Global Research Lead, BRAC Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative

Career with BRAC International

BRAC is an award-winning international non-governmental development organisation, with the vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination, where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential. BRAC is a leader in developing and implementing cost-effective, evidence-based programmes to assist poor and disadvantaged communities in low-income countries, including in conflict-prone and post-disaster settings. It is an organisation of and for the people of the Global South, pioneering new development and social enterprise approaches to equip communities to achieve prosperity. As well as being the world’s biggest NGO by number of staff and people directly reached, BRAC has regularly been ranked the number one NGO in the world by the Geneva-based NGO Advisor, an independent organisation committed to highlighting innovation, impact and governance in the non-profit sector. BRAC retained the top spot in 2020 among the top 500 NGOs for the fifth consecutive year.

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. It started its first programme outside of Bangladesh in Afghanistan in 2002, and has since reached more than 6.5 million in 11 countries of Africa and Asia. BRAC has a holistic approach to development that uses a wide array of programmes that include microfinance, education, health, agriculture, gender and human rights. BRAC invests in communities’ own human and material resources, catalyzing lasting change and creating an ecosystem in which the poor have the chance to seize control of their own lives.

About the Position

BRAC International is seeking a competent, dynamic and self-motivated individual to fill the position of Global Research Lead, Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative. The BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) is the flagship program of BRAC International at the global level that seeks to advance the use of proven Graduation approaches by governments at scale to address extreme poverty. UPGI’s works with a range of global and national partners in pursuit of this mission. Focal countries include, but are not limited to, Philippines, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Egypt.

UPGI recognises evidence generation and use as powerful drivers of progress in pursuit of this mission and is seeking researchers to join its dynamic and growing Monitoring, Evidence and Learning function. Working within UPGI’s overall research agenda in support of UPGI national and global teams, and in partnership with the BRAC Institute of Governance & Development (BIGD), this role will help to define and implement UPGI’s strategic research agenda; generating and synthesising the evidence needed to inform UPGI’s work to scale Graduation through governments. Moreover, the role will represent UPGI in external fora, and help to ensure that the team stays current with both emerging sectoral research and methodological best practices.

The Global Research Lead will be responsible for informing and influencing efforts to scale proven graduation approaches through high quality and innovative research and policy engagement. In addition to overseeing UPGI’s research portfolio, this role will provide senior-level representation and external engagement for UPGI on major research and policy agendas, interacting with senior officials and policymakers and providing senior-level representation in major research and policy agendas to position UPGI as an intellectual leader and influential actor

The UPGI team is globally located and there is some flexibility in terms of location, but preference will be given to candidates who are based in Africa or Asia. The role will be expected to undertake international travel for purposes related to research and policy engagement.

Primary Responsibilities:

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Establishing a coherent body of research that advances UPGI’s mission and strengthens its reputation, including identifying new research agendas and leading on the design and delivery of robust research (including research design, project management, technical support, field research as appropriate, analysis and report writing)
• Building and maintaining an appropriate network of internal and external research partners, identifying and working with partners and researchers, including from UPGI country contexts, to design and undertake research
• Authoring peer reviewed reports, policy briefs, opinion pieces and other publications ensuring these are robust, policy-relevant and accessible.
• Contributing to the development of UPGI policy recommendations based on research evidence
• Actively disseminating research findings and undertake external engagements through advisory work, convening and engaging in public events, media work and social media engagement.
• Undertake senior-level representation and external engagement for UPGI on major research and policy agendas, interacting with senior officials and policymakers and providing senior level representation in major research and policy agendas to position UPGI as an intellectual leader and influential actor.

Major Challenges:

● Adaptive thought required, bringing significant judgements and innovative thinking to problems, in order to define strategy. Particular challenges include:

● How to build on the significant body of research that exists on proven graduation approaches – undertaking new and strategic pieces of high quality research and researcher synthesis, and/ or presenting existing research in fresh ways that captures attention globally – in order to inform and influence efforts to scale these approaches in partnership with national governments.

● Developing effective partnerships internally with the UPGI national and global teams, wider BRAC colleagues including the BRAC Institute of Governance & Development (BIGD), and externally with the large number or external research partners in this space

● Translating research findings and insights into policy relevant communications

● Representing UPGI in external fora, and engaging directly with policy makers as appropriate**.**

Safeguarding Responsibilities

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme’s goals on safeguarding implementation.
• Practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, encourage others to do so.

Qualifications

The candidate for Global Research Lead, Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative should have a deep commitment toward international development and the eradication of extreme poverty, and the following :

Essential

• Fluency in English and a capacity to write clearly in English, with good presentation and oral communication skills
• Ability to work in a team
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to work independently on discrete pieces of research
• Experience in developing countries and/or transitional economies
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a collegiate approach to team work and team members and the ability to work in partnership – including at a distance – and to work as part of a team.
• Commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) principles

Experience

• Post-graduate qualification in a relevant discipline;
• At least 10 years of related research experience with developing and delivering formative research on economic development and/or multi-dimensional poverty, with a particular focus on economic inclusion.
• Proven experience and expertise with designing and leading research and learning syntheses for projects and programmes on economic development and reforms;
• Demonstrable experience with research and evaluation design including mixed-methods research approaches; qualitative and quantitative data syntheses and interpretation skills and ability to condense, refine, and tailor large amounts of qualitative and quantitative data for external audiences; thorough understanding of research ethics)
• Experience with using information management systems and software to house and analyse data, familiarity with data visualisation tools
• Experience in leading the production of academic and policy research outputs.
• Demonstrated ability to translate research into policy-relevant communications
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to think critically about primary and secondary literature and perform meta-analytical research

Desirable

• Fluency and a good speaking and reading command of at least one other language (eg. local language) is welcome;
• Relevant personal contacts and networks in the candidate’s specialist areas (e.g. multilateral organisations, NGOs and research institutions, and government)
• Statistical analysis and experience in visualizing quantitative data