Research Coordinator at CLEAR Global

• Contract length: 6 months, with the possibility of extension
• Hours: full-time
• Location: Home based, preferably a candidate based in Nigeria  
• Travel: regular field trips to research locations in northeast Nigeria; if extended, potentially also to other parts of the country
• Reporting to: Country Director
• Remuneration: 4,500-5,000 USD/month
• Deadline for applications: 14 October 2024*

The role

The Research Coordinator will lead all the design and delivery of research on barriers that affect the reach, impact, and accountability of the humanitarian response in Nigeria. A key responsibility will be overseeing research and monitoring activities for the Third Party Monitoring (TPM) project in Nigeria, funded by the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office). This includes ensuring that research and impact measurement are aligned with the objectives of the TPM project, and that findings also contribute to improving AAP, language services and communication practices across the humanitarian response.

The Research Coordinator is responsible for integrating results-based planning into program design, ensuring that research is utilized to improve AAP practices and the provision of language-inclusive practices across the humanitarian sector. 

Furthermore, the Research Coordinator will actively seek opportunities to enhance impact measurement, documentation, data collection, analysis, and the dissemination of lessons learned. 

The Research Coordinator will report to the Nigeria Country Director and will work in close partnership with the Data Solutions Manager and the Global Researcher in CLEAR Global’s Research, Advocacy and Data (RAD) team.

Responsibilities

Design and lead project implementation

• Design and coordinate formative qualitative and quantitative research projects related to language and communication in humanitarian crises in line with CLEAR Global’s research standards.
• Design and coordinate participatory research and co-creation processes to develop appropriate technology-enabled solutions for communication with communities and community feedback and accountability mechanisms with affected populations. 
• Coordinate data collection, data management, and data processing ensuring that all data is handled confidentially and along data protection guidelines.
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data, leading and documenting a collegial rolling review of emerging findings and discussion of the implications both for humanitarian policy and practice, for the ongoing implementation of the research, and for CLEAR Global’s advocacy purposes.
• Develop together with the global Research, Advocacy and Data (RAD) team an innovative research agenda for CLEAR Global’s future research in the response in Northeast Nigeria.
• Manage assigned research staff, data collectors, and consultants as needed.

Development and implementation of CLEAR Global’s research standards

• Provide support to the global RAD team to further develop qualitative research methods and processes, including research design, delivery, analysis and reporting for qualitative projects.
• Provide support to the Program team to deliver high-quality evaluations. This will include writing and assessing proposals, providing ongoing support to internal and external researchers and quality-assuring protocols and reports.
• Setting direction for and undertaking quality assurance of qualitative and mixed-methods projects. 

Evidence gathering and impact measuring

• Develop innovative tools and processes for tracking the outputs of various language-related activities, including, but not limited to: translations of documents and messages, advocacy, training, and capacity building of interpreters.
• Liaise with a wide range of organizations to discover and gather information that relates to the provision and effectiveness of language and communication support.
• Liaise with partners to produce concise narratives that capture progress against indicators and provide both management and donors with accurate and user-friendly information.
• Seek out reports, research, and programs from various actors across the response to analyze trends in language and communication practices.
• Liaise with consortium partners to design and implement mid-term and end-term evaluations of projects, based on new perspectives on the wants and needs of the affected people.
• Develop innovative methods to measure the impact on affected communities when they have access to communication in the appropriate format and language.

Reporting

• Ensure efficient systems are in place for program staff to collect and compile relevant and concise information for routine donor reporting requirements and occasional special reports as required.
• Provide regular internal updates on research advances and preliminary results.
• Produce research reports for external publication.
• Produce evidence-based recommendations and guidelines related to communication and language to support other humanitarian agencies.
• Produce and present findings in presentation format to various humanitarian agencies and donors.

Please note that these roles and responsibilities are approximate and may change over time.

Qualifications

The Research Coordinator should be a creative self-starter with a strong sense of initiative and enthusiastic about the importance of increasing access to knowledge through language. The right candidate is an energetic team player who agrees with CLEAR Global’s Core Values and can work in field location and virtually collaborate with team members based throughout the world. 

Requirements 

• Master’s degree in a relevant subject (anthropology, social sciences, sociolinguistics)
• 5+ years of social science research in development or humanitarian contexts
• Experience designing and implementing field-based research projects utilizing qualitative or mixed methodologies
• First-hand experience of humanitarian program implementation; experience of Communicating with Communities (CwC) programming and/or Community Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms (CFM) a plus
• Experience with MEAL in a humanitarian program context, and demonstrable understanding of how data supports program learning
• Willingness to work in insecure environments required, experience of working in insecure environments a plus
• Availability to deploy for field assessments in humanitarian contexts for periods of several weeks, and flexibility to deploy potentially at short notice and manage logistical contingencies
• Ability to communicate scientific data to communities, program staff, and partners in a simple and clear manner
• Verbal and written fluency in English; strong written communication skills
• Proficiency in one or more other languages relevant to Northeast Nigeria a plus
• Ability to analyze and visualize quantitative data using Excel or Google Sheets
• Experience and competency working with Nvivo, ARCgis, Tableau, or other specialized software a plus
• Experience designing and conducting multilingual surveys using Kobo DataCollect a plus
• Experience working in Northeast Nigeria a plus