Catholic Relief Services is seeking a Senior Technical Advisor-Research and Learning for Vulnerable Children and Child Protection, 4Children located in Baltimore, MD, USA. The deadline has been extended to 27 March 2016.
Initiated in September 2014, 4Children is a USAID-funded consortium of organizations led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with partners IntraHealth, Maestral, Pact, Plan and Westat. The project aims in part to strengthen and build the evidence base for effective Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programming through research and evaluation. Working with a team of leading experts in child protection and OVC, the project will design and implement assessments, evaluations and other special studies of new and ongoing projects and portfolios.
Globally, there is very limited, if growing, evidence in low and middle income countries that addresses the causes of child separation, effective mechanisms to prevent and respond to risks and vulnerabilities that lead to such separation, and the contribution of family support interventions in improving child wellbeing outcomes as well as poverty reduction. In an effort to narrow this evidence gap, with dedicated funding from the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF), 4Children includes an applied research project called Keeping Children in Healthy and Protective Families (KCHPF), which focuses on strengthening family care among households where there is a high risk of children separating or where children can be reintegrated after having been placed in residential care. The KCHPF research may include, depending on country context, family support interventions around household economic strengthening, positive parenting and psychosocial support, delivered under the oversight of trained local social service workforce members, who will also provide and monitor referrals that facilitate the access of families and children to other relevant services, such as early childhood development, basic education and health. 4Children will implement these interventions, accompanied by a robust research component, in Cambodia, Rwanda and Uganda between 2015 and 2019.
Qualifications:
- PhD in public health, social sciences or related area preferred. Master-level degree in public health, epidemiology, biostatistics, demography, social sciences or related field;
- Five years’ experience working in research and monitoring and evaluation in multiple regions of the world preferred;
- Proven experience in developing/supporting operational research with vulnerable children and families. Experience in designing and/or leading qualitative research with these populations is highly desirable;
- Strong quantitative and analytical skills with an ability to communicate technical information clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical colleagues both orally and in written formats;
- Proven management skills in coordinating project teams and/or consultants in operational research implementation and reporting;
- Demonstrated expertise with Microsoft Office package applications and data analysis software for quantitative and qualitative data analysis e.g., Epi Info, Stata, SPSS, NVivo, or similar packages;
- Track record of publication in peer reviewed journals.
- ALL APPLICANTS MUST BE LEGALLY AUTHORIZED TO WORK IN THE U.S. AT THE TIME OF APPLICATION.