Company Profile

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a United States-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering, and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. IPA designs, rigorously evaluate and refines these solutions and their applications together with decision-makers to ensure that the evidence created is used to  improve opportunities for the world’s poor.

Job Description

Senior Policy and Implementation Associate - Job Code: SPIA-EDU-622017

Position summary
IPA Ghana seeks a Senior Policy and Implementation Associate who will coordinate policy work and implementation activities on a portfolio of education projects in Ghana. In addition to support on general stakeholder outreach in the education sector, he/she will be responsible for the coordination of implementation aspects of the Strengthening Teacher Accountabilities to Reach All Students (STARS) study. The study’s interventions will be implemented in collaboration with government and other partners. The role involves significant supervision of implementation activities and policy engagements with the current partners, results dissemination, scale-Up efforts and the promotion of IPA’s brand and visibility in the education sector.

This position will be based in Accra, Greater Accra Region, and will involve some travel to various regions of Ghana.

Responsibilities
The Senior Policy and Implementation Associate will report to the Senior Policy and Implementation Manager in the Accra Office. He/she will have a diverse set of responsibilities in the following areas:

Policy Coordination

• Take part in IPA’s stakeholder engagement in the education sector
• Contribute to the planning of potential scale up initiatives and follow-on research, building on the evidence generated and lessons learnt on IPA’s projects
• Follow public debates and discourse on national education issues and maintain a calendar of relevant events in the education sector for the purposes of bringing IPA research in education to the fore
• Support in planning, development, delivery of external communication activities (e.g. newsletters, media reports, project information briefs, blogs)
• Support in organizing workshops, meetings and conferences for IPA and provide related activity reports
• Coordinate project internal and external communications (e.g. updates to management and Principal Investigators, newsletters, donor reports,)
• Provide support to other teams within the organization regarding their stakeholder engagement strategy
• Perform other related duties as assigned by Supervisor

Project Implementation

• Plan and organize implementation of education related projects implemented in partnership with government partners 
• Develop training materials that meet the requirements of relevant education project implementation activities
• Effectively manage field staff working on the implementation of education projects
• Establish M&E systems or method for gathering feedback from field activities
• Compile periodic reports to capture information on the implementation of education projects
• Monitor and track progress, make adjustments as necessary to ensure the successful implementation of education projects
• Track and Monitor project budget, cash flow projections, and budget variance analysis to senior management on a monthly basis
• Ensure that the project deliverables are on time, within budget, following protocols, and at the required level of quality

Finance Management

• Contribute to the management of project grants and overall finances
• Manage donor reporting for relevant project grants

Employment period: 15 months, with the possibility of extension/renewal based on performance and need

Proposed start date:  immediately

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s degree in Education, Humanities, Social Science or relevant discipline; Bachelor holders may be considered based on experience;
• Ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the education sector in Ghana;
• Ability to develop educational materials, along with strong training and facilitations skills;
• Experience with project management;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including ability to effectively communicate with senior officials in government and other partner organizations;
• Ability to work independently and to carry out assignments to completion;
• Strong interest in learning and ability to grasps new concepts quickly;
• Excellent management and organizational skills;
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint; Proficiency with Publisher and Photoshop or other graphics editors is desirable;
• Understanding of research and RCTs is a plus.