Research Associate - Healthy Learners

THE OPPORTUNITY

Professors Mylene Lagarde (LSE), Felix Masiye (U of Zambia), and Isaac Mbiti (U of Virgina) are seeking a research associate to support our randomized evaluation of a school health program in Zambia implemented by Healthy Learners. Healthy Learners is an award winning Zambian NGO that focuses on developing school health programs to improve the well-being of children in Zambia. The model is currently implemented in all Lusaka public primary schools, and the NGO is poised to scale up the program throughout the country in partnership with the Zambian Government. The randomized evaluation of their program aims to test the effectiveness of the Healthy Learner model on a variety of child, household (parent), school, and health facility outcomes. These outcomes include broad education and health outcomes of children, school outcomes such as teacher turnover, and health outcomes such as quality of care. 

The research associate will be embedded with Healthy Learners in Lusaka and will be expected to travel to monitor the progress of the evaluation. In addition, the candidate will be supported by researchers from the London School of Economics and the University of Virginia, who will provide technical guidance and training.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The roles and responsibilities include:

• Providing regular updates to the PIs through weekly meetings, handling the agenda and summarizing meeting takeaways, and tracking project progress through tools such as Asana.
• Working with the Pis to develop research and data collection protocols including literature reviews and qualitative research to develop hypotheses .
• Supervising the survey firm’s data collection activities, including but not limited to overseeing survey team training, accompanying phone and field surveys and conducting post-survey debriefs with participants.
• Coordinating with the implementation team to ensure the intervention activities and research activities are aligned.
• Ensuring timely communication of any observations or challenges that may impact the research.
• Working with the Pis and the survey firm to ensure adherence to IRB approved protocols and procedures, including overseeing data management.
• Assisting with creating and reviewing SurveyCTO and questionnaire design.
• Conducting data cleaning and analysis, in Stata and R, including high frequency data quality checks during data collection and cleaning of final datasets.
• Supporting the implementation teams.
• Supporting funding applications and reports to funders on project progress.
• Conducting pilot studies.

REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential qualifications:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Proficiency in Zambian languages (e.g. Bemba) is a plus.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills.
• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in economics, public policy or related disciplines. 
• Professional experience in research, non-profit, policy, consulting, or related field (including internships and research assistantships).
• Strong organizational and management skills.
• Demonstrated interest in development economics or education and health policy in LMICs.
• Familiarity with randomized control trials.
• Proficiency in Excel.

Desired qualifications

• Experience working with SurveyCTO or other electronic data collection software.
• Experience with statistical software, especially Stata or R.
• Experience in field-based or phone-based quantitative data collection.
• Previous experience in working on or supporting lab and/or field experiments.
• Previous experience working or living in LMICs