Student Volunteer at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy nonprofit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. IPA brings together researchers and decision-makers to design, rigorously evaluate, and refine these solutions and their applications, ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve the lives of the world’s poor. In recent decades, trillions of dollars have been spent on programs designed to reduce global poverty, but clear evidence on which programs succeed is rare, and when evidence does exist, decision-makers often do not know about it. IPA exists to bring together leading researchers and these decision-makers to ensure that the evidence we create leads to tangible impact on the world. Since its founding in 2002, IPA has worked with over 600 leading academics to conduct over 900 evaluations in 52 countries. This research has informed hundreds of successful programs that now impact millions of individuals worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Developing robust sector literature reviews and notes through desk research and stakeholder interviews.
• Scoping new research topics, including possible field work and stakeholder meetings.
• Developing technical narratives and budgets for grant proposals.
• Supporting on the administrative and organizational functions of the PD team, including entering records into Salesforce, tracking the status of proposals, finding new funding opportunities, researching donors, taking notes at meetings, developing new tools/systems for a more efficient workflow.
• Meet with researchers and support in communication/scheduling.
• As interested/opportunities are available, experience field-based data collection, and develop skills in Stata and SurveyCTO.
• Attend all regular country office staff gatherings and trainings.

Qualifications 

• Prefer candidates who are currently completing a Master’s Degree in economics, international development, public policy, or other related fields; will consider strong candidates in their final year undergraduate programs with previous experience in policy work and proposal writing
• Takes initiative, resourceful, and detail-oriented, with excellent organizational skills
• Demonstrated ability to work independently
• Ability to cross-check one’s own work and respond to critical feedback
• Eager to learn, and gain experience in a fast-paced organization
• Familiar with randomized controlled trials