Research Officer

Reports To: Research Manager

Based: Jakarta, Indonesia

Duration: 12 months with possibility of extension

Context

BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development organisation, uses the power of media and communication to support people to shape their own lives. Working with broadcasters, governments, other organisations and donors, BBC Media Action provides information and stimulates positive change in the areas of governance, health, and resilience and humanitarian response. This broad reach helps to inform, connect and empower people around the world.

BBC Media Action is independent from the BBC, but shares the BBC’s fundamental values and has partnerships with the BBC World Service and national broadcasters that reach millions of people in developing countries. In addition, BBC Media Action trains journalists and reach audiences with local broadcast partners. In line with the BBC value of audiences being at the heart of everything we do, research with audiences is embedded across our project life cycle.

BBC Media Action’s Research Group conducts research in order to understand our audiences and impact of our programmes. BBC Media Action has an integrated team of up to 100 specialist qualitative and quantitative researchers based both in the UK and our country offices. This team provides research and evaluation to support the development and impact assessment of media development projects and communication for development projects. We undertake research at audience, practitioner, organisation and system levels, including:

• Formative research to guide the development of projects, including literature reviews, qualitative and quantitative primary research.
• Pre-testing/piloting of media outputs with audiences, to feed into programme development.
• Monitoring project progress including audience reactions.
• Evaluation of the impact of our projects.
• Research for learning about what works in media development and communication for development.

Job Purpose

BBC Media Action is implementing a 3-years project in Indonesia, which aims to strengthen the information and communication ecosystem for increased public engagement on climate change and green growth outcomes in Indonesia. Reporting to, and under the supervision of the Research Manager, the Research Officers will be primarily responsible for the implementation of qualitative and/or quantitative research for the project. This will include qualitative focus groups and in-depth interviews, and ethnography/participatory research and a quantitative survey to help measure impact.

S/he will be expected to have substantial experience in qualitative research including design and moderating of focus group discussions, conducting in-depth interviews, and qualitative analysis. Having an understanding of anthropological/ethnographical research methods will add value to the application. S/he is expected not only strong in qualitative but also have some experience in the quantitative research.

The Research Officer will be responsible for ensuring that research design reflects the needs of the project and production, and to ensure that research findings are effectively communicated to all key stakeholders.

Main Duties

• Under the supervision of the Research Manager, design and implement the research for this project. This will include designing qualitative and/or quantitative research and tools and conducting fieldwork such as having ethnography, moderating focus groups, conducting in-depth interviews, as well as employing other qualitative/quantitative methods.
• Fieldwork coordination and logistics planning, including carrying out recruitment of research participants.
• Analysis and interpretation of qualitative and/or quantitative research, and generating of insights in order to inform the development of output programmes for pre-testing
• Communicate effectively to all key project stakeholders to ensure effective project communications and management.
• Work closely with Research Manager to ensure research is effectively delivered to time, quality and budget.
• Understand and comply with the Safeguarding policy and the staff Code of Conduct.
• Participate in relevant mandatory training on Safeguarding and Respect at Work.
• Report any Safeguarding concerns immediately, either to the Country Director, or using the Whistleblowing Policy.
• Undertake any other relevant tasks or responsibilities as requested by your line manager.

Required knowledge, skills and experience:

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of designing and managing qualitative and quantitative research in support of practical outcomes.
• Strong in qualitative but need to have some experience in the quantitative research.
• Experience of undertaking qualitative fieldwork and adapting methods to challenging and resource-constrained conditions.
• Experience in survey design and implementation
• Strong report writing and presentation skills, communicating in non-technical language to a range of audiences such as media and development practitioners.
• Excellent track record of delivering research findings on time, and to a high standard.
• Ability to quality assure both quantitative and qualitative analysis and reporting.
• Willing to travel and experience in facing the forest
• Fluent in written and spoken English and Bahasa Indonesian.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Understanding of development issues in Indonesia
• Understanding of the role of media and communication in development
• An understanding of governance and/or deforestation issues
• Experience working with vulnerable populations
• Experience in working with indigenous people in Indonesian forests will be an asset
• Experience of using SPSS software in quantitative data analysis
• Exposure to anthropological research methods such as ethnography or participatory research methods will add more value

Relevant Competencies

• Strategic Thinking – Can identify a vision along with the plans that need to be implemented to meet the end goal. Evaluates situations, decisions, issues, etc. in the short, medium and longer-term.
• Analytical Thinking – Able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts, and to explore and evaluate them systematically. Able to identify causal relationships, and construct frameworks, for problem-solving and/or development.
• Decision Making – Is ready and able to take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the consequences of the decision made.
• Imagination / Creative Thinking – Is able to transform creative ideas/impulses into practical reality. Can look at existing situations and problems in novel ways and come up with creative solutions.
• Planning and Organisation – Is able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritises and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources requirements.
• Resilience – Can maintain personal effectiveness by managing own emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations. Can demonstrate an approach to work that is characterised by commitment, motivation and energy.
• Influencing and Persuading – Ability to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change.

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of responsibilities and duties.

The BBC is an equal opportunity employer

The role may involve working with groups of vulnerable children and adults. For the successful candidate, mandatory training will be provided on BBC Media Action’s safeguarding policy and staff code of conduct. A police background check may form part of the recruitment process. BBC Media Action operates a zero-tolerance policy concerning all forms of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people.