Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a global research and policy nonprofit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. As its core business, IPA brings together researchers and decision-makers to design, rigorously evaluate, and refine these solutions and their applications, ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve the lives of the world’s poor. IPA has conducted hundreds of randomized evaluations across sectors, learning both whether programs work, and how they can work better.

IPA Ghana seeks a Research and Policy Coordinator to work with local and government partners to replicate and scale evidence-informed innovations and increase the use of evidence in policy. The Coordinator will work with government partners on policy priorities they have identified, help determine whether and how evidence is relevant to the Ghanaian context, support them in piloting replications leveraging this evidence, and scaling up interventions that have been previously evaluated with randomized evaluations. With oversight from the Senior Policy & Implementation Manager, the Coordinator will:

Responsibilities
Develop scale-up opportunities of successful research studies in education: – 80% FTE

• Work closely with IPA’s policy team to identify government stakeholders’ policy priorities;
• Work in close coordination with government and operational partners to design strategies key to project scale-ups;
• Coordinate with IPA Ghana’s research team to ensure that research findings are properly incorporated into scale-up strategies; and
• Work closely with IPA Ghana’s Right-Fit Evidence (RFE) Manager to ensure that scale-up strategies include strong and relevant monitoring systems.
• Ensure that lessons about implementation design are collected, synthesized, utilized, and communicated effectively;
• Provide technical support to relevant stakeholders to develop detailed workplans, regularly assess performance, and make course corrections as necessary to keep scale-up efforts on schedule;
• Provide input and support in the development of program materials such as program documents (policy framework, scale-up concept notes, Monitoring and & Evaluation tools);
• Represent IPA Ghana in meetings and communication with relevant stakeholders;
• Develop high-quality program reports as required;

Scope opportunities for replication studies in Ghana in the education sector – 20% FTE

• Conduct detailed literature reviews of robust IPA and J-PAL studies that could potentially address policy needs in Ghana and may be relevant to test here;
• Work in close coordination with government and operational partners to select and adapt programs for replication in Ghana;
• Coordinate with IPA’s research teams to ensure that replication research design is grounded in academic findings;
• Pro-actively reach out to interested academics to lead replication studies in Ghana; and
• Work closely with the IPA Ghana Project Development team to identify potential funding opportunities and implementing partners for replication studies.

Qualifications
Required qualifications

• Master’s degree in international public policy, education, social science, or related fields.
• 3-5 years of relevant work experience
• Demonstrated leadership experience;
• Highly proficient in complex work planning and project management;
• Strong critical thinking and judgment to quickly identify problems and devise solutions as well as escalate matters as needed;
• Skilled at building relationships with senior leaders and government officials and presenting technical opinions in an objective manner;
• Ability to work independently and pro-actively with minimum oversight;
• Proven ability to handle multiple diverse assignments at one time successfully complete assigned tasks and meet deadlines while conducting high-quality work;
  Experience working in the education sector of a developing country, ideally in close interaction with government stakeholders
• Ability to present information in a structured and insightful way, both in writing and orally
• Passion for making data-driven decision a reality in the development sector

Preferred additional qualifications

• Good understanding of the education literature and education programs;
• Experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection, management and analysis;
• Experience in Ghana’s education sector;
• Experience writing research proposals and fundraising
• Applications for Ghanaian nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.