Terms of Reference
Post title: Community Fieldworker –
Qualitative Research
Program:
Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE)
Reporting
to: Program Manager, RISE
Duty
Station: Suva, Fiji or Makassar, Indonesia
Duration: 3
years (with probation period of 3 months)
Number of
posts:1 posts
Background:
The Revitalising Informal
Settlements and their Environments (RISE) programme aims to demonstrate a new
approach to water and sanitation management in urban informal settlements. RISE
is an action-research programme utilizing a randomized control trial (RCT)
methodology involving 24 informal settlements (12 in each country).
The overall aim of RISE is ‘to improve the lives of men and women, boys and girls in
informal settlements through improvements to the environment and human health
by adopting a water sensitive cities
(WSC) approach to informal settlement upgrading. This
WSC approach will include improvements to local infrastructure designed to
protect against flooding and environmental pollution, allow harvesting or
recycling of rainwater/stormwater, and manage sewer and wastewater locally
using natural treatment processes such as constructed wetlands and other
biofilters. Consequently, the revitalization will alter the habitat available
for urban wildlife, including vectors of human diseases (e.g. rats and
mosquitoes).
As part of the RISE research programme we will undertake systematic
ethnographic research for the duration of the program to understand a range of
qualitative dimensions to complement the quantitative research component. These include the cultural backgrounds of the communities in the
informal settlements. How did they get to be there, how do people in the
communities generally tend to relate to each other in terms of support and
sharing of information, how do they generally understand health and
wellbeing, what do they do to actively stay healthy, what is available for
health seeking and what is the pattern of usage, what are the gender, age
norms, what is physical access to various facilities like for health, food,
work, community activities etc., how do they relate to authorities, what are
the community power dynamics, etc.
The expected outcome is to provide the evidence that a localized, water-sensitive
approach to upgrading informal settlements can deliver sustainable,
cost-effective improvements in the environment and human health in the
Asia-Pacific, paving the way for further deployments in the region and
globally.
Key responsibilities:
1) Undertake qualitative
research in 12 RISE sites with a focus on the intervention research components
·
Participate
in training on data collection methods.
·
Assist
to develop the RISE Makassar qualitative research work plan, ensuring
coordination with other Objectives.
·
Undertake
observation, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and
in-depth interviews across all sites.
·
Ensure
full documentation of the above activities in English and uploading to RISE
database.
·
Support
RISE researchers with analysis and writing as required.
2) Undertake qualitative research on the implementation research
components in Makassar
·
Data
collected here will be absolutely critical to the global reach of the findings
because it will provide the evidence and framework for scaling up across
different contexts.
·
Examine
program implementation outcomes (for the 'what' and 'how') to generate
a clear sense of the real life issues that hinder or support the
ultimate success or failure of the intervention, as well as the
success or failure of various parts of the intervention and methods
of implementation.
·
Coordinate
across the research team providing detailed documentation of regularly
conducted interviews and focus groups of the research team members over the
life of the study to know when and why decisions are made, keep an eye on the
various stakeholders, changes in policy contexts and other events, community
dynamics that facilitate or otherwise etc.
3) Support community fieldwork, documentation, reporting,
and any other duties required
·
Support the
team of community fieldworkers, providing surge capacity for community
engagement processes and sample collection activities.
·
Maintain
accurate records in the field and ensure traceability of all data and sample
collections
·
Provide
input to periodic reporting on activities to programme partners
Key result areas:
1. Timely achievement of all qualitative
research activities and outputs
2. Effective communication and
coordination with other community field workers and community
members to ensure proper understanding of and continued support for RISE
procedures and activities.
Required qualifications and experience:
At least a Bachelor degree or
equivalent in social science, anthropology, sociology, or related discipline. A high school certificate with at least five
years’ relevant experience can be accepted in lieu of a Bachelor degree.
Familiarity
and practical experience with:
(i)
Qualitative
research methods, such as focus groups, key informant interviews, and
participant observation.
(ii)
Community
development and participatory action research
(iii)
experience with
or strong interest in academic research
Interested applicants are requested to submit their CV and application to jane.wardani@gmail.com and matthew.french@monash.edu by 12 March 2018 at the latest.
Please ensure to put the post you apply for in the subject line of your e-mail.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
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