Position Title: Research Assistant

Reports to: Chair, Center for Population Health

Location: University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) Butaro campus with travel to Kigali, Rwanda

The Center for Population Health at UGHE   

The University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) is an initiative of Partners In Health (PIH), an internationally recognized non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. In over nearly three decades of operating alongside public sectors in countries around the world, PIH has developed a model to deliver high quality health care to some of the world’s most marginalized communities. We have recently established the Center for Population Health which hosts population health teaching, training, and research at UGHE. The center will be the main epicenter for population health research and teaching at UGHE and stimulates ongoing activities in this area.  The center will establish a Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in Butaro which generates much-needed evidence in disease surveillance, morbidity and mortality patterns, chronic disease research, nutrition and child health in Rwanda and the region.

Key Responsibilities   

1. Support and contribute to the establishment of the Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in rural Butaro covering >38,000 population.
2. Lead the recruitment of field data collectors and enumerators of all households in Butaro
3. Supervise field data collectors as they collector morbidity, mortality, birth, deaths and in-migration and out-migration data.
4. Lead community sensitization activities and community meetings in the study surveillance area.
5. Work closely with the community health and social medicine department at UGHE to design strong community engagement activities.
6. Work closely with the community engagement team at UGHE to design and develop a population health program stimulated by the planned HDSS in Butaro
7. Coordinate stakeholders’ meetings with national and international stakeholders.
8. Coordinator the Center for Population Health activities including administrative, hiring process, and finance activities.
9. Contribute to the development of study protocol and data collection tools.
10. Coordinate the submission of study protocol to the relevant ethics committee.
11. Conduct quantitative data collection at designated data collection sites and as directed by the project PIs, including data entry and data quality assurance.
12. Conduct qualitative data at designated data collection sites including, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, translation, transcription, desk reviews and contribute to study and HDSS activities.
13. Supervise data entry and perform data cleaning of HDSS program.
14. Work closely with the PIs and the Center for Population Health members to ensure teams’ ability to meet contractual requirements, identify gaps and create plans to address them, and provide ongoing support to teams.
15. Support writing project deliverables such as reports.
16. Preparing PowerPoint slides, report and poster presentations as required
17. Conduct literature searches and reviews and support with ethics review submissions.
18. Any other tasks as designated by the supervisor.

Qualifications   

1. MSc in Public Health or Global Health Delivery, or MSc in other health related program
2. Demonstrate training in research methods, data collection, and research experience of minimum 2 years.
3. Familiarity and practical knowledge and experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection from patients and community, and data quality assurance
4. Experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection tools and survey methods.
5. Knowledge of the Rwandan health system
6. Fluency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive
7. Ability to manage and prioritize project related tasks with high attention to detail.
8. Ability to work under pressure, meet tight deadlines, and manage competing priorities.
9. Evidence of excellent interpersonal skills, including ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
10. Evidence of good organizational skills, including effective project management; experience with community engagement preferred.
11. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Kinyarwanda required.