Applications are currently ongoing for the UNICEF Visiting Research Fellowship for African Researchers, fully-funded to Florence, Italy. Interested students should see the details below.
UNICEF Visiting Research Fellowship Details and FAQs
UNICEF enjoys the unique privilege of maintaining a global research centre for children based at the nearly 600-year-old Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy. Established in 1419 by the influential Silkworkers Guild, Innocenti can be viewed as one of the earliest efforts by secular authorities to elevate the concerns of the most vulnerable children to the level of civic priority.
The Transfer Project is a multi-country research initiative on the impacts of cash transfer programs in sub-Saharan Africa (www.cpc.unc.edu\projects\transfer). Extensive data are collected to capture the effects of these transfer programs on a wide range of outcomes such as consumption and food security, household demographics,
health, education, productive activities, and adolescent safe transitions to adulthood.
The visiting fellow will work with Transfer Project researchers on a joint research project using data from impact evaluations from one or more of the following countries: Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ghana, and Lesotho.
The researcher will work on one research paper together with Transfer Project researchers and, where appropriate, the country evaluation team. The researcher will spend 2-3 weeks in residence with a senior Transfer Project researcher (at UNICEF in Florence, FAO in Rome, or at a university in the United States) to identify the paper topic, timeline and work plan, and to build the analysis data sets.
The researcher will then return to his/her home base and continue the collaboration long-distance. The final paper will be published in the OoR Working Paper Series and/or be submitted to an academic journal. The paper can serve as a dissertation chapter if agreed upon beforehand and if co-authorship is acceptable.
In addition, fellows will be encouraged to attend Transfer Project annual workshops (and supported financially for travel-related costs to do so) and identify opportunities to present joint work at academic conferences as appropriate.
UNICEF’s Office of Research (OoR) is currently seeking applications for an African researcher to engage in joint research with staff under the auspices of the Transfer Project.
When is the application deadline?
24th July 2018
Which countries are eligible for the scholarship?
African countries
In which host country will the awardees be studying?
Florence Italy, FAO in Rome Italy, or a university in the United States.
What is the category of this opportunity?
Research, Fellowship
How do I know if I’m eligible for the scholarship?
- UNICEF seek a junior researcher, either an advanced PhD student at the dissertation stage, or an early career academic (PhD earned within last 5 years) in economics, agricultural economics, demography, public health or public policy.
- The candidate must have strong microeconomic and quantitative analysis skills, be conversant in modern impact evaluation techniques, be fluent in STATA and able to communicate in the English language.
- While substantive field is open, we seek applicants whose interests lie in topics covered by the evaluation data that we have available—survey instruments can be found at the Transfer Project website under country pages.
What are the benefits of the award?
The OoR will pay for round-trip economy class travel to in residence research location and per diem to cover room and board, and will provide an honorarium of $5000
What is the duration of the programme?
2-3 weeks
How to Apply for the UNICEF Visiting Research Fellowship
Please send a writing sample, CV and detailed cover letter indicating how you qualify for the Fellowship, your experience in quantitative analysis of household survey data, and your likely area of interest informed by a review of Transfer Project topics and questionnaires, to:
florencerecruitment@unicef.org with ‘Transfer Project Africa Fellowship’ in the subject line and with cc to
tmpalermo@unicef.org. For more information please contact Dr. Tia Palermo (tmpalermo@unicef.org)).
Closing date for applications is July 24, 2018.