Job Description

 Job title Research Officer – Policy and Technical Support

Grade Grade 6

Location New Delhi

Reporting to Strategic Lead – Evidence, Policy and Innovation

Contract Duration Three year contract (extendable)

About WaterAid India: 

Jal Seva Charitable Foundation (JSCF) is registered in India as a not-for-profit company under Chapter 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. JSCF, is an associate member of the WaterAid federation and uses the brand name ‘WaterAid’ in India. 

WaterAid India seeks to improve the quality of life of 5,000,000 households – with a special emphasis on the vulnerable by 2029 through the provision of climate-resilient and sustainable WASH services via demonstration, institution strengthening, and the effective utilization of public resources. We work in rural and urban areas and seek to deepen our presence in states we operate in and to workin small towns. Thanks to our amazing supporters, we have reached millions of people with these three essentials – clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene – enabling communities to unlock their potential to break free from the cycle of poverty and to change lives for good.

We will not stop. Not until clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are a normal part of everyday life for everyone, everywhere. 

WaterAid India’s (WAI) country office is based in New Delhi with State Offices in Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Patna and Raipur. We currently have a presence in ten states in the country. 

WAI’s Programme focus in the next five years is on ensuring access to safe and assured drinking water in the households, as well as safely managed sanitation at both the household and habitation level. Further, we seek to ensure that anganwadis, schools and health care facilities have adequate and appropriate water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure. Finally, we seek to create integrated water and sanitation solutions in small towns. In all of these efforts, ensuring climate resilience of infrastructure and systems is critical. We seek to do this through demonstration and the provision of technical and knowledge support to governments at all levels who can facilitate adoption on scale. Implementation is primarily through our own field teams. Further details about WAI can be accessed at https://www.wateraid.org/in/ 

Overall Responsibilities:

Support the areas of research for WAI by coordinating and conducting research activities consistent with WAI quality standards.

Design and deliver opportunity based rapid action research initiatives in collaboration with policy and programme team.

Collaboration with members of programme teams in gathering evidence from our own programme efforts to support evidence creation in the form of documentation and research.

Support the Policy team in preparing research-based knowledge products in support of programme team to improve overall programme implementation.

Disseminate these knowledge products back to programme teams through structured engagement and subsequent adoption.

tracking relevant data/ reports produced by government, academic institutions or other international institutions with a bearing/relevance to our work and to summarise and make these available to programme and policy and technical team members.

Work with the Strategic Lead – Evidence, Policy and Innovation in continuously identifying areas that require support to programmes and accordingly design research tasks.  

Support evidence generation activities for the Policy and Technical Support (PTS) team, across thematic areas, in close collaboration with the technical experts.

Ensure that organizational planning processes incorporate evidence generation/research to inform policy and build the evidence base for the thematic areas of work.

Work with Program teams to jointly identify research needs (for policy and programmatic strengthening at the State and district level). 

Contribute to proposal development (focusing on any research/evidence-generation activities to be incorporated, and/or sharing relevant research to build the proposal).

Coordinate with Media and Communication team for appropriate use and positioning of evidence to inform campaigns and to disseminate research reports and briefs.

Actively support the preparation and presentation of quality abstracts and research papers from on research areas identified through programme coordination.

Support teams with appropriate and updated evidence for Government engagement at various levels, and for engagement with non-Government stakeholders.

Undertake the development of evidence briefs across thematic areas (drawing on WAI’s work, WA work, and external research) for policy advocacy at state and national levels.

Provide technical guidance on appropriate research methods to be deployed to undertake studies (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, systematic review).

Coordinate with external agencies and consultants to undertake research work across thematic areas and provide feedback to line manager to manage their work wherever necessary.

Ensure that the latest innovative approaches are integrated with ongoing research priorities.

Eligibilities and Requirements A.Education / Qualification

Master’s degree or equivalent qualification relevant to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), such as Public Health, Public Policy, Public Administration, Economics, Political Science, Environmental Sciences, anthropology, sociology, engineering, design, etc, with consistent engagement in research on WASH and related themes

B.Experience

Demonstrated experience doing research studies, especially action research.

Demonstrated experience of using research tools and appropriately applying them for research tasks as applicable.

Experience with working across teams to coordinate/support research studies.

At least 5 years of relevant research experience, with 2-3 years of intensive experience on being part of research teams and studies.

Demonstrated ability to write research-based knowledge products such as research reports, policy briefs, Issue briefs, research articles and analytical blogs. 

Skills, Aptitude and Attitude

Language: Fluency in speaking, writing, reading English and Hindi. Fluency in any of the other Indian languages (Telugu, Odia, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi) preferred.

Excellent computer and analytical skills.

Ability to work in a multi-level setting with some experience in organisation-wide engagement or working with large organisations.

Proactive in exploring and testing new research methods.

Ability to collaboratively work with team members to deliver research.

Demonstration of WaterAid values and principles.

JSCF, is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment.

All employment decisions are based on organizational needs and priorities, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, age, or sexual orientation. Women and the differently abled are encouraged to apply. 

All applications should be shared on waindiahr@wateraid.org

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