Research Coordinator (STRETCH-South west) – War Child Holland (WCH)
Job Title: Research Coordinator (STRETCH-South west)
Organisation: War Child Holland (WCH)
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Reports to: Programme Manager with Functional accountability to Researcher for STRETCH in Amsterdam.
Salary Range Between: V Monthly UGX Gross (4,190,416 to 6,502,809).
About US:
War Child Holland (WCH) is an independent and impartial international non-governmental organization, with programme offices in fourteen countries, investing in a peaceful future for children and young people affected by armed conflict. We strive to empower children and young people while enabling adults to bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of conflict affected children and young people. In the WCH strategy 2016 – 2025, WCH’s Research and Development department (R&D) is responsible for the rigorous development and evaluation of a holistic, multi-level and interconnected care system with interventions focused on child protection, education and psychosocial support and supportive approaches enabling accessibility and quality. WCH envisions evolving towards a globally renowned and recognised expert organisation in the field of psychosocial well-being and resilience of children and youth affected by conflict, where the evidence-based interventions of the care system are vertically and horizontally scaled, implemented beyond WCH.
WCH has been working in Uganda since 2004 to support children affected by LRA conflict. As the situation stabilized, WCH intended to close down its operations in 2016. While preparation for closing down were ongoing, the conflict in RSS escalated in July 2016 resulting in a high influx of refugees into Uganda. WCH assessed the refugee situation in November 2016 and decided to start intervention for the refugee response in 2017. WCH implement projects in the area of mental health and psychosocial support, education and child protection in the West Nile and South West of the country, and currently operates with one coordination office in Kampala and five field offices in the West Nile and South West. This will be the first research project conducted from WCH Uganda office.
Project background
The intervention is a stigma reduction approach called STRETCH. The intervention framework of STRETCH is developed based on literature research and informed by field research in DR Congo in 2018 and Lebanon in 2019. While existing stigma reduction interventions mostly focus on single stigmas such as HIV/AIDS or mental illness, STRETCH as a common stigma reduction approach intended to be applicable to various stigmas, is based on the presumption that underlying stigma drivers are universally comparable and can be tackled through driver-specific strategies. STRETCH consists of four phases in which contextual data is gathered and analysed, and existing community actors of change play an active role in adapting and implementing the strategies. Children are a direct and indirect target group.
A feasibility study will be conducted from end 2019 to end 2021, implying a mixed-methods study, with emphasis on qualitative data. The aim of this feasibility study is to investigate the applicability, practicality and acceptability of the approach, looking into its potential to positively impact the populations subject to stigma. Specific attention will be given to potential negative consequences. Data will be collected to understand which changes need to be made prior to further testing (piloting and evaluation). The actual implementation of the feasibility study will take approximately 9 to 12 months, with preparation beforehand and analysis, publication, dissemination and approach adaptation afterwards.
KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- The main role is the coordination of all aspects of implementation of research activities. Depending on the research, s/he will work in close collaboration with the Researcher STRETCH, based in Amsterdam with frequent travel to Uganda. Other direct contacts are the War Child Uganda staff, local partners (TPO-Uganda for STRETCH), local (academic) contributors and local communities. The RCs will also be part of the global R&D team.
The RC has 7 areas of responsibility, in collaboration with the researcher for STRETCH:
- HR Function: Recruitment, selection, training of, and coordinating/managing a local research team, including independent assessors and data entry assistants, in research methods and ethics, amongst others;
- Research implementation: Supervision and coordination of the tasks of the local research team including planning, logistics and transport, budget management, refresher training where required, data management (quantitative and/or qualitative), monitoring of progress and regular reporting to relevant stakeholders, and proactive problem-solving on barriers;
- Ethics: Ethical research implementation, including managing data collection, reporting and appropriately addressing adverse events triggered by research or the intervention;
- Analysis: Contribution to data analysis through support to data entry, cleaning, coding etc;
- Dissemination: Contribution to a dissemination strategy of the findings to the research participants and other stakeholders; ‘opportunity to join as a co-author on scientific outputs, including journal articles’;
- Representation: Represents WCH at local level i.e. government institutions, working groups, and coordination meetings.
- Other tasks that are identified to benefit proper research implementation and advance the WCH research agenda.
- Reporting
The contract is with the WCH Uganda office, and the RC will be line-managed by the Programme Manager of War Child Uganda. Functional management is done by the Researcher STRETCH based in Amsterdam.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- At least Masters level degree in relevant field (e.g. Psychology, Social Work, Nursing, Education, Public Health, Social Sciences)
- At least 3 years’ experience in conducting qualitative field-based research with human research participants in a relevant field (e.g. psychosocial support or child protection)
- Experience in the supervision and training of research assistants
- Excellent communication skills in English (oral and written)
- Excellent communication skills in local language/s of South West; French, Kiswahili, Runyabwisha
- Ability to operate independently with remote supervision, as well as strong ability to work in a team
- Ability to work in Kampala and frequent travel to South West Open-minded, eye for detail, demonstrated strong interpersonal skills and coordination skills.
- Ability to work with qualitative data analysis software
- Existing relationship/liaison with a national university or experience collaborating with local research institutes is desirable
How to apply:
Interested and qualified candidates are invited to apply online at the link below.
Make sure to upload your English CV and motivation letter. WCH is an equal opportunity employer.
NB: Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for interviews.
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The safety of children is essential to War Child. War Child does not tolerate or accept any form of abuse. This subject is addressed in our recruitment and selection procedures.
Deadline: 3rd November 2019