Democracy Fellow, Impact Evaluation and Research , Washington, DC
Democracy Fellow, Impact Evaluation and Research
Washington, DC
Introduction
The Institute of International Education (IIE) seeks applications from qualified individuals interested in a renewable two-year appointment as a Democracy Fellow for Impact Evaluation and Research to work at USAID’s Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG Center). The Democracy Fellows and Grants Program (DFG) is managed for USAID by IIE. The Fellow will be hired as a full-time, salaried IIE employee, with benefits. The Democracy Fellow will contribute to the design of impact evaluations of USAID DRG projects throughout the developing world and assist the DRG Center in analyzing and applying empirical data and state-of-the-art academic knowledge to enable evidence based decision making in USAID programs. The Fellow will be an active participant in efforts to create communities of practice of USAID DRG experts in Washington and field missions and to establish the DRG Center as a learning organization. The Fellow is expected to author research papers, systematic reviews, and research reports on democracy, human rights, and governance foreign assistance. The Fellow also will be expected to contribute to the day-to-day work of the DRG Center, assisting USAID missions abroad as well as other bureaus within USAID Washington.
Purpose
The DRG Center was created in 2011, based on recommendations in the first-ever joint State Department – USAID Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. The DRG Center’s Learning Team is the locus of evaluation, learning, and research in the DRG sector across USAID.
With USAID providing over two billion US dollars per year in over 80 countries to grants and contracts to improve democracy, human rights, and governance, the need to invest in enhanced research and evaluation of USAID DRG projects is clear. The Learning Team applies rigorous research methods--including individual program evaluations, qualitative case studies, cross-national quantitative research, systematized expert interviews, democracy surveys, and systematic reviews--in DRG fields such as the rule of law, governance, civil society, and political processes to promote evidence based programming in DRG foreign assistance.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Democracy Fellow will be required to carry out some or all of the following tasks:
1. Represent the DRG Center on teams engaged in the design, implementation, analysis, and reporting of DRG impact evaluations. Contribute to systematic reviews of academic literature and findings of impact evaluations and field experiments in DRG. In addition to work done in Washington, the fellowship is likely to require travel to USAID field missions to provide hands-on support in designing evaluable DRG projects and rigorous impact evaluations using experimental or quasi-experimental designs.
2. Represent the DRG Center on teams engaged in the design, implementation, analysis, and reporting of USAID democracy surveys and program evaluations. Participate in the review committees on DRG learning activities and work with other DRG Center staff to develop rigorous research proposals and activity implementation plans.
3. Develop and implement education training modules (including training plans and resource materials) to be delivered to USAID DRG officers and other USG employees concerning state-of-the-art methods on impact evaluation and survey research.
4. Participate in a “community of practice” focused on a DRG subsectoral democracy support activity. Subsectors may include, for example, decentralization and local government improvement, civic education, legislative strengthening, or political party development assistance.
5. Disseminate results of research on USAID DRG programs to various and specific targeted audiences (e.g., USAID field officers, senior USAID leadership in Washington, relevant committees of the US Congress, academic communities, public media, etc.).
6. The Fellow may be called upon to undertake various other duties to support the DRG Center and Learning Team, such as coordinating activities and attending meetings with other units of USAID and other government agencies, attending Center staff meetings, briefing senior staff, attending seminars and providing technical support to USAID field missions, developing or consolidating responses to taskers and information requests, and supporting the overall learning goals of the DRG Center.
Qualifications and Skills
- US citizenship is required.
- A Ph.D. in political science or a graduate degree in social sciences, with demonstrated competence in experimental, non-experimental research designs and survey research, including statistical skills to analyze the results of field experiments and public opinion surveys using STATA or R is required.
- Substantive knowledge in at least one DRG assistance field such as: democratization, voter and civic education, civil society, electoral behavior, human rights, democratic accountability or governance in developing and/or transitional countries is required.
- Knowledge of questionnaire and survey design, web surveys, and sampling is required.
- Excellent English writing skills are required.
- Superior interpersonal skills and ability to work well on a team are required.
- Knowledge of donor assisted efforts to promote improvements in democracy, human rights, and/or governance in developing and transitional countries is desirable.
- Experience in developing or transitional countries, i.e., living and working in a developing country, either for field research, short-term assignments or long-term residential postings is desirable.
- Foreign language skills are desirable.
Supervision and Guidance
The Fellow will serve as a member of the Learning Team of the DRG Center and will be supervised on a day-to-day basis by the Learning Team Leader (or their Acting designate). The Fellow will be a full-time salaried employee of IIE and will report for administrative purposes to the DFG Director at IIE. The Fellow will participate in relevant working groups in other parts of USAID, as required. He or she will be expected to exercise the highest degree of individual initiative, resourcefulness, responsibility, and authority, consistent with USAID’s overall policy and procedural framework.
Location
Until the Fellow receives a facility access badge to work on-site at USAID, he or she will be based at IIE DC headquarters in Washington, DC. Upon receiving a facility access badge, the Fellow will be based at USAID headquarters in Washington, DC. Extensive international travel may be required.
Duration of the position
Initial appointment is for two years, with the possibility of renewal for up to four years. The second year, and any following years, is contingent upon available funding and acceptable performance.
Compensation
The salary for this fellowship will be competitive and commensurate with the candidate’s salary history and experience. The salary will not exceed $100,000/year.
The deadline for applications is 11:59 pm on June 10, 2013. Only complete applications will be considered.
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