Policy Manager: P-PAL Africa at University of Cape Town

• A Master’s Degree in Public Policy or Economics or another similar social science including graduate level courses in econometrics/statistics, microeconomics and development economics
•       A minimum of four years of relevant work experience
•       Demonstrated ability to analyse rigorous quantitative research
•       Advanced writing and oral presentation skills in English, particularly the ability to communicate technical research to policymakers in a non-technical manner
•       Demonstrated leadership and programme management experience, including hiring, training, and management of staff
•       Experience writing and managing budgets
•       Proven ability to handle multiple diverse assignments at one time, successfully complete assigned tasks and meet deadlines while conducting high-quality work
•       Ability and willingness to travel internationally frequently and flexibly to support policy outreach, scoping research and training events. Most travel will be in sub-Saharan Africa and in addition to between cities in South Africa.
•       Demonstrated ability to identify new, high-value opportunities and mobilise both internal and external stakeholders towards working together on the given objective.
•       Strong skills in Excel, Word and Powerpoint

Highly advantageous:

•       Experience organising, managing and presenting at events which discuss policy lessons
•       Experience doing policy / research work in a range of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa is strongly preferred
•       Experience leading policy outreach including strategically identifying and mobilizing appropriate policymakers, and developing and maintaining these relationships
•       Experience with randomised evaluations, particularly field experience running randomised evaluations of social policies/programmes and policy experience interpreting and sharing policy lessons from randomised evaluations
•       Experience fundraising and writing fundraising proposals
•       Data analysis skills, particularly in Stata
•       French language ability

Responsibilities include:

•       Identify, design and support opportunities for rigorous, policy-relevant research generation. This includes working both with policymakers and researchers in the J-PAL network to promote the generation of new randomized evaluations which answer key questions for policymakers.
•       Identify policy priorities for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including a key focus on South Africa
•       Explore creative ways in which administrative data could be better used by policymakers to identify needs, improve implementation and identify policy priority evidence matches.
•       Match policy priorities with evidence, forge partnerships, share policy lessons and design strategies to apply policy lessons of effective interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. This work includes maintaining expertise and command of the policy lessons generated by randomised evaluations across the J-PAL sectors as well as deep, careful analysis of local contexts and sectors.
•       Work with research team and J-PAL initiatives to support building local researcher capacity, including the use of the Data, Economics and Development Policy Micromasters
•       Support the implementation of effective policy training events through contributing to design, presentations and relationship building with key stakeholders
•       Support recruitment and training of new staff, performance management and development
•       Track and manage policy budgets
•       Fundraise as necessary to support new projects/ programmes and new policy outreach activities