Research Analyst, Washington-Jobs vacancy

• Organization: World Bank
• Country: United States
• City: Washington, United States
• Office: World Bank HQ Washington

 

Closing date: Monday, 16 April 2018

• Grade
• Location Washington, DC
• Recruitment Type Local Hire
• Language Requirement English [Essential]; French [Desired]; Portuguese [Desired]; Spanish [Desired]
• Closing Date 16-Apr-2018

Background / General description

DECIE is seeking to recruit a research analyst to support the 'ieConnect' program of impact evaluations in the transport sector. The 'ieConnect' program seeks to strengthen the evidence base for transport in the development community through rigorous impact evaluation. DECIE is a unit of the World Bank's Development Research Group, which houses DIME, a crosscutting program of the World Bank.

DIME's purpose is to increase the use of impact evaluation (IE) in the design and implementation of public policy and to develop institutional capacity and motivation for evidence-based policy.

DECIE's work focuses on three areas

Evaluating programs at scale to answer policy-relevant questions;

Building capacity to strengthen country institutions for evidence-based policymaking;

Building theory on mechanisms in strategic development areas based on high-quality evidence. DECIE aims to overcome the challenge to identify true cause-and-effect relations in policy programs. By linking researchers to policymakers and feeding results back into policies, DECIE fosters systematic use of evidence, which informs adoption, mid-course corrections, and scale-up of policies. Through workshops and clinics with operational staff and government clients, joint research teams, active field coordination, as well as research products such as seminars, papers, and policy briefs, DECIE builds capacity while forming a wider community of practice.

DECIE accompanies impact evaluations during their entire life-cycle. It starts with assessing demand, identifying research questions, as well as supporting project implementation, high quality data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results. With a portfolio of more than 170 impact evaluations, DECIE operates across all sectors in about 50 countries spanning the globe.

The IEs test a variety of delivery and behavioral mechanisms, to understand why policy succeeds or fails and how to improve policy design and implementation to obtain better results. By working proactively in collaboration with clients, DIME employs experimental methods to infer causality whenever possible (79% of the portfolio). 17% of DIME IEs utilize non-experimental methods, while 4% use a combination of the two. From 2009 to 2013 DIME organized 19 IE workshops, training 1,774 people in 231 teams consisting of Bank staff, government clients, donors and academics.

This effort resulted in 231 initial concept notes of which 84% are implementing an impact evaluation. More information can be found at http://www.worldbank.org/dime. Development Impact Evaluation (DECIE) seeks to recruit a research analyst to coordinate the development and implementation of a portfolio of IEs in the transport sector. We seek candidates with experience in empirical field research in developing countries; strong technical skills in the area of impact evaluation and micro-econometrics and the interest and ability to communicate technical knowledge and expertise in a policy environment. The candidates should have strong data skills, including programming skills, knowledge of database management systems, solutions for big data treatment and storage, solutions and treatment of geospatial data and data visualization).

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 3 year term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities

The analyst will work on the research design, implementation, data collection and analysis for ongoing as well as new impact evaluations (IEs) in the ieConnect program and support in-country capacity development. The coordinator will closely support the field coordinators placed in different locations.

The analyst will work in close partnership with the relevant World Bank networks (notably the Transport and ICT Global Practice) and regional departments as well as with client government counterparts to build capacity for evidence-based policy-making. Given the large focus on data systems in the ieConnect program, the analyst will play a key role in helping to set-up and administer these pilot data systems. Additionally, the analyst will facilitate the use of data sources such as satellite data and help with data processing of other types of new data.

The research analyst will act as a point person for the ieConnect portfolio of IEs. In addition, the analyst will support the design and delivery of a select number of evaluations in the portfolio in particular.

Specific tasks include

Portfolio management

• Work under the guidance of the ieConnect team economists;
• Contribute to fund raising activities;
• Prepare progress reports to management and donors;
• Support client capacity development activities.

IE Coordination

• Engage with local partners in developing new impact evaluations. Develop relationships with the relevant partners and understand their operational questions and capacity needs to implement the IEs;
• Monitor the program implementation to ensure the impact evaluation design is not compromised through close follow-up with the field teams;
• Manage the data collection activities at all stages (procurement, survey design, sampling and supervision and quality assurance);
• Support the hiring and training of new Field Coordinators and mentor them closely on interaction with the government, data collection, monitoring of implementation. Preparation of detailed work plans;
• Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the Impact Evaluation, Government, and Bank project teams - making the link between the research team and the field;
• Conduct data analysis work individually and in teams under supervision of the PI(s).

Data Management

• Help with setting up pilot data systems for projects that require them, including interacting with technical solutions providers
• —Help to create uniformity across data systems to facilitate comparison of similar indicators;
• Help with processing and analyzing geospatial data;
• Help with producing platforms that can be used to visualize the data collected and can help to facilitate the use of the data for policy-making.

Selection Criteria

We seek candidates with experience in empirical field research in developing countries; strong technical skills in the area of impact evaluation and micro-econometrics demonstrated through contributions to high quality papers and/or policy notes, strong data skills (including database management, programming skills, experience in big data, geospatial data management and treatment and data visualization ) and the interest and ability to communicate technical knowledge and expertise in a policy environment.

The candidate must be a strong team player with the confidence to interact at all levels of an organization. The successful candidate will have

• Minimum of Master's degree in economics or related field and 2 years of relevant experience in development projects, household survey data collection, impact evaluation (design and implementation) and analytical work;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English is required - proficiency in Portuguese, Spanish, or French is desirable;
• Previous experience in working with government counterparts is highly desirable;
• Hands-on experience in overseeing implementation of impact evaluations or other development research in a developing country setting;
• Experience in household survey design and implementation, including CAPI, in the context of developing countries is desired;
• Excellent organizational skills and proven ability to work under pressure with tight deadlines with minimum supervision while maintaining attention to detail;
• Proficiency in statistical and quantitative analysis and track record of working as part of teams to collect and analyze large data using software packages such as Stata, R, ArcGis/QGIS, Google Earth Engine, and/or Python, is essential. Advanced proficiency with SurveyCTO is a plus;
• Knowledge of data collection technology such as remote-sensing (satellite/drone), mobile phones, or crowd-sourcing apps is required;
• Knowledge in creating and maintaining data platforms (offline and/or web-based), as well as data visualization using software such as Tableau is a plus;
• Knowledge of the World Bank's operations and business processes is a plus.

Competencies

• Strong analytical and conceptual skills - In-depth understanding and experience of impact evaluation as an analytical and policymaking tool;
• Evaluation Approaches and Methods - Understands and applies the approaches, methods, and tools of development evaluation. Assists in developing, the strongest feasible design to answer the evaluation questions and respond to the evaluation's purpose;
• Data Collection and Management - Ensures data relevance and quality through appropriate selection of data sources and sound collection and management. Develops appropriate strategies for dealing with data quality issues. Effectively uses software and systems in support of work;
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders;
• Strong interpersonal skills - Behavioral competencies that facilitate dialogue with country partners and country teams, including listening skills, training and capacity development skills, and ability to adapt advice to the local institutional realities;
• Commitment to teamwork, knowledge-sharing, and ability to influence across organizational boundaries. Creates a team climate of practical and innovative action, facilitating collaboration between stakeholders.

The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.