Program Description

IMA World Health in partnership with the Partnership for Nutrition in Tanzania (PANITA) and Development Media International (DMI) is implementing a five year program (from 2015 to 2019/2020) for Addressing Stunting in Tanzania Early (ASTUTE), to improve early childhood development and reduce the prevalence of stunting (low height for age) among Tanzanian children under 5 years old with focus on the first 1,000 days of life from conception. ASTUTE aims to operationalize Tanzania’s National Nutrition Strategy at scale by reaching three million mothers and preventing stunting in 50,000 children in 5 regions named Mwanza, Kagera, Kigoma, Geita and Shinyanga.

In addition, IMA is partnering with Tanzania Food and Nutrition Center (TFNC) and Cornell University to implement operations research to assess the quality of ASTUTE interventions. ASTUTE relies on community health workers (CHWs) to implement a significant portion of community-based programming, which includes negotiation of behavior on recommended practices through a home visit model. This research will assess 1) what factors affect implementation and quality of CHW delivery of interventions, including CHW success in reaching and targeting priority families and perceptions of the home visit messaging. In addition, this research will also 2) examine household dynamics such as decision-making which may affect attitudes and practices of recommended behaviors. The ASTUTE program is looking for a team of male and female qualitative interviewers who will be based in rural areas of the Kagera and Shinyanga regions. The position is initially for 4 months, with the potential to extend another 4 months. Females are encouraged to apply.

Position Summary

Qualitative interviewers will work closely with and report to the Research Supervisors and Research Coordinator. They will be responsible for interviewing community members on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, gender relations, resource allocation, and decision-making within the household. The will also be responsible for interviewing Community Health Workers (CHWs) and CHW supervisors on their perceptions of the ASTUTE programming. The interviewers are expected to accomplish the following duties.

Responsibilities

1. Primary qualitative data collection

• Attend and actively participate in the training sessions
• Pretest interviewing/pile sorting questions with community members
• Review/compare English and Kiswahili data collection tools and check for discrepancies
• Meet village level officers/workers and collect village/community level information
• Conduct informed consent procedures with all eligible applicants
• Conduct face-to-face household interviews and pile sorts (a qualitative research technique), spending up to 10 consecutive weeks in the field
• Conduct face-to-face interviews with CHWs and CHW Supervisors
• Assist in arranging the logistics required for conducting interviews
• Take detailed notes during data collection and record interviews where appropriate to develop full and accurate notes and documentation
• Transcribe full recordings of interviews
• Review all transcripts against recordings to ensure accuracy and completeness
• Assist the Research Supervisors/Research Coordinator in field travel plan and logistics
• Participate in data collection/management briefings
• Other field research tasks, as needed (may be needed to conduct household surveys on foot in multiple rural and town communities using electronic tablets)

2. Data management

• Adhere to the timeline for data collection/data transcription developed by the Research Supervisors and Research Coordinator
• Maintain records of interview appointment dates, completion, re-scheduling, etc.

Required Qualifications

• Tanzanian national
• Excellent Swahili and English communication skills, including written English skills.
• Cultural understanding and nuances in Tanzanian Kiswahili and English
• Willing and motivated to travel, stay and work in rural areas with limited access to modern facilities
• University degree with substantial previous experience in qualitative data collection, particularly conducting in-depth interviews (1-2 years)
• Able to meaningfully relate, interact and build rapport with study participants
• Substantial experience in translation from Kiswahili to English
• Excellent typing skills and basic computer skills in Microsoft Word
• Willingness to work in a team
• Be able to travel and live in rural areas for up to 4 months
• Highly motivated and energetic with the ability to commit to long days walking to visit homes and conduct interviews in the field sites
• Able to work independently with minimal supervision while maintaining great attention to data quality, documentation, and management.
• Sensitive towards other local cultures, religions, and beliefs/norms different than their own
• Familiarity with nutrition, infant and child health, and gender issues
• Be in good health and have a good sense of humor
• Honesty, good communication skills, able to build trust with community members and maintain confidentiality; ability to interview community members on sensitive topics
• Willingness to learn and explore new experiences

Preferred qualifications

• Either from or familiar with the study regions( Kagera and Shinyanga)
• University or master’s degree in social sciences(e.g. Nutrition, community development, public health)
• Substantial experience conducting in-depth interviews or with experience with other qualitative research (e.g. focus group discussions)
• Previous experience in transcription from audio to written text
• Nutrition and/or health background

How to apply;

Applications should be addressed to the 
Human Resource Department of the IMA World Health; 
P.O. BOX 9260, 
Dar-es-Salaam; 

Applications should include your updated CV with three contactable professional referees, copies of certificates and detailed cover letter on how your experience matches the post. Applications which do not include all of these details will not be considered.

Note: The closing date for this application is Friday**- 14th September, 2018**. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organization. Selected candidates will be subjected to the Training for two weeks, before the last selection for the job offer