagement in relation to REACH/IMPACT strategy or (when requested and with focal point) to fundraising and grants management.
4. Strategy Development and Implementation.
In support to the Country focal Point, the Research Manager will actively contribute to the development of the REACH HSM/MSNA strategy in CAR. In particular s/he will support in identifying and concretising:
- The need for assessments, in line with humanitarian priorities
- Synergies with other assessment and knowledge management actors
- Strategic partnerships with key humanitarian stakeholders and decision makers
- Key events / milestones that should be informed
- Advocacy and dissemination strategies to strengthen the impact of our work
- Support in the preparation and follow up of country level internal strategic workshops and plans
- Engagement with IMPACT HQ in global level strategic priorities
5. Others
- Support the Country Focal Point in drafting of relevant project narrative and financial reports;
- Maintain an oversight of budget availability and expenditure for assessment activities for which s/he is responsible;
- Other tasks as requested by supervisors.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
- Institutional engagement in research process:
- # and type of actors participating in various steps of research cycles
- Reported level of satisfaction by actors involved in the research
- Use of research findings to inform aid response:
- # and type of actors accessing and using drafted research products
- Reported level of satisfaction by actors using research findings
- # of references to research findings in key humanitarian planning and response documents
- # of key events/ milestones informed by research cycles/ assessments
- Management of research process:
- # of research cycles completed
- Average number of days between end of data collection and internal product validation, by type of product
- % of research cycles with complete documentation folder (validated TOR(s)/Methodology note(s) for assessment(s) including all annexes; validated data set(s) and cleaning log(s); validated output(s).
- Human Resource management
- Retention rate among supervised national and international staff
- Progression in performance of supervised staff
ACCOUNTABILITY TO COMMUNITIES AND BENEFICIARIES
The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities IMPACT and partners 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
The RM will maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. He/she 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. |