JOB TITLE: Research Officer
REPORTS TO: Research Manager, Kenya
BASE: Nairobi
DURATION: 12 months (with possible extension depending on performance and funding)
BBC Media Action
BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development charity. We use media and communications to help reduce poverty, address development goals, and support people to understand their rights. We do this through partnering with media, civil society, and others to produce creative programmes and other outputs which inform and engage audiences on key development issues. We also strengthen the media sector through building professional capacity and infrastructure of local media organisations in the countries in which we work.
Main Duties
- Under the supervision of the Research Manager, implement the project’s monitoring and evaluation activities. This will include designing research and tools, fieldwork coordination and logistics planning, data collection such as moderating focus groups and conducting in-depth interviews, data analysis and reporting
- Provide training, mentoring and oversight to media practitioners on conducting audience research and how to utilize research findings to design/improve media programming
- Co-develop projects’ theory of change and monitoring/evaluation frameworks in collaboration with the project team
- Contribute to periodic and end-of-project reports describing progress and impact of project activities
- Disseminate research findings internally and externally
- Communicate effectively to all key project stakeholders to ensure effective project communications and management
- Communicate effectively with the Research Manager
- Ensure that all research activities are designed with safeguarding in mind, and that research design documents and tools reflect this.
- Ensure that relevant consent forms are in place for research participants.
- Ensure that all recruitment of research staff and freelancers complies with relevant safeguarding standards.
- Ensure that all research staff and freelancers undergo relevant training in safeguarding and respect at work and have a briefing on the code of conduct before working with vulnerable people.
- Report any Safeguarding concerns immediately, either to the Country Director, or using the Whistleblowing Policy.
Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Experience of designing and managing qualitative research in support of practical outcomes.
- Strong qualitative data analysis skills
- Experience of undertaking qualitative fieldwork (including focus groups and in-depth interviews)
- Experience of adapting methods to challenging and resource-constrained conditions
- Strong report writing and presentation skills, communicating in non-technical language to a range of audiences such as media and development practitioners.
- Excellent track record of delivering research findings on time, and to a high standard.
- Ability to quality assure qualitative analysis and reporting.
- Strong time-management skills
- Fluent in written and spoken Swahili and English.
Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Understanding of development issues in Kenya
- Experience of conducting training in research methods to non-researchers
- Experience in research around resilience issues including climate change and adaptation.
- Experience working with media organisations in applying research
- Experience of conducting content analysis of media outputs/programmes
- Experience of using mobile phones/SMS to collect monitoring data
Relevant Competencies
- Strategic Thinking – Can identify a vision along with the plans that need to be implemented to meet the end goal. Evaluates situations, decisions, issues, etc. in the short, medium and longer-term.
- Analytical Thinking – Able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts, and to explore and evaluate them systematically. Able to identify causal relationships, and construct frameworks, for problem-solving and/or development.
- Decision Making – Is ready and able to take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the consequences of the decision made.
- Imagination / Creative Thinking – Is able to transform creative ideas/impulses into practical reality. Can look at existing situations and problems in novel ways and come up with creative solutions.
- Planning and Organisation – Is able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritises and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources requirements.
- Resilience – Can maintain personal effectiveness by managing own emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations. Can demonstrate an approach to work that is characterised by commitment, motivation and energy.
- Influencing and Persuading – Ability to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change.
- Communication – The ability to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information.
How to apply
Candidates must already have the right to work and live in Kenya.
Interested candidates should submit their resume and cover letter to recruitments@ke.bbcmediaaction.org by EOD Monday 25th March 2024, with reference ‘Research Officer.’