Senior Field Research Associate - OneDay Health - Uganda

Organization: Princeton University 

Project Title: Evaluating an “Almost Free Hour” for Health Centers in Rural Uganda

Partners in the Project: OneDay Health

Professors Seema Jayachandran, Rebecca Dizon-Ross and Isabelle Cohen and predoc researcher Fiker Negash seek a qualified applicant for the position of Senior Research Associate based in Uganda. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field experience while undertaking cutting-edge development research. The SRA will work on-site in Gulu, with travel to other parts of the country, and will work very closely with the Principal Investigators.

Context 

Access to health care is a human right and improves health and increases income. While governments in low-income countries are making progress in expanding healthcare services in rural areas, many—especially those in the most remote areas—live so far from a government clinic that they effectively cannot access it. 

In Uganda for example, 5 million people live more than 5 kilometers from a government health clinic. The high transport and time costs to visit the government clinic are often prohibitive, so people forgo care or delay it until their condition becomes severe. Because of inaccessible quality care, they also turn to local “drug shops” (unlicensed pharmacies), which often misdiagnose and overprescribe. 

OneDay Health (ODH) is a non-profit that establishes nurse-led primary health centers in communities far from government health centers to provide high-quality, accessible healthcare for communities of 4,000-10,000 people. We will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effects of adding to ODH’s fee-based operating model an “almost free” time window, when fees are heavily discounted, to enable the poorest community members to access care. The research questions we aim to answer through this study are: (1) What is the effect of offering windows of time when care is almost free on access to healthcare among the ultra-poor? (2) Does the discounted-fee window undercut financial viability for ODH because patients who can afford fees switch to the discounted window?

Research Associate Roles and Responsibilities

The RA will work closely with the Principal Investigators and with the other field staff to perform a variety of tasks, including, but not limited to: 

• Run pilot exercises and coordinating the distribution of vouchers in villages associated with roughly ODH clinics across multiple regions of Uganda;
• Refine and pilot different framing messages for the vouchers;
• Create field-level protocols for all implementation-related field-work on the ground;
• Support/lead in obtaining necessary approvals on the ground for conducting fieldwork, if needed;
• Oversee the implementation of the proposed activities on the ground, such as hiring and managing local teams;
• Assist in preparation of documents, when asked;
• Report to the Research Manager/Director and PIs on the activities mentioned above.

Desired Qualifications and Experience

• A Bachelors’ or Master’s degree in Economics, or related fields;
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English are mandatory and fluency in Acholi is strongly preferred;
• Excellent management and organizational skills;
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player;
• Willingness to live in peri-urban areas and travel extensively to study areas is essential;
• Experience living or working in a developing country is required; experience doing implementation-related field-work in Uganda is very desirable;
• Familiarity with SurveyCTO or Qualtrics would be great but is not necessary.

Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s in Economics, or related quantitative social science fields 

Commitment: We are looking for a commitment period of 3 months for this position.  

Salary: The salary for this position will be equivalent to 2,100 USD per month