Associate, Research and Evaluation at The Pharo Foundation

Job Description The Pharo Foundation (the ‘’Foundation”) is a privately-funded entrepreneurial organisation that runs philanthropic programmes as well as for-profit social enterprises. The vision of the Foundation is an economically vibrant and inclusive Africa. The mission is to achieve this vision by investing in the human and physical capital of Africa, with an emphasis on job creation. Established in , The Foundation has been implementing numerous programmes in Ethiopia and Somaliland and is in the process of expanding into Rwanda and Kenya. The strategic pillars of the Foundation are education, health, water, and agriculture. An example of a project is a girls’ boarding school in Western Ethiopia which provides secondary education for pupils and is fully funded by the Foundation. Another is a large-scale water project in Somaliland that will soon bring water to 6, households and their livestock. In , the Foundation also established Pharo Ventures, its wholly owned social enterprise arm in East Africa. Pharo Ventures has already embarked on a series of ambitious businesses in Somaliland and Ethiopia in the construction and agro-processing sectors, and is about to launch its first Kenyan venture. Headquartered in London, the Foundation has an operational HQ in Nairobi, Kenya with country offices in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa and Assosa), Somaliland (Hargeisa), and Rwanda (Kigali).Position Summary:As the Foundation expands its work across Africa, there is an exciting, growing opportunity to employ the latest research and evaluation tools to design programs, measure impact and guide future strategies. Working alongside the Foundation’s Chief Research and Evaluation Officer (CREO), the Associate RE will play a critical role in building and operating an efficient, rigorous, and impactful RE department that will influence the selection and design of development programs in multiple countries.Functional Relationships: DirectorsCountry Programme ManagersResearch and Evaluation Staff Duties and Responsibilities:Research and Evaluation Responsible for designing and estimating the potential impact of Foundation’s new programs; primarily in education, water, health and agriculture. This includes active involvement in the program design process and implementation of creative evaluation tools.Identifying the best econometric approaches to measuring impact, considering local constraints.Managing day-to-day research and evaluation activities. These include: Regularly assessing progress in the field;Supervising and training field staff;Ensuring that basic quality standards are met;Cleaning and analysing data;Contributing to the production of research reports. Regular travel to project locations in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Somaliland, as needed. Institutional / Administrative Helping the CREO build an integrated Research and Evaluation (RE) department within the Foundation, involving field staff in multiple locations. This will involve: Creating/updating the institutional documents laying out the Foundation’s research and evaluation approaches and strategy;Writing guidelines for the Foundation’s evaluation proposals, field data collection activities, cleaning and documentation standards, pre-analysis plans, and end-products.Establishing a library of STATA and/or R codes for use across the organisation. Assisting the Chief Research and Evaluation Officer (CREO) in other critical RE tasks and projects, including developing and engaging with a network of international development researchers and practitioners across the continent. RequirementsTechnical Competencies: Creative and entrepreneurial self-starter, with a focus on execution and results.Superior attention to detail.Ability to articulate complex ideas, summarize problems, and identify key lessons, clearly and effectively.Highly proficient in STATA and R, with experience writing statistical code for data management, cleaning, and analysis.Basic understanding of economics, econometrics, and statistics.Highly proficient with survey platforms, like KoboCollect or SurveyCTO.Excellent writing and presentation (e.g., PowerPoint) skills.Ability to manage field surveys, focus groups, and randomized evaluations.Ability to multitask and balance multiple work assignments.Most importantly, excellent interpersonal skills. In this position, you will be required to work efficiently with teams in a variety of different countries and contexts. Required Qualifications and Experiences: Bachelor or Master’s degree in Economics, International Development, Political Science, Statistics, Public Policy or a related field.Minimum of three years of fieldwork management experience, and preferably experience running a research project at an academically-oriented, development economics research organisation.Strong track record of success in academic studies, as well as the professional workplace.