Company Profile

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy nonprofit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. IPA brings together researchers and decision-makers to design, rigorously evaluate, and refine these solutions and their applications, ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve the lives of the world’s poor. In recent decades, trillions of dollars have been spent on programs designed to reduce global poverty, but clear evidence on which programs succeed is rare, and when evidence does exist, decision-makers often do not know about it.

IPA exists to bring together leading researchers and these decision-makers to ensure that the evidence we create leads to tangible impact on the world. Since its founding in 2002, IPA has worked with over 575 leading academics to conduct over 650 evaluations in 51 countries. This research has informed hundreds of successful programs that now impact millions of individuals worldwide.

Job Description

• Reports to: Country Director
• Location: Accra, Ghana
• Length of Commitment: 2 years (renewable)
• Desired start date: As soon as possible
• Deadline to apply: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until position is filled

IPA Ghana seeks a Head of Policy to lead IPA Ghana’s policy impact strategy, focusing on creating and managing high impact policy opportunities for using evidence in decision-making. The Head of Policy will lead IPA’s engagement with top-level officials in Ghana, including Ministers and their direct reports and directors of development partner agencies. They will also be responsible for identifying and cultivating resources to achieve IPA’s mission in Ghana, especially in education and social protection. The Head of Policy will engage with local and global stakeholders to embed existing evidence in programs and policies and develop new research projects in alignment with Ghana’s goals and challenges in various sectors.

Reporting to the Country Director, with dotted line functional oversight from the global policy and communications team and substantial collaboration with Ghana research teams, this position will grow IPA’s policy outreach and impact work in Ghana, building and deepening relationships and identifying and creating evidence-to-impact opportunities.

We are looking for a minimum commitment period of two years for this position with a possibility for a longer-term position for exceptional candidates.

The Head of Policy will perform a variety of tasks related to managing day-to-day research activities, from planning to implementation, and monitoring quality. These include, but are not limited to:

Cultivate and Manage High Impact Policy Opportunities (50%)

• Lead Ghana in continuously identifying and prioritizing high impact policy opportunities for evidence to be used.
• Cultivate relationships with key local top-level decision-makers in 2-3 sectors (especially in education and social protection), particularly those with decision-making authority over identified evidence-to-impact opportunities.
• Launch high impact policy opportunities, including scale-up technical assistance, and either manage small-scale engagements personally with global support, or collaborate with global teams to raise funds for additional staff to realize these opportunities.
• Proactively identify and cultivate fundraising and policy-relevant business development opportunities in collaboration with global staff
• Manage IPA Ghana’s embedded labs program, which supports selected government ministries to collect and use data more effectively for decision making.
• Directly supervise a team of 3-5 to advance these high impact policy opportunities, paying particular attention to their professional growth. 

Lead Ghana in Policy Outreach Strategy (35%)

• Build expertise on the global and local evidence base in 1-2 sectors and cultivate relationships with key local stakeholders in those sectors.
• Work together with the global policy and communications team to lead and/or participate in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables. Support researchers and country management to participate.
• In collaboration with researchers and in support of the country director, represent IPA locally in policy conversations and at events.
• Support research management staff in executing the “Policy Impact Minimum Must Dos” and in identifying and stewarding high potential partner relationships, particularly with senior levels within government or large organizations.

Develop Research Projects with Policy Embeddedness (15%)

• Identify opportunities and cultivate relationships that lead to developing large-scale policy evaluations with key decision-makers. Support research teams and researchers in development and execution.
• Identify opportunities and cultivate relationships that lead to developing field replications to consolidate research on key policy-relevant research questions. Support research teams and researchers in development and execution.
• Together with the country director, act as lead steward to key partner relationships and support key research partner conversations.

Other
Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.
Maintain compliance with all company policies and procedures.

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field.
• 10 or more years of relevant experience, including at least 3 years of experience working closely with large NGOs and national government officials in Ghana.
• Knowledge of and demonstrated interest in the use of rigorous evidence for international development policy required.
• Expertise in one or more IPA Ghana priority sectors (education, financial inclusion, social protection, health, agriculture).
• Knowledge of government policy making processes, systems for nationwide programimplementation and development financing.
• Experience organizing events, such as conferences, workshops or round table discussions.
• Attention to nuance and advanced presentation skills for communicating policy lessons from academic papers in ways that policymakers understand. This requires clear, precise, nontechnical writing, and confident, effective spoken communication and presentation style.
• Proven ability to multitask and successfully complete projects on tight deadlines with little supervision.
• Willingness to work hard, be self-motivated, and learn will be essential for doing well in this position.
• Ability to supervise staff and manage projects independently.