Job openings with Kickstart

Current Job Openings
Development Economist & Director of Impact Evaluation & Monitoring

Link to this job posting

Function Area: Impact Measurement, Evaluation and Monitoring
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Reporting to: CFO
Liaising with: Research Team from IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute)

KickStart International www.kickstart.org is an award winning non-profit with a mission to enable millions of people in Africa to escape poverty. It designs low-cost capital equipment and mass-markets it to very poor entrepreneurs who buy the equipment to start highly profitable small-scale businesses. KickStart’s best selling, human-powered, MoneyMaker irrigation pumps have already enabled more than 80,000 farmers to move from subsistence to commercial farming, grow high value fruits and vegetables throughout the year, and very substantially increase their family incomes. KickStart has programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Burkina Faso and has sales activities in, and plans to expand into, other countries in Africa.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

KickStart is a data and impacts driven organization that uses a systematic, statistically valid methodology to monitor the socio-economic impacts of its market based program.

We are looking to hire a Development Economist / Director of Impact Evaluation & Monitoring (DIEM) to lead:
1. A ground breaking Research Effort in Collaboration with IFPRI to measure the true impacts of KickStart’s MoneyMaker Pumps.

2. The further innovation, upgrading and expansion of KickStart’s impact measurement systems.

The primary responsibilities will be to:

• Work closely with, and coordinate KickStart’s collaboration with, IFPRI (www.ifpri.org) which KickStart is hiring (with funding from 3ie ( www.3ieimpact.org) and the Gates Foundation) to design and implement a detailed 3-Year Study on the Impacts of KickStart’s MoneyMaker Pumps.

• This exciting study will look at all aspects of the pump’s impacts including impacts on family income, nutrition and health, education, the position of women and children, and the environment. The case study countries will be Kenya and Tanzania.
• The study will pioneer new sampling methodologies that can be used to evaluate impacts of other similar “market-based” development solutions.
• The outcomes of the study will be co-authored articles by the DIEM and the IFPRI team published in peer-reviewed academic journals
• This position and study would make an ideal post-doctoral project, from which future research and publishing opportunities can be pursued.

In addition to implementing the study the Development Economist will:
• Help build the capacity of and manage KickStart’s Impact Monitoring Team
• Design, implement and manage an improved, state-of-the-art, on-going impact evaluation and monitoring system - including methods for the systematic analysis of the impact data.
• Lead the integration of the impact monitoring data collection and analysis with KickStart’s enterprise wide MIS
• Write KickStart impact reports and present the results on a regular basis to KickStart’s management, donors, and a diverse audience of stakeholders. Including presenting papers at academic workshops and conferences.
• Help design and manage an electronic data collection and analysis system

This is a unique opportunity. More and more development programs are using “market based” approaches to tackle sustainable economic development and the IFPRI study will help lead the way in how best to evaluate the impacts of such interventions. In addition this position provides an opportunity to develop sate-of-the-art and replicable methods for the on-going monitoring and evaluation of such programs.

EXPERIENCE/SKILLS

Our ideal candidate will have a doctorate in Development or Agricultural Economics or, at minimum, a Master’s degree in the same with 3-5 years of work experience. S/he will be hands-on and self-directed. The candidate will enjoy getting out in the field just as much as s/he appreciates the research and strategic aspects of the position.
The ideal candidate will have:
• Proven Leadership qualities and team management experience
• People and communications skills
• Strong knowledge of impact assessment methods and statistical and econometric techniques
• Experience in collecting and analyzing household survey data and managing teams of staff/enumerators to do the same
• Experience working with small holder farmers in developing countries, with special emphasis on Sub Saharan Africa
• Experience using Statistical, Survey and Database Software
• Experience using GIS and Mapping Software
• Fluency in English
• Willingness to live and work in Kenya with frequent travel to Mali and Tanzania

Other preferred skills and experiences include:

• Experience implementing impact monitoring and evaluation systems
• Experience working with complex household data sets from developing countries containing data on income, consumption, nutrition, education and health
• Experience with Living Standard Measuring Surveys from Sub Saharan Africa
• Field experience in collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative household data in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Experience with designing and implementing randomized trials in the relevant settings
• Experience with collecting and mapping GIS data and the use of hand-held electronic devices for data collection and input
• Authored peer reviewed papers in an economics journal
• Fluency in Kiswahili and/or French
For more information visit www.kickstart.org and e-mail your cover letter and resume/CV to diem@kickstart.org with “Dev Economist” in the subject line by July 15th, 2009 (or possibly later if the position is not yet filled).
Director, Business Improvement and Information Systems