Assessment Specialist for Ethiopia

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 an Assessment Specialist to support our team in Ethiopia.

Department:REACH

Position: Assessment Specialist

Contract duration:12 months

Location: Addis Ababa

Starting Date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

Since 2018, Ethiopia has witnessed an escalation in unrest including large-scale displacement, killings, and destruction of property following domestic political changes. Such unrest has exacerbated the impact of climate-related crises, including the most devastating desert locust infestation in 25 years, which has damaged crops and fostered food insecurity. In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic infiltrated Ethiopia leading to lockdowns and transport bans in many regions that restricted access to markets. Then in November 2020 conflict erupted in the northern Tigray region, displacing many Ethiopians and contributing an approximate 1.1 million additional people needing assistance in Amhara, Afar and Tigray regions. All of these events have severely disrupted livelihoods, affected the availability of staple market commodities, and threatened to sharply escalate humanitarian need for vulnerable populations across the country.

FUNCTIONS

Under the line management of the IMPACT Research Manager, the Assessment Specialist ensures the validity and strengthens the quality and efficiency of all IMPACT Humanitarian research cycles in Ethiopia, in accordance with IMPACT’s standards, partner expectations, and IMPACT’s ethos of facilitating an evidence-based response. In coordination with the Country Senior Management Team, 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. 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 Ethiopia. The Assessment Specialist will also be responsible for developing and implementing a continuous capacity building program for national and international team members, and (when relevant) for providing trainings to partners. The Assessment Specialist will be also responsible for co-chairing the Assessment and Analysis Working Group (AAWG) together with OCHA counterparts in Ethiopia.

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.

RESPONSABILITIES

RESEARCH PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION

• Support the Senior Management team in identifying and materializing opportunities, in line with strategic directions of the mission;

• Ensure 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;

• Support Assessment teams in designing and implementing research cycle methodologies, tools, ToRs, data collection and analysis, product drafting;

• 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 the identification, trainings and follow up of enumerators resources for primary data collection;

• Review of information products to ensure accuracy;

• Liaise with relevant assessment, GIS and data colleagues to ensure that their joint research benefits from a multi-disciplinay approach is effective spatial representation of assessment findings in maps or interactive web-portals, as relevant.

TEAM FUNCTIONAL AND LINE-MANAGEMENT

• Provide technical leadership throughout the Humanitarian Unit and relevant working groups in the Ethiopia in line with organization core value and principles;

• Provide functional oversight to relevant assessment staff, and produce joint skill development- and work plans with the relevant Research Manager(s) who are line-managing the staff in question;

• Where relevant, directly line-manage assessment, data or GIS staff that provide cross-cutting support to the entire mission;
• For staff under his/her functional responsibility, support to line managers by contributing to conduct of appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and participation in career management;
• For staff under direct line management, prepare and follow up work plans; conduct of appraisals, provision of regular feedback, and career management;
• For staff under direct line management, conduct regular team meetings to assess progress in relevant research cycles and to review work plan; ensure that all are comprehensively briefed on their objectives and expected outputs;

INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE SHARING, LEARNING AND CAPACITY BUILDING

• Identify capacity gaps, and resolve to bridge these through targeted capacity building, training, performance monitoring, and backstopping where needed;

• Support to the line managers and specialists in the development and implementation of capacity training plans for assessment and field team members;

• Conduct and support regular training to [country/regional] teams, including regular updates on IMPACT guidelines, adapted (to context) training modules, learning on the job; Complement in house training material with external resources, if and as relevant;

• Ensure impact of trainings and progression of staff is monitored;
• Pro-actively provide regular technical support and backstopping to assessment teams;

• Support to Assessment / unit teams to systematically review the efficiency and quality of research cycles and information products;
• 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;
• Ensure knowledge and learning processes are shared across the [mission/region] and with HQ;

• Able and available to engage with Global Units and global learning processes, such as methodology notes, lessons learn, Communities of Practice, etc;
• Continuously seek to improve and innovate IMPACT assessments, information products and processes to identify and meet information gaps in the Ethiopian humanitarian response in order to support in the facilitation of an evidence-based response;
• Work closely with other specialists in Ethiopia to develop, implement and monitor a multi-disciplinary training and learning plan for IMPACT teams;

• More generally, contributes to creating a culture of rigour, innovation and learning within IMPACT’s operations.

STRATEGY, PROGRAM AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

• Contribute to country, regional and unit strategies development with relevant technical and thematic contents;

• Ensure that assessment strategies are implemented in a structured and coherent manner in line with project and strategic objectives;
• Support the development/revision of assessment/programme strategies, reports, or new proposals.

EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT

1. CO-CHAIRING OF THE AAWG

• Work in close coordination with the OCHA chair of the AAWG in facilitating and co-leading the group, including reviewing the associated strategy and workplan.
• Provide technical support to AAWG in establishing a Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA) approach for Ethiopia.
• Provide technical support and leadership in developing the situation and needs monitoring approach and related analytical framework.
• Coordinate and liaise with Clusters and partners (FEWSNET, IPC, WFP-RAM, HEA, IOM-DTM etc.) to identify key indicators that can be aligned to the agreed frequency of humanitarian situations and needs monitoring approach.
• Under the agreed direction of AAWG and ICCG, identify and update key situation, sectoral, thematic and context indicators that can be periodically updated to produce a stronger analysis of the humanitarian situation and needs monitoring.
• Coordinate with OCHA IMU to integrate humanitarian access, and response analysis is integrated into the humanitarian situation and needs monitoring approach.
• Integrate REACH Humanitarian and Situation into the inter-agency humanitarian situation and monitoring initiative.
• Provide analysis support in producing the humanitarian situation and needs monitoring periodic reports.

2. OTHER EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENTS

• Support the IMPACT team in Ethiopia in providing stakeholders within the humanitarian coordination system with reliable and accurate technical advice and support;
• 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.
• 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 rigourous 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

• Academic Excellent academic qualifications, preferably including a Master degree in relevant discipline;
• Research skills Excellent research and analytical skills required, including a sound understanding of sampling frameworks and their application, an ability to analyse large data sets, as well as conduct temporal or spatial trend 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 required. Experience with InDesign an asset.
• Familiarity aid system Familiarity with the aid system in a complex humanitarian context. Familiarity with the research community. Ability to read the context of operation, understanding of the risk of operating in a sensitive and prone-to-conflict environment.
• Years of work experience At least 4 years of relevant working experience
• Experience in Humanitarian sector Experience working in complex humanitarian crisis;
• Training skills Ability to conduct trainings and mentor IMPACT teams and partners on assessment skills;
• Communication/reporting skills Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting;
• 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; ability to stay calm and focused while operating in a challenging environment.
• Experience in geographical region Past experience in the Sub-Saharan or East Africa region is desirable;
• Language skills Fluency in English required, competency in French an asset;
• Security environment Ability to operate in a complex and challenging security environment.