APHRC Senior Lead for Strategic Planning & Evaluation Career in Kenya

AFRICAN POPULATION AND HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER

Promoting the well-being of Africans through policy-relevant research on population and health

Evaluation Research Position – FP/RH BPs

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to conducting high quality and policy relevant research on population, health, education and development issues facing sub-Saharan Africa.

APHRC seeks to recruit a Senior Lead for Strategic Planning & Evaluation to lead a five-year (2011-2016) program entitled “Evidence to Action for Strengthened Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services for Women and Girls (E2A)”, with Pathfinder International as the prime partner.

The position is based at APHRC’s offices in Nairobi, Kenya.

Project Overview: E2A’s ultimate goal is to reduce unmet need for family planning (and thereby, unintended pregnancies), by enabling women and girls to make – and act on – informed decisions about their reproductive lives at all stages of the life cycle.

It will work at the global, country and community/facility levels to achieve three main objectives:

1) Increase global support for the use of FP/RH evidence-based best practices (BPs) to strengthen service delivery;

2) Synthesize and disseminate knowledge about the use of FP/RH BPs to strengthen service delivery; and

3) Apply and scale up FP/RH BPs in ways that strengthen service delivery.

Position Purpose:

In collaboration with, and reporting to, the Program Leader at APHRC and the E2A’s M&E Director in the project office in Washington, DC, the Senior Lead for Strategic Planning & Evaluation is the project’s focal person at APHRC.

Her/his primary responsibility is to: Organize, facilitate or conduct literature reviews as well as operations, evaluation and implementation research around FP/RH BPs; Document and disseminate reviews, case studies and other syntheses that build knowledge on FP/RH BPs; and Contribute to advocacy activities at the global, regional and country levels.

S/he also supports the design and implementation of the project’s M&E plan, data collection and data systems to measure overall project performance against established goals and objectives. S/he coordinates the requests and support needs from in-country partners for research, evaluation and documentation of BPs, and with guidance from the E2A Director of M&E, ensure that the needs are timely and adequately met.

Key Responsibilities

1. Conduct literature and systematic reviews on FP/RH BPs, and produce synthesis for use in the project’s activities at the global, country or local levels;
2. Plan, design and implement or facilitate operations, evaluation and implementation research on FP/RH BPs in the Africa region.
3. Support the project’s dissemination, communication and advocacy activities;
4. Contribute to the development and implementation of the project’s Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, and the production of quarterly reports to USAID;
5. Oversee, when applicable, the work of in-country partners’ M&E related staff, and coordinate the implementation of quality control measures;
6. Provide technical assistance to in-country partners on research, evaluation and documentation of best practices, among others;

Qualifications and Experience

1. PhD in Demography, Statistics, Public Health, social sciences or related discipline;
2. At least six years of experience in monitoring and evaluating health and development projects, and health service delivery in particular;
3. Strong writing skills and good record of publications on population, family planning and reproductive health in developing countries, with demonstrated ability to conduct systematic reviews;
4. Good experience in designing and conducting impact evaluation, and operations and interventions research;
5. Proven ability to work effectively with various constituencies including funding agencies and international partners, host country government agencies, and other national and local stakeholders and decision-makers;
6. Strong quantitative skills and extensive familiarity with MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Statistical Packages (STATA or SPSS);
7. Availability to travel internationally about 30-40% of time.

Interested candidates are invited to send via email or mail no later than February 20, 2012, their letter of application (1 page); a statement of research interests and goals (1-2 pages); and their CV with contact details of three referees to jobs@aphrc.org with copy to jcfotso@aphrc.org, or to:

The Human Resources Officer
African Population and Health Research Center
P.O. Box 10787 – 00100 GPO, Nairobi
Website: www.aphrc.org

Please, indicate Evaluation Research Position – FP/RH BPs on the subject line of the email or on the envelope.

The position comes with an attractive, internationally competitive remuneration package including employer paid medical, travel, life insurance cover and retirement benefits.

Allowances toward in-relocation, home leave travel and dependants’ education, are provided.

Preference will be given to nationals of sub-Saharan African countries, and females are particularly encouraged to apply.

Only short-listed candidates will be notified.