Principal Investigator/Team Leader

Job Description

Industry: Consulting
City: CBD
State/Province: Harare
Country: Zimbabwe

International Development Group (IDG) works to reduce poverty around the world through sustainable, broad-based economic development. For 30 years, IDG has partnered with USAID and other international donors in more than 80 countries. Our areas of expertise include economic governance, private sector development, international trade, public financial management, monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

Job Description

IDG is recruiting for a Principal Investigator to conduct a Digital Ecosystem Country Assessment (DECA) for USAID/Zimbabwe. The DECA, a flagship initiative of the USAID Digital Strategy 2020-2024, informs the development, design, and implementation of USAID’s strategies, projects, and activities.

This role is open to Zimbabwean nationals. The project is expected to begin in early 2023 and will run for approximately 6 months.

The Principal Investigator will be a senior-level digital development professional with expert knowledge of topics spanning the three DECA pillars and with experience in project management and qualitative research.

Background:

The primary goal of the DECA is to support USAID/Zimbabwe to better understand Zimbabwe’s Digital Ecosystem and provide recommendations to 1) mainstream digital development into programming and 2) better understand, work with, and support the country’s digital ecosystem to meet critical Development Objectives.

A secondary goal of this assessment is to produce an externally available report for key stakeholders to help them better understand the country’s digital ecosystem and how they advance digital in their work. This task will be carried out through a combination of desk research and interviews focused around three pillars:

• Digital Infrastructure and Adoption
• Digital Society, Rights, and Governance
• Digital Economy

The assessment is approximately a five to six months engagement and includes three phases: 1) Desk Research and Planning, 2) Interviews, and 3) Analysis and Report Writing.

Responsibilities:

The Principal Investigator is responsible for the overall management of the DECA team and providing overall technical leadership throughout the DECA. He/she will be the lead author of all written deliverables ensuring effective communication and collaboration with the rest of the DECA team, the TAP EG team, and USAID/Zimbabwe.
The Principal Investigator will lead and manage internal research team check-ins; lead meetings with the USAID/Zimbabwe DECA team; and facilitate internal monthly learning meetings with the TAP EG Project Director and adapt as needed. In addition, the Principal Investigator will:

Desk Research and Planning Phase:

• Guide desk research, work with team to conduct desk research, lead identification of key themes and knowledge gaps
• Serve as lead author for one desk research brief
• Provide technical review and final sign-off of desk research briefs

Interview Phase:

• Develop and review content for DECA presentations
• Lead DECA presentations
• Provide guidance and input on interview guides
• Lead interviews

Analysis and Report Writing Phase:

• Lead post-interview synthesis session to identify trends
• Delegate report-writing responsibilities
• Serve as lead author for at least one DECA Pillar findings and recommendations section
• Provide final technical review and sign-off of report

Requirements

Principal Investigator Qualifications Include:

• Degree in ICT, economics, engineering, or related discipline
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in digital development technical areas, deep expertise in at least one DECA Pillar (Digital infrastructure and adoption; Digital society, rights, and governance; and Digital Economy. Cross-cutting areas across all three pillars include: inclusion, cyber-security, emerging technologies; and geopolitical positioning).
• Experience conducting qualitative research and analysis, including leading interviews
• Experience overseeing cross-sectoral research
• Project management skills
• Leadership experience
• Personable, curious, and flexible
• Excellent synthesis and writing skills
• Country experience in Zimbabwe

International Development Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran disability or genetic information or any other reason prohibited by law in employment.