Research Officer

Requisition ID: req47463

Job Title: Research Officer

Sector: Economic Recovery & Livelihood

Employment Category: Fixed Term

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: No

Location: Nairobi – Pangani, Kenya

Work Arrangement:

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee
(IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to
survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert
Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to
refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40
countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions
who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to
home.

General Responsibility

Responsible for maintaining
program quality and compliance across all business enterprise activities,
ensuring program approaches are clearly documented, understood by the program
teams and implemented including conducting direct business skills training to
clients and guiding clients in developing business plans.

Detailed Responsibilities

• Train program
  beneficiaries/clients on Business skills and life skills
• Support beneficiaries in
  developing business plans to be funded.
• Prepare payment list and verify
  MPESA or bank details of the clients to ensure funds are transferred to the
  correct recipients.
• Support Research monitors in
  planning and monitoring client’s business and implementing the Randomized
  Control Trial (RCT) interventions as per the study protocol.
• Follow up on clients whose
  businesses have been funded to offer support in areas of business
  sustainability and other areas of concern.
• Liaise with the protection team to
  ensure refugees who are facing protection challenges are supported.
• Prepare periodic reports of
  progress of program activities.
• Assist in context and stakeholder
  mapping and analysis to contribute to the conceptual development of Livelihoods
  Resource centers and mobile services.
• Help conduct outreach to community
  and local leaders, private sector partners and other stakeholders as directed
  by ERD management.
• Deliver training material to
  clients as the main trainer/facilitator, and schedule other trainers as
  necessary for specific cohorts or sessions.
• Support other program staff in
  delivering business and life skills sessions.
• Working with and training program
  staff to register clients, recommend clients for placement in RCTs
• Provide introduction sessions to
  RCT (micro enterprise) clients, including on attendance requirements and
  protection related issues, drawing in other staff as necessary
• Conduct bi-weekly meetings with
  beneficiaries in the form of calls, interviews or focus group discussion as
  appropriate. Helps ensure that payment of beneficiaries is accurately
  processed.
• Under the direction of the Senior
  Research Officer /Manager, conduct individual business development sessions
  with clients and coach them through the development of a business plan and
  grant application where applicable.
• Support monitoring of activities,
  conducting site visits and helping to troubleshoot any issues from clients.
• Coordinate closely with M&E
  and data staff on targeting, data collection, data systems and information
  management.
• Contribute to baseline, interim
  and end line assessment efforts and program reporting, providing clear input on
  business training, microenterprise development research activities.
• Coordinate closely with IRC
  logistics, finance, and grants focal point to ensure timely and compliant
  program activities and expenditures.
• Linkages of RCT
  clients to the Urban Savings and Loans Association and Financial Service
  Providers for business growth support (where applicable).

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in social
  sciences, Public Administration, business administration or equivalent
• At least 3 years of experience in
  micro enterprise development livelihoods or community engagement programs.
• Demonstrated experience and
  capacity in training clients and groups and working with vulnerable
  populations.
• Strong ability to work independently,
  organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under
  pressure, coordinate multiple tasks and maintain attention to detail.
• Experience working with Refugees
  in livelihoods programming.
• Experience managing data
  collection and concrete knowledge of open-source tools such as ODK collect,
  KoBo Toolbox, Survey CTO or CommCare platforms.
• Experience collecting Qualitative
  data e.g., Focus group discussion (FGD), Key informant interviews (KII) and
  transcription of audios.
• Experience supervising field teams
• Experience in administration and
  management of grants individuals and groups
• Excellent interpersonal and
  problem-solving skills, creativity, and flexibility
• NGO experience preferred
• Personal qualities: promotes
  collaboration and coordination within and across teams, comfortable in a
  multi-cultural environment, extremely flexible and adaptable, ability to
  contribute across multiple activities and departments.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili
  required.

Standards of Professional
Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles
outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and
Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces
policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child
Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation,
Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality: IRC is
committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer
benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our
workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and
other supportive benefits and allowance.

Kenyan nationals are encouraged
to apply. International allowances are not available for this position. Salary
and employee benefits are compliant to the Kenyan NGO Sector.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity
Employer and considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to
race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital
status, veteran status or disability.

Disclaimer:

Please take note that
International Rescue Committee (IRC) does not ask for any fees in connection
with its recruitment processes.