Economist 1091 views0 applications

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an African-led and Africa-based international research institute engaged in multidisciplinary, evidence-based policy research. Our researchers address important issues and challenges facing Africa in areas such as education, health, population, aging, urbanization and wellbeing. We engage with policy makers in the region to disseminate our research findings to influence policy decisions and improve the quality of life in Africa.

APHRC seeks to recruit an Economist to work in its Education and Youth Empowerment unit.

The candidate will work primarily in a partnership project between APHRC and the Center for Global Development (CGD)—a US based organization whose mission is to reduce global poverty and improve lives through innovative economic research that drives better policy and practice by the world’s top decision makers.

Major Responsibilities

· Lead the design of aspects of research projects or research projects in a way that allow high quality economic analyses including costing analyses.

· Design and lead research teams in the EYE unit (this may include coordination/ supervision of preparatory work, data collection, analytical work and reporting for research projects in the unit).

· Support economic analyses and/or costing analyses for various projects in the EYE unit on a need by need basis.

· Contribute to scientific writing, and production of technical reports, journal articles, policy briefs and blogs.

· Liaise with partners and/or collaborators to ensure unit deliverables are met.

· Contribute to the education policy dialogue and sector policy including making recommendations on strategies and policy options.

· Interact with APHRC clients at the funding and policy levels, organize and manage policy development and evaluation papers in collaboration with other researchers and our partners.

· Make significant contributions to global, regional or sub-regional or national signature issue studies.

Experience and skills

· Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills and ability to work in a culturally diverse team.

· Proven sense of initiative, results orientation, team work and leadership qualities, including ability to work effectively across sectors.

· Excellent communication skills, including the ability to speak persuasively and to present ideas clearly and concisely to different stakeholders. Should speak and write well in English language; ability to speak and write in French language is an added advantage.

· Experience in education sector knowledge (early years of education, primary, secondary, tertiary education, and private/public education systems).

· Strong quantitative skills (managing, analyzing and interpreting development related issues as well as costing analysis, e.g. cost effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis).

· Demonstrated experience of working with statistical packages (E.g. R, STATA, SAS, SPSS, etc.).

· Experience and familiarity with generating, use and analyzing education datasets – primary/secondary data; small and huge datasets is an added advantage.

· Strong skills in economic analyses of education policies and/or emerging phenomenon.

· Strong practical experience and skills in impact evaluation designs of education and/or youth training interventions.

Qualifications

· PhD in Development Economics or closely related field.

· Good record of publications on relevant areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

· Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (e.g. MS Word, MS PowerPoint and MS Excel) among other essential packages for a researcher.

Successful candidates may be appointed at postdoctoral level (0-2 years after PhD), Associate Research Scientist (3-5 years after PhD), Research Scientist (6-11 years after PhD) or Senior Research Scientist (12+ years after PhD) levels depending on experience and track record.