Project: Pushing Frontiers of Graduation: Building Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods in Urban India (SJY Urban)
Start Date (earliest): 01 June 2025
Length of Commitment: 12 Months (can be extended based on performance and availability)
Organization: J-PAL South Asia at IFMR
Language requirement: Hindi, English
Location: Patna, Bihar
Principal Investigators (PIs): Dr. Robin Burgess (LSE), Dr. Oriana Bandiera (LSE), Dr. Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay (KREA University) and Anton Heil (LSE).
About the Organization:
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) J-PAL was established in 2003 as a research center at the Economics Department at MIT. Since then, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL is propelled by a first-rate team dedicated to research, policy, training, and other vital work, supporting J-PAL's mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.
J-PAL South Asia, which is based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, analyses and disseminates research results and builds partnerships with policymakers to ensure that policy is driven by evidence, and that programs proven effective are scaled up. We have a growing number of partnerships in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Project Descriptions:
Urban poverty remains a significant issue in Bihar, where rapid urbanization and inadequate infrastructure have led to growing slum populations. Around 2.8 million people in Bihar’s cities face multidimensional poverty, with 1.4 million classified as severely poor (NITI Aayog 2023). Limited access to clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, and stable jobs affects low-income families, women, youth, and informal workers.
Globally, urbanization is accelerating, with Asia and Africa driving most of the growth. In many developing countries, urban expansion outpaces infrastructure development, deepening urban poverty. India exemplifies these challenges, with over 85% of its urban workforce in the informal sector, where poverty and inequality. Addressing these issues requires innovative solutions focused on the most vulnerable communities.
The Bihar Urban Graduation Program, a strategic initiative within the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) Urban program, is designed to address these critical issues. The program adopts a multifaceted approach to combat urban poverty by promoting sustainable livelihoods, enhancing financial inclusion, fostering social empowerment, and ensuring access to basic services. By addressing poverty from multiple dimensions, SJY Urban seeks to reduce economic vulnerability and increase resilience among the urban poor. SJY Urban prioritises women and youth, recognising their pivotal roles in achieving sustainable growth, particularly in urban settings. A focus on urban youth aligns with global calls for inclusive growth and the need to address the aspirations.
About the position:
J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research seeks qualified applicants for the position of Research Associate (RA). The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field management and research experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The RA will report to the Research Manager and work closely with the Principal Investigators (PIs).
The RA will be based out of Patna, and work out of the JEEViKA office. The RA will represent the research team on the ground and play a critical role to implement the research project. Further, the RA needs to be experienced and very comfortable in conducting fieldwork, desk analysis and literature reviews, and maintaining strong relationships with the partner organization (Government).
Key Responsibilities
Research Associates work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to:
• Designing survey instruments, conducting qualitative research/scoping exercise and refining study design
• Managing teams: Train and supervise both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, data entry operators and other field and office staff
• Travel to project sites to monitor and coordinate field activities for primary data collection during intervention monitoring
• Overseeing the implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research design in association with our partner organizations
• Ensuring that the project complies with IRB and JPAL data collection and security protocols
• Engaging with and managing relationships with stakeholders.
• Maintaining relationship with partner organizations at various levels as required in the project
• Coordinating with teams across different verticals within JPAL on a variety of operational tasks
• Supervising data collection and data-entry, and ensuring data quality and productivity
• Assisting with data cleaning, coding, preliminary data analysis, and preparation of documents and presentations for dissemination
• Assisting in the preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting as well as dissemination activities
• Maintain compliance with all J-PAL protocols and policies
• Reporting to RM and PI on all of the above-mentioned activities and any other work assigned
Desired Qualifications and Experience:
• A bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, education, public policy, international development, or other related fields is required. Master’s degree preferred.
• Relevant Experience- 1 year or more
• Experience of field work
• Prior experience in conducting evaluation assessments and qualitative studies (scoping exercise)
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations. Experience of working with Government stakeholders strongly preferred
• Willingness to travel
• Excellent management/ organizational skills and able to solve unexpected problems
• Knowledge of NVivo/ ATLAS.ti (preferred)
• Familiarity with RCTs
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
• Ability to deal with unstructured and dynamic environments
Note on Work Authorizations:
• Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.
Annually based
Bihar , India
Bihar , India
