Job Announcement

Research and Documentation Officer

Hierarchical and organizational links:

Project: Child Labour-Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA)

Background:

CLARISSA is a consortium partnership programme led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and implemented in partnership with Terre des hommes, Child Hope UK and Consortium for Street Children to generate a strong evidence base on, and innovative solutions to, the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) in Bangladesh and Nepal. The programme focuses on surfacing key drivers of the worst forms of child labour and developing interventions to counteract them. The primary beneficiaries of the programme are children in the worst forms of child labour and those who are vulnerable to being drawn into it. The families of these children will benefit from greater resilience to shocks, better options for their children’s safe and healthy future and less intra-family stress and conflict.

PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH including CHILDREN’S RESEARCH GROUPS will form a core programme approach. The action research process will generate evidence-based activities and innovations and pilots aimed at changing the realities and agency of child labourers and the development and scale up of child focused strategies.  

A Child Centred Programme:
Children’s agency is at the centre of this programme: The programme supports children to collect child-focused evidence and will generate child-focused and child-identified solutions. It undertakes a Child Rights approach with a strong emphasis on safeguarding. All programme actions take into account and respects the right of the child, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Action Research:
The core driver of innovation in this programme is Participatory and Systemic Action Research. 

Action research is a programming modality which combines evidence gathering and learning from action. It is designed to enable diverse groups to meet over a period of time to consider evidence and generate theories of change about interventions; plan and programme innovative solutions; test the solutions in real time, and then evaluate them. In this way action research groups act as engines of new innovation. These cycles of action and reflection continue until a robust model of action is developed, trialed and can be scaled. The programme will link multiple and parallel action research groups to form a sophisticated architecture for adaptive learning and management (systemic action research) and will ensure that children are central to this process. Activities of action research groups will typically be oriented towards self-help and mutual aid activities but will also contribute to the development of local institutional solutions (including those of local NGO’s/ employers etc.).

A typical action research process involves multiple meetings over a period of between a year and eighteen months. It is necessary to go through the following phases in building action research groups:

• Contextual research to identify the drivers of child labour and consequently the different foci of action research groups;
• A series of trust building meetings (which can be accompanied by visits to households, street sites and or work sites); 
• Local evidence gathering around the specific issues being explored; 
• Generation of Theories of Change and Actions, and potential indicators of success;
• Implementation of actions and monitoring and assessment of intervention outcomes;
• Refining actions and developing new actions based on the assessment of the early phase actions;
• Bringing significant successes into cross action research learning groups with a view to scaling.

Overall purpose of the role:
The Research and Documentation Officer will be primarily responsible to oversee and support the CLARISSA Participatory Action Research (PAR) programs where her/his initial role will be to engage and support the Action Research groups (ARG)s and Child Research Group (CRG) documentation process. She or he will be responsible for supporting the PAR component of CLARISSA. She or he will also contribute to the formation and facilitation of the group meetings alongside the participatory facilitators as needed.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Documentation of Action Research groups and other participatory processes
• Document Process design and facilitation of Children’s Research Group
• Document thematic research on spatial mapping and Reality Check Analysis (RCA) type shadowing
• Take detailed notes of all participatory processes and tasks of group meetings.
• Take detailed notes of CLARISSA meetings and workshops as well as maintain liaison for meetings with different organizations, for example ILO, UNICEF, DFiD etc.
• Write up notes into a formal record of each meeting
• Liaise with participatory facilitators at the end of each meeting to ensure that there are no gaps in the notes
• Write up a detailed record of each meeting including but not exclusively – detail of participants; summary of evidence brought to the meeting and analysis; key lines of argumentation; important quotes – captured verbatim, key decisions taken
• Ensure that photographs are taken of flip charts, social maps, and any other relevant data which is not recorded in books or writing paper.
• Ensure that data is stored and protected according to IDS and CLARISSA protocols
• Ensure that Participatory Facilitators, Country Coordinators, MEL staff and other relevant stakeholders have timely access to the write ups.
• Ensure that written consents to both notes taken and photographs taken are obtained (and consent filed from all participants.)
• Where appropriate support Country Coordinators and other team members in carrying out interviews and or surveys. Take note of, and report, any ethical or safeguarding concerns that arise from the work
• Undertake other duties that may be determined by his/her supervisor

Education and training: Masters in Sociology/ Anthropology/ Development Studies or similar field

Experience and skills:

• 2 to 3 years’ direct experience of documenting research activities
• Having excellent documentation skills with proven track record  
• Exposure of working with marginalized and disadvantaged communities, preferably in low-resource urban neighbourhoods
• Knowledge of safeguarding and risk assessment with vulnerable and marginal groups
• Fluency in spoken and written Bangla and English.

Knowledge:

Essential:

• Ability to write clearly and legibly
• Excellent listening skills, and be able to handle multiple requests while detailing document activity
• Ability to use word processing software
• Ability to use audio recording equipment
• Ability to write continuously for up to two hours at a time
• Awareness of data protection and ethics issues
• Ability to travel to all locations where processes are being carried out.
• Good manner and attitude towards community participants in general and children in particular
• Must be flexible, have the ability to multi-task and handle pressure and with discretion in a politically sensitive environment, with a minimum of comfort

Desirable:

• Some experience of working with children would be desirable
• Some experience of working in any Action Research process is desirable
• Some experience of working in urban slum context would be desirable

Personal attributes:

• Passion for the programmed approach e.g. participatory approach, child centeredness
• Interest in working with children in low resourced areas of Dhaka living in marginalised context
• Self-motivated, goal-oriented, flexible, and adaptive manners, enthusiastic, and entrepreneurial attitude
• Commitment to team and collaborative working
• Comfortable facilitating emergent processes, allowing outcomes to emerge through dialogue and action over time
• Non-judgemental and child-caring attitude.
• Willingness to accept new responsibilities as and when those are assigned by the line supervisor.
• Knowledge of the local contexts such as socio-cultural norms in which the child labour work will take place

Others:
Accept new responsibilities as and when those are assigned by the line supervisor.

The post holder is polite, respectful, honest, punctual (and respects deadlines), creative, pacifist, proactive, committed and – during office hours – non-political. S/he is in constant exchange with colleagues and supervisors, communicates problems and enriches discussions. S/he treats people of different religion, age, sex, and economic status appropriate and equally and actively ensures their wellbeing and raises his/her voice when required. S/he is willing to improve own capacities and is open for all topics Tdh is working on to actively contribute to a comprehensive programme implementation.

S/he uses Tdh equipment, vehicles and premises, internet and electricity economically and responsibly. S/he positively represents Tdh to beneficiaries, stake holders and the general public.  

Application process and deadline:
Application should include curriculum vitae and motivational letter addressed to the Country Representative, Terre des hommes Foundation with “RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION OFFICER” in the subject field.

A motivational letter with an updated CV should include current salary (if in employment) or last salary drawn, and expected salary, names of two former supervisors to serve as references with phone and email contact info, and earliest date of availability.

Only properly complete applications will be considered for short-listing. Short-listed applications will subsequently be called for written and interviews.

Candidates should apply only through  bgd.dhaka.recruitment@tdh.ch . The deadline is 31 May 2022 by 5.00 pm.

Women are highly encouraged to apply for this position. Tdh is an equal opportunity organization and recruitment procedure follows the Terre des hommes Child Protection Policy.