REACH ASSESSMENT SPECIALIST for South Sudan At IMPACT Initiatives

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS . IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

We are currently looking for a REACH Assessment Specialist to support our team in South Sudan.

Department:REACH

Position: REACH Assessment Specialist

Contract duration:12 months

Location: Juba, South Sudan

Starting Date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

IMPACT, through its own activities, or through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectorial needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and touched a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.

2018 has seen the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming to 10 of 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources, and third party monitoring of humanitarian and development programming.

REACH’s work in South Sudan includes several research projects to inform emergency prioritisation of humanitarian assistance. The Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) research cycle regularly assesses intersectoral needs across the country through remote monitoring to help identify areas of concern. Emergency Response Rapid Mechanism (ERRM) assessments rapidly assess needs on the ground to inform emergency responders. The two research cycles work together closely to develop a common understanding of areas of concern across South Sudan.

FUNCTIONS

Under the line management of the IMPACT Country Coordinator or their delegates in South Sudan, , the Assessment Specialist ensures the validity and strengthens the quality and efficiency of all IMPACT research cycles in South Sudan, with a particular thematic focus on Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) and ERRM research cycles, in accordance with IMPACT’s standards, partner expectations, and IMPACT’s ethos of facilitating an evidence-based response.
In coordination with the Emergency Prioritisation Research Manager (EP RM) and the Humanitarian Situation Monitoring Research Manager (HSM RM), the Assessment Specialist will provide technical inputs at all stages of relevant research cycles, including for secondary data reviews, assessment conceptualization, research design, logistical preparations, training of field staff, supporting data collection teams during data collection, data cleaning, analysis, production of information products, and dissemination of information products, etc.
They will ensure knowledge management, learning and dissemination within the HSM and ERRM team and across all relevant research cycles. This includes developing and implementing targeted capacity building activities with HSM and ERRM teams working on relevant research cycles; reviewing the relevance, quality and validity of current HSM and ERRM research cycles; and leading technical innovation and exploratory research within HSM and ERRM
The assessment specialist will also provide technical input and continue to refine existing information management systems, including the HSM workbook and Areas of Concern tracker.
S/he will be involved in partner coordination, donor reporting, presentations, and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of IMPACT in South Sudan.

In his/her mission, the Assessment Specialist will be hosted by IMPACT’s global partner ACTED and will fall under the direct responsibility and management of ACTED’s Country Director and his/her delegates for all Administrative, Security, and relevant Logistics and Finance issues. S/he will therefore fully abide to ACTED’s Security, Administration, and relevant HR, Logistics and Finance rules and regulations.

RESPONSIBILITIES

TECHNICAL INPUT TO ALL STAGES OF RESEARCH CYCLES

Support Assessment teams in designing and implementing research cycle methodologies, tools, ToRs, data collection and analysis, product drafting;
Supporting a streamlined, coordinated approach across all relevant research cycles to research design, methodology and tool development, data collection and analysis, and product drafting;
Support in accurately estimating research cycle timelines and resources needed for research cycle implementation;
Ensure that research design, data collection and analysis and product drafting for all relevant research cycles comply to IMPACT’s requirements, guidelines and strategic direction;
Monitor implementation of research cycles, identifying any major risks or issues, support team to resolve these challenges in line with IMPACT research standards and in close coordination with IMPACT HQ as relevant;
• Ensure that the applied methodology, analysis and products maximize the impact of the research cycles in line with the intended objectives;
Support monitoring and evaluation for relevant Research Cycle, as specified in the research ToRs and in line with IMPACT Guidelines;
Contribute to generating and documenting robust lessons learned at the end of relevant Research Cycle;
Engage with internal and external stakeholders to design and roll out relevant studies to support the South Sudan mission’s research quality, relevance and strategic positioning
Review HSM and ERRM methods and information products to ensure their relevance and accuracy, and ensure that changes are recorded transparently;
Liaise with relevant assessment, GIS and data colleagues to ensure that their joint research benefits from a multi-disciplinary approach and effective spatial representation of assessment findings in maps or interactive web-portals, as relevant.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, LEARNING AND DISSEMINATION

Lead the provision of technical support to HSM and Emergency Prioritisation (EP) unit (and other units where possible) in line with organization core value and principles;
Identify capacity gaps, and bridging these through targeted capacity building and trainings. Ensure impact of trainings and progression of staff is monitored. Pro-actively provide regular technical support and backstopping to assessment teams.
Provide functional oversight to relevant assessment staff, and produce joint skill development plans with the relevant Research Manager(s) who are line-managing the staff in question;
Support line managers by contributing to appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and participation in career management, with a view on continuously monitoring and assessing IMPACT staff’s research skills and providing actionable feedback.
Support to Assessment / unit teams to systematically review the efficiency and quality of research cycles and information products.
Work closely with REACH specialists – both in country and globally – to design and alter/update the tracking framework based on lessons learnt.
Able and available to engage with Global Units and global learning processes, such as methodology notes, lessons learn, Communities of Practice, etc.
Support development of resources for research staff, provide trainings and ensure close follow-up to ensure quality research.
If capacity allows in the future, engages with academics to develop new methodologies and publish academic articles
More generally, contributes to creating a culture of rigour, innovation and learning within IMPACT’s operations.

PROVIDE TECHNICAL INPUT AND REFINE HSM AND ERRM INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Ongoing review and adaptation of ToRs and information systems within HSM and ERRM
Support the RMs in ensuring mission-wide understanding of HSM and ERRM knowledge management systems
Participate in the ERRM council to advise on the identification of information gaps and thematic and geographic scope of follow up.

STRATEGY, PROGRAM AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Contribute to country, regional and unit strategies development with relevant technical and thematic contents;
Support the development/revision of assessment/programme strategies, reports, or new proposals.

EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT

Support the IMPACT South Sudan team in providing stakeholders within the humanitarian coordination system with reliable and accurate technical advice
Support country management in representing IMPACT among external actors for technical/thematic discussions, including with stakeholders in the humanitarian coordination system, such as OCHA representatives, clusters, as well as technical working groups, academic institutions, and various NGO fora and information management groups
Participates, contributes to and delivers inter-agency, multi-stakeholders knowledge sharing / lessons learned exercise;
Contributes to the dissemination of IMPACT’s products to maximize their impact.
Engage in IPC workshops (or any alternative FSL analysis) as a state level analyst and provide support to REACH analyst operating in other state teams.
More generally, contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of IMPACT’’s mandate, ethics, values and stand- point with regard to other actors and by contributing to creating a culture of rigorous use of evidence and learning among humanitarian responders.

INFLUENCING – DATA CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROTECTION

The Assessment Specialist will maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. He/she will actively take measures to prevent the unauthorized sharing of any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners, or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.

REQUIREMENTS

SPECIALIST

Academic: Excellent academic qualifications, including a Master (MSc) degree in relevant discipline.
Research skills: Excellent research and analytical skills required, including a sound ability to develop and apply suitable sampling frameworks; an ability to manage, clean and analyse large data sets, as well as conduct temporal or spatial trend analysis; a high capacity for qualitative research design and analysis; and an ability to design and innovate mixed methods approaches to data collection and analysis.
Software skills: Proven knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite, to include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Advanced skills in R, SPSS and/or STATA or other statistical analysis software are an asset. Experience with InDesign, Illustrator and NVivo (or similar qualitative analysis software) an asset.
Familiarity aid system: Familiarity with the aid system and with the research community is an asset.
Years of research-related work experience: At least 4 years of relevant working experience in research, of which 2 should have been in an emergency setting.
Research experience: At least 2 years of experience conducting field-based primary research, humanitarian research, or humanitarian needs assessments;
Capacity building skills: Proven ability to design and deliver impactful trainings, and to mentor IMPACT teams and partners on assessment skills.
Knowledge management experience: Previous experience in engaging with internal and external stakeholders,documenting best practices and lessons learnt, and disseminating/institutionalising knowledge.
Communication/reporting skills: Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting, including an ability to convey complex concepts, explain analysis and highlight key findings.
Multi-tasking skills: Ability to multitask with tight deadlines, on numerous research cycles.
Level of independence: Strong existing ability to work independently in support of colleagues and partners.
Cross-cultural work environment: Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility.
Experience in geographical region: Past experience in South Sudan (or similar complex humanitarian environments) is desirable.
Language skills: Fluency in English required, competency in (Juba) Arabic an asset.
Security environment: Ability to operate in a complex and challenging security environment.

CONDITIONS

Salary defined by the IMPACT salary grid; educational level, expertise, hardship, security, and performance are considered for pay bonus
Additional monthly living allowance provided in country by IMPACT’s partner ACTED
Food and lodging provided at the organisation’s guesthouse/or housing allowance (depending on contract length and country of assignment)
Transportation costs covered, including additional return ticket + luggage allowance
Provision of medical, life, and repatriation insurance + retirement package

Excellent research and analytical skills an asset. Experience in assessments. M&E, field research, evaluations an asset. Proven knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite, to include Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Familiarity with R, SPSS and/or stata or other statistical analysis software an asset.