Title: Senior Research Officer
Reports To: Research Manager
Based: Kathmandu, Nepal (with possible travel within Nepal)
Duration: Fixed Term, 6 months (subject to extension)
Grade: Grade 7

Summary of the Role:

BBC Media Action is recruiting a Senior Research Officer (SRO) to support overall research activities in the Nepal office. The role will be based in the BBC Media Action office in Kathmandu with travel throughout Nepal for research fieldwork. The key responsibilities of the SRO will include design and implementation of the research activities to inform and evaluate the Nepal office’s current projects, and budgeting and resource management of the specific research activity. The SRO is expected to have substantial experience in research project management and implementation.

Context:

Established in 1998, BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development charity. Working with media and communication to help reduce poverty and support people in claiming their rights, our aim is to inform, connect and empower people around the world. BBC Media Action reaches some 200 million people through local broadcast partners, BBC channels (especially the BBC World Service), online, mobile and print platforms and through interpersonal communication. We are currently delivering projects in 28 countries, including in Nepal. BBC Media Action has been working on communication for development projects in Nepal since 2007, giving us a well-developed understanding of Nepali audiences and significant experience of producing and evaluating media content on a range of issues to diverse target audiences.

Job Purpose

The Senior Research Officer is responsible for the overall design, implementation, and management of the research activities across BBC Media Action’s Nepal office. The research activities could include formative research, process monitoring, and evaluative research, and will sometimes be carried out entirely in-house and at other times with elements sub-contracted to a research / field agency. In such cases, this role will include working with project teams in project delivery including agency recruitment, research instrument design and piloting, qualitative and quantitative fieldwork, analysis, insights generation and writing a research report.

Main Duties

• Lead on the development of research plans, including research instruments and sampling design, commissioning of agencies for research, analysis and interpretation, reporting and dissemination of research findings on time, to budget and to high quality.
• Plan and monitor resource needs, including creation and input into research planning documents, project and programme plans and input into budget design for research elements of projects.
• Undertake, and support others to design and undertake data collection, analysis and reporting, ensuring that the interpretation supports development of media products.
• Collect data/ fieldwork/ moderating focus group discussion, monitor and control the quality of fieldwork/data collected, analyse and present them into standard format for further decision making.
• Analyse both qualitative and quantitative data and generate insights based on the results.
• Engage proactively and collaboratively with London based research staff and Nepal based finance, admin and production team, to ensure research supports wider organisational/programme objectives and is properly resourced and reported.
• Lead on organising and implementing a research review process for key research deliverables (proposals, reports) with project stakeholders.
• Share and/or disseminate research findings amongst the relevant internal and external audiences including producers and project managers, research firms, academic institutions, donors and NGOs.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Significant experience of conducting research and evaluation for development projects; social/market research; or media & communication research.
• Highly competent in qualitative and/or quantitative data analysis and reporting. Experience with using any of the following quantitative data analysis packages – SPSS and/or ohers.
• Ability to plan and design qualitative and/or quantitative research and design and manage mixed method research.
• Strong field work experience, especially in rural and geographically challenging areas. Ability to undertake or manage fieldwork and adapt methods to challenging and resource-constrained conditions.
• Experience of research project management in Nepal including budgeting and resource management.
• Strong written and spoken Nepali and English.
• Strong report writing and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical ideas using non-technical language to a wide range of audiences from journalists, production staff and development practitioners.
• Ability to plan and conduct work with minimal supervision.
• Good time management skills, with a track record of delivering research findings to deadline.
• Demonstrable understanding of cultural diversity and cross-cultural research within Nepal.
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills: ability to communicate and conduct business at all levels from grassroots to the highest levels of governments and media.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Previous experience in international development or media research.
• Previous research experience working with research agencies.
• Experienced with any of the following quantitative data analysis packages – SPSS and/or others.