Policy and Training Interns : J-PAL South Asia

Apply by 5th May 24

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. The Policy, Training and Communications team at J-PAL South Asia at the Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR) seeks a cohort of interns to contribute to its mission of promoting evidence-informed policy-making. The team engages with governments and partner organizations to strengthen their capacities and works towards developing a culture of evidence-based policymaking.

Education: Master’s (desirable) / Bachelor’s
Start Date (Earliest): June 1, 2024 (Flexible)
Length of Commitment: 2 months (Minimum), can be extended
Deadline for applications: May 5, 2024 (Sunday)

The interns will support the team’s mandates of initiating new randomized evaluations, synthesizing and disseminating evidence, strengthening M&E systems and capacities and use of evidence (through CLEAR SA), capacity building, and supporting ongoing partnerships with governments, international organizations, philanthropic foundations and NGOs in India.

Candidates should have an understanding of impact evaluation methods (especially randomized evaluations), be passionate about social policy, and have excellent communication skills. The Policy and Training team is a close-knit team, so interns will get the opportunity to work with multiple team members. They will also get the opportunity to shadow senior staff in high-level external partner meetings, thus gaining insight into navigating research and policy stakeholders across sectors.

Key Responsibilities

Policy:

• Work closely with J-PAL SA’s policy sector and state partnership teams to support generating, disseminating, and synthesizing J-PAL’s evidence across our thematic sectors.
• Track changes in the Indian policy landscape across different J-PAL sectors and priority thematic areas for informing partner and state outreach for new project development, evidence-based scale-ups, and targeted evidence advisory.
• Support the policy team in creating and populating trackers to deepen our knowledge of state and central government stakeholders and development priorities
• Assist the team in identifying and promoting a portfolio of evidence-based programs that can be scaled up by Government partners in India
• Assist J-PAL SA’s policy team in preparing background notes, memos, updates, and presentations for J-PAL SA’s partnerships with state and central governments in India.
• Support the J-PAL SA policy team on any other tasks, as needed.

Training:

• Track changes in the South Asia policy and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) landscape, and create trackers and notes to inform government partnerships.
• Support the team on research and content development for various M&E capacity-building initiatives
• Support the training team in conducting literature review, questionnaire development, data collection, analysis, and report writing for the center’s ongoing M&E diagnostics exercises with governments to help develop customized evaluation capacity development plans
• Support the team in developing training materials, presentations, manuals, and knowledge products for different M&E topics and capacity-building initiatives
• Support on knowledge management activities for CLEAR South Asia and Global Evaluation Initiative
• Support the training team in coordinating events and capacity-building sessions.
• Support cross-vertical collaborations

Qualifications
Technical knowledge of impact evaluations, a keen eye for detail, strong communication and organizational skills, a passion for translating research into action, and an interest in international development/public policy make you an ideal candidate for the position of intern.

Education

• Has recently completed a Master’s (desirable) or Bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, public policy, public health, or any related field.
• Has familiarity with statistics and/or quantitative research methods.
• A technical understanding of impact evaluations is necessary to ensure that J-PAL’s findings are translated into general policy conclusions in a way that is both simple to follow but also accurate and undistorted.
• Strong interest in international development and public policy, South Asia development, and/or program evaluation as demonstrated by coursework and professional experience will also be preferred.
• Availability: Able to commit to a full-time intern role for two months (June 1 – July 31, however, the dates are flexible based on the candidate’s availability).

Communication:

• Detail-oriented
• Strong writing and presentation skills
• Understand how to translate technical academic work into policy lessons
• Comfortable with public speaking

Attitude:

• Proven ability to independently handle multiple diverse assignments simultaneously, successfully complete assigned tasks and meet deadlines while delivering high-quality outputs.
• Ability to work closely with multiple team members in a collaborative manner.
• Self-motivated, ability to problem solve and to work with minimal supervision.
• Willing to learn

How to Apply

The deadline for applications is May 5, 2024.

Given the volume of applications received, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.