Department

Institute of Human Development (IHD)

Entity

Aga Khan University

Location

Nairobi, Kenya

Introduction

Chartered in 1983, Aga Khan University (AKU, http://www.aku.edu) is a private, autonomous, and self-governing international university, with 13 teaching sites in 6 countries over three continents. An integral part of the Aga Khan Development Network (www.akdn.org), AKU provides higher education in multiple health science and social science disciplines, carries out research pertinent primarily to low- and middle-income countries and operates 7 hospitals (soon 8) and over 325 outreach clinics, all at international standards. It has almost 2,500 students and 14,000 staff. The University is both a model of academic excellence and an agent of social change. As a leading international institution dedicated to excellence and change, AKU operates on the core principles of impact, quality, relevance, and access.

Job Summary

The Institute for Human Development (IHD) was established to advance knowledge about human development, focusing—particularly in its foundational years—on children, families, communities, and the institutions that support them within resource-poor regions of the world. The Institute is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge with direct relevance for policies, programmes, and practices that enhance life experiences at all stages of human development. IHD’s vision is to improve the quality of individual lives, strengthen families and communities, and contribute to the building of successful pluralistic societies by building capacity and driving innovation in research.

In East Africa, like many other low- and middle-income regions of the world, there is a shortage of highly skilled human development expert who can generate the evidence to advise policy and programming. To address this critical gap, IHD would like to invest in training the “next-generation” of researchers.  Through a hands-on, participatory apprenticeship model, the Institute will incubate a program of advanced research preparation at the post-doctoral level. We would like to build a sustainable, free-standing interdisciplinary programme to prepare post-doctoral fellows for academic positions. While each programme will be individualized to each post doc’s need we anticipate at least that in general each post-doc will

• Have a fulltime 2-year programme
• Be involved advanced training in grant writing, academic writing, and research methodology including advanced statistical analysis
• Have access to high quality research data
• Have access to mentors from within and outside AKU
• Have the possibility of going for a short term (3-6 months visit) to other institutions to gain relevant experience
• Deliver very specific scientific outputs including scientific publication, conference presentations, policy briefs
• Contribute to supervision and mentorship of a master fellow or junior research scientist.

These post-doctoral fellowships are funded through a generous gift from the Harold Armstrong Estate.

Responsibilities

• Lead and contribute to the implementation of an integrated ECD intervention and evaluation activities
• Contribute to proposal development, grant writing, and strategic planning
• Support the project and project team in stakeholder/community engagement and communication activities
• Lead with designing, planning, and supervising data collection activities
• Support with data management and analysis
• Contribute to scientific writing for publication and production of reports (donors, review boards etc)
• Support with scientific communication and engagement in different fora (conferences, technical meetings, and policy makers)
• Offer mentorship and training to project junior researchers/assistants
• Support with any other departmental activities when needed

• A PhD degree (or comparable research doctorate) in  behavioural, social and health sciences that contribute to the knowledge base on children’s development in the earliest years of life (defined here as birth to age 8 years). Some of these field include early childhood education, nutrition, psychology, public health, epidemiology, medical sociology, and medical anthropology among others.
• Track record of publication in  peer-reviewed journals
• Track record in designing and implementing high quality research studies
• Demonstrated strong interest and experience in the field of early childhood development.
• Competence in use of quantitative and/or qualitative statistical software.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili