Technical Lead: Monitoring, Evaluation and Research

OFFICE OF AIDS AND TB RESEARCH

(CAPE TOWN OFFICE)

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) strives to improve the nation’s health and quality of life by funding and conducting relevant and leading health research. It further aims to promote equity, career development and progression.

TECHNICAL LEAD: MONITORING, EVALUATION AND RESEARCH

Duration: Two-year contract

Office of AIDS and TB research is designing and implementing a suite of social impact bonds that aims to: improve the contribution of private sector investors to innovative programmes in HIV and TB and other health areas that focus on outcomes, create a stronger link and feedback loops between research, knowledge management and policy review, contribute to the setting up of the policy and governance framework for further social impact bonds that will save government money in the future and create the channel from impact investing to important research and programmes in areas with potential for social impact.

This work is innovative and requires a Technical Lead: Monitoring, Evaluation and Research to lead the design and implementation of the monitoring and evaluation system of the social impact bonds, including development of study protocols, coordination of ethics and approval related processes, development of research tools and SOPs, data management, quality assurance of data, data management and security, data analysis and interpretation, and dissemination of findings. The generated data will be used to inform payments to social investors, develop prospectuses and proposals to generate income, contribute to policies, guidelines and legislation in South Africa and globally, and contribute to the inter(national) science system through publications and presentations.

This will require a good knowledge and understanding of HIV and TB epidemics and health more broadly in the South African and global context, a sound understanding of and experience in research (including research designs, data collection tools, methodologies, SOPs, ethics committee processes and approvals, data management and security, data analyses, writing of manuscripts for publication, etc.), knowledge of social impact bonds and how data findings are used to inform decisions and payments, an ability to work with the many stakeholders (government, private investors, NGO implementers, technical partners), ability to work with researchers who will assist with the design of the interventions, and support the work of the other technical leads who will focus on innovation in programming and financing and drive overall programme implementation. This is an unusual combination of skills.

As this is a changing growing environment this requires flexibility and adaptability in order to respond to the changing environment and new opportunities.

This post is available immediately and is based at the Cape Town office in Parow.

**Responsibilities**:

- Contribute to the design and implementation of the Social Impact Bonds, with a focus on all the components of the evaluation of the SIBs and collection, management, interpretation and reporting of data,
- Manage data system, ensuring data security and compliance with ethical standards, making changes to data capture, dashboards and user access permissions as needed
- Coordinate with service providers to ensure that data is fully and correctly captured, the database properly maintained and data flow adequate
- Coordinate and contribute to analysis of data to inform payment mechanisms, performance management and evaluations.
- Support the dissemination and popularization of, including writing and contributing to, SIB research and evaluation data
- Translate SIB intervention and evaluation findings to contribute to policy, guidelines or legislation through peer-reviewed articles, policy briefs, reports, etc.
- Disseminate and popularise SIB generated data through presentations at conferences and stakeholder meetings
- Support and contribute to the development of proposals and prospectuses for current and future SIBs
- Contribute to the management of and reporting to stakeholders.

Core Requirements:

- Relevant Master’s degree in Public Health, Social Science, Development or any other relevant field.
- At least 5 years’ experience in a related health or social systems field.
- At least 3 years’ experience in scientific research.
- Experience in the management of projects, staff and budgets, including the coordination of a multi-year programme of work.

Preferred Requirements:

- Experience with legal, financial and reporting requirements of large internationally funded projects.
- Knowledge of social impact bonds and the use of data to inform payment mechanisms. Five years (5) of M&E experience working on monitoring, evaluation and research, managing data intensive programs, and designing monitoring and evaluation methodologies and tools, with progressively increasing responsibility.
- Knowledge of M&E issues and indicator d