Research Specialist

**Purpose of Role**:
With this vision and our talent value proposition in mind, Funda Wande is looking for the Research Specialist who’ll be enthusiastic to make a transformative impact through strategic leadership of the financial and operations functions by developing, maintaining and overseeing the implementation of financial and budget management strategic objectives, policies, fiscal, legal and regulatory procedures and systems, and ensuring efficient operations, IT and information management policies, frameworks and standards to ensure operational efficiency while working in close collaboration with the CEO, the Board and the leadership teams in setting and driving our organizational goas.

**Objectives of Role**:
**Research Project Management**
- Plan and scope research to deliver the required insights for Funda Wande priorities.
- Design and manage the research processes for all types of research including desktop, commissioned or ‘test and learn’ research (landscape reviews to inform business case development, learning reports, ecosystem research, case studies, evaluations).
- Project manage all research projects, including management of Funda Wande and external vendor outputs to deliver research insights.
- Conduct qualitative and quantitative research involving both internal and external parties.
- Review research quality, highlighting bottlenecks or discrepancies in data quality, and provide solutions to ensure that quality data is readily available for contextual insight reports.
- Identify, analyze, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets and reporting on Business Intelligence data.
- Collaborate with the Programmes Team to produce and publish learning briefs based on insights gained from Implementation.
- Ensure that risks associated with own area of work are identified and there are proper mitigation strategies/ plans in place.

**Data Management**
- Support the development of a Central Data Management System and ensure that all research and monitoring data is centrally stored and accessible to relevant Funda Wande teams and relevant other stakeholders.
- Participate in sessions of reflection of the use of communities of practice and collect insights gained from the qualitative and quantitative research projects.

**Research Reporting**
- Collaborate with the Head of R&D and Communications team on the consolidation, packaging, presentation and dissemination of research and evaluation reports to different stakeholders through appropriate channels and/or platforms.
- **Stakeholder Engagement**
Collaborate with internal stakeholders to determine research needs, achieve work objectives and to maintain relationships to ensure that research contributes to strategic priorities and delivers required outcomes.
- Vet and manage all external research and evaluation suppliers.
- Collaborate with internal stakeholders to host and deliver learning events and initiatives.

**Monitoring & Evaluation**
- Monitor and evaluate each research projects to drive improvements.
- Support the design and implementation of internal monitoring, evaluation & reporting framework.
- Engage and collaborate with our external evaluators throughout the lifespan of external evaluations for relevant interventions.

**Experience and Qualifications**:

- Alignment with Funda Wande’s Vision, Mission & Values.
- Master’s degree in education / economics / development economics / development studies.
- Minimum 5-7 years relevant work experience.
- Experience in Research planning and execution.
- Experience in Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data

**Competencies**:

- Budget and Financial Management
- Business Acumen
- Collaboration / Interpersonal Skills
- Analytical & Critical Thinking
- Emotional Intelligence
- Ethics, Integrity & Stewardship
- Adaptability, Agility & Resilience
- Respect & Empathy
- Innovation & Decision Making
- Communication & Information Management
- Presentation Skills