Research Coordinator - BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)

Organization: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University

Location: Bangladesh

Start Date (Earliest): 1 May 2025

Paula Lopez-Pena (Queen’s University), Nina Buchmann (Yale University), and Sakib Mahmood (BRAC University) are seeking to appoint a Research Coordinator that will be based at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Project background

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is often used as an instrument by men to gain or maintain control over women’s behavior and household resources. The problem is pervasive in developing countries; and yet, theory and evidence on how to reduce victimization rates remain limited. We implement a three-level clustered randomized control trial (RCT) in Bangladesh to investigate whether mass media can reduce IPV by changing social norms or teaching men non-violent coping skills. First, we randomize communities into one of three versions of a soap opera. The first challenges social norms that condone violence in response to certain wife behaviors to signal respectability (“signaling”). The second additionally teaches men non-violent skills to respond to these wife behaviors, drawing techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (“resilience”). The third contains no IPV-related messaging (“placebo”). Second, we randomize communities to watch the soap opera privately or in a community setting to test whether men use violence to signal respectability to themselves (self-esteem) or to others (reputation). Third, we randomize men into a cash-for-work program to test the effect of exogenously shifting men’s self-esteem and reputation on the intervention’s effectiveness.

We will assess the impact of our campaigns on IPV perpetration and mental health. The evaluation will occur one month after the intervention (in-person endline data collection) and again at six to twelve months post-intervention (phone follow-up survey).

Job Responsibilities:

• Planning and managing day-to-day research activities. This includes training, and supervising both field-based and data operations teams, and monitoring data collection quality.
• Designing survey questionnaires and programming them on Survey CTO
• Designing data collection and research management protocols and ensuring that all team members adhere to them.
• Supervising data collection and data-entry processes, and ensuring good quality of the data at both stages; Assisting in data cleaning and preliminary analysis and ensuring ready access to all data for researchers.
• Providing timely updates and responses to PI’s and any partner organizations and participating in meetings with key stakeholders.
• Maintaining accurate records of interviews, safeguarding the confidentiality of subjects, as necessary.
• Preparing progress and results reports to PIs, research partners, and funding agencies, and sharing them timely Monitoring project expenditures and timeline, and preparing financial reports for donors.

Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in economics, public policy, or other quantitative social science disciplines (Master’s degree preferred);
• Quantitative Skills: Strong technical understanding of economics and econometrics required.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Stata and experience with data management, data cleaning, and regression analysis.

Experience

• A minimum of 1-year of work experience is required.
• Experience managing field staff in developing countries strongly preferred
• Excellent management and organizational skills; ability to successfully complete assigned tasks and meeting deadlines required.
• Experience using Otree and Survey CTO preferred.
• Attention to detail and advanced writing and presentation skills are required.

Language

Excellent verbal and written communication in English required, Bangla helpful but not required.

Commitment and Location

The commitment period for this position is one year. The candidate will be primarily based in Dhaka, with travel to other parts of Bangladesh to oversee fieldwork.