Diarrheal disease is the second-leading cause of childhood mortality globally. In much of the developing world, providing piped water to dispersed, rural households is infeasible. Point-of-use water-treatment can dramatically reduce diarrhea in such settings, but take-up is low under the current social marketing based model. Recent evidence from Kenya suggests that providing water treatment solution to households through a non-price screening mechanism (coupon redemption) is a highly cost effective way of targeting it to households that will use the product but cannot afford to pay for it.
This project will build on this evidence to evaluate the impact of alternative delivery and behavior change strategies for increasing and sustaining usage of point-of-use water treatment in the context of early scale-up of a community health worker intervention by Partners In Health in southern Malawi. PIs are Pascaline Dupas (Stanford), Michael Kremer (Harvard), Vivian Hoffmann (IFPRI) and Emily Wroe (PIH).
Roles and Responsibilities:
The RA will work closely with academic researchers, the partner organization PIH, and other field staff to perform a variety tasks likely including, but not limited to:
- Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot exercise, refining study design and surveying instruments.
- Managing teams: Recruit, train, and supervise both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, data entry operators and other field and office staff.
- Overseeing implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research design, in association with our partner organization.
- Maintaining relationships with partner organization at both headquarters and field levels.
- Supervising data collection and data-entry, and ensuring data quality and productivity.
- Assisting with data cleaning, preliminary data analysis, and preparation of documents and presentations for dissemination.
- Reporting to PIs on all of the above mentioned activities.
Qualifications and Experience:
- A Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in economics, public health, public policy, or related field
- Prior program coordination and implementation experience preferred, ideally in developing countries.
- Experience living and conducting field research in a developing country is a strong plus.
- Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills.
- Fluency and excellent communication skills in English.
- Flexibility, self-motivation, the ability to manage multiple tasks efficiently as a team player.
- Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations.
- Familiarity with randomized controlled trials
- Knowledge of STATA (strongly preferred), SAS, or other data analysis software.
How to Apply
Complete the J-PAL/IPA common application. After completing a brief registration, choose the Research job category, then select “Research Associate – Malawi Safe Water”. Include at minimum two letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose (cover letter), CV, and transcripts.
Note that you are able to submit your application before your references complete their recommendation letters; however, you must include their contact information before submitting your application.
Given the volume of applications received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.
More Information
- Job City southern Malawi