Research Advisor , Helen Keller International

Research Advisor
Arlington, VA 

Established in 1915 with Helen Keller as a founding trustee, Helen Keller International (HKI) works to save the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.  Headquartered in New York City, HKI offers programs in 21 countries in Africa and Asia as well as in the United States.  The organization combats the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition by establishing programs based on evidence and research.  Each year, our programs directly benefit millions of people, and children are a primary concern.  HKI programs address malnutrition, cataract, trachoma, onchocerciasis, refractive error and diabetic retinopathy.  HKI has over 600 staff and an annual budget of over $57 million.

Strengthening Partnerships, Results and Innovations in Nutrition (SPRING) is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide state-of-the-art technical support and facilitate country-led, regional, and global programs to improve the nutritional status of women and children. The SPRING implementation team consists of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (the Prime), Helen Keller International (HKI), The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Save the Children (SC), and The Manoff Group (TMG). SPRING builds on past USAID investments and its partner expertize to deliver high impact nutrition interventions, such as infant and young child feeding, control of micronutrient deficiencies, and maternal nutrition practices focusing on the first 1,000 days of life. SPRING is also leading efforts to strengthen the evidence base and to build on, clarify and strengthen understanding, application and use of the most promising nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions. In support of this, SPRING builds capacity and creates dialogue and evidence through exchange of ideas across stakeholders through a platform for Knowledge Management to share Agriculture/Nutrition related learning. SPRING, as designed, provides an opportunity for USAID bureaus and missions worldwide to invest and access its technical services and resources.

HKI is seeking a Research Advisor to join the SPRING team.

Scope of the Position

The Research Advisor (RA) will work with a range of SPRING staff to support the implementation of SPRING’s evidence-based and evidence building work in the area of agriculture and nutrition linkages and will lead the development and implementation of research related to agriculture-nutrition integration. The Research Advisor will ensure all agriculture and nutrition activities are designed using research and monitoring and evaluation methods appropriate to the activity to achieve the highest quality results. The RA will be supervised by the Senior Strategic Information (SI) Advisor, but will work closely with the Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) Director on support provided to agriculture and nutrition linkages activities.

Primary Responsibilities

• Design, manage and implement research activities to strengthen the use of research and evidence on the linkages between agriculture, economic growth and nutrition in policy and programming and advance an accelerated research-to-use process.
• Support the FSN Director and the SPRING Agriculture/Nutrition Team to develop SPRING’s agriculture and nutrition strategy;
• Coordinate with the Knowledge Management team to develop and present webinars in order to share research ideas, processes and findings.
• Provide technical assistance to USAID Missions on SPRING developed agriculture and nutrition tools and resources to inform county programming and help to identify appropriate interventions to increase the probability for nutritional outcomes from Feed the Future (FTF) investments.
• Collaborate with the Agriculture/Nutrition Advisor to develop and field test guidance documents (toolkit) for undertaking and applying agriculture and nutrition research activities.
• Support the SBCC team in identifying, designing, implementing, and reporting related research activities and findings to create an evidence base around specific Agriculture/Nutrition topics.
• Lead reviews and mapping exercises of existing and emerging evidence in fields/sectors relevant to agriculture and nutrition linkages such as water, sanitation, and hygiene and food safety to inform strategies that bridge agriculture, health and nutrition and identify practical actions that SPRING can contribute to across the global learning space.
• Support qualitative research components of the SPRING’s work providing support and leadership in the design, collection, analysis and reporting of qualitative results.
• Support specific components of SPRING’s overall research and evidence building agenda when needed in the forms of discussion, review of research instruments, data analysis, reporting and presentations.
• Represent SPRING in meetings and conferences. Participate in working groups, committees and/or task forces and contribute to identifying and developing new partnerships with local, national and global stakeholders in consultation with the FSN Director and in collaboration with the Senior SI Advisor.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Master’s degree and at least 7 years of experience working in the field of international health, nutrition or development required. PhD preferred.
• Experience working with or backstopping USAID-supported or international projects. Overseas developing country experience required; knowledge of Feed the Future, a plus.
• Demonstrated field expertise in qualitative research related to agriculture and nutrition linkages, including data collection and analysis using NVivo (preferred), or other qualitative data analysis software.
• Demonstrated field experience in monitoring and evaluation of agriculture and/or nutrition programs.
• Ability to work comfortably in the MS Office Suite applications, specifically MSWord, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Understanding of and experience with publishing research in peer-reviewed journals.
• Proven organizational skills.
• Ability to work calmly and professionally under pressure, independently and as a member of the team.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work successfully in a multi-cultural, team environment.
• All external applicants must be currently authorized to work in the U.S. 

To Apply

Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume tohkihr@hki.org noting the position title in the subject line.

(SPRING uses multiple partners to find candidates for a job.  Therefore, candidates may see several advertisements from different partners for the same position.  Applications submitted to any partner organization will be considered for the position.  Applicants should only apply to one partner organization.)