IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including PANDA and REACH. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of Acted, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from Acted’s operational support on its fields of intervention.
PANDA is IMPACT’s lever on humanitarian aid responses which focusing on improving outcomes for beneficiaries through direct engagement with partners and their activities. Where IMPACT works through soft power and partnerships to affect systemic change, PANDA is direct action that allows us to ensure that system and its participants are trustworthy and delivering the most effective, efficient and equitable response possible. PANDA is praxis – it is how IMPACT manifests our vision of acting as a catalyst of change within the aid community to work through focused or multidimensional analysis of projects, programmes and policies to identify their results, strengths and weaknesses, and how they can be improved, then proposes or implements a concrete plan for improvement. IMPACT South Sudan has worked on multiple PANDA Initiative projects in recent years particularly in the area of food security and agricultural investments.
We are currently looking for a Senior Assessment Officer (SAO) to serve as the Research Project Focal Point on a multi-year sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research programme spanning Somalia and South Sudan, and contribute to broader analysis efforts.
Department: IMPACT
Contract duration: 12 months, renewable
Location: Nairobi, Kenya – with travel to Somalia and South Sudan.
Starting Date: July 2026 (Pending funding confirmation)
Please note that this is a link for internal applicants only and applications of external candidates will be automatically rejected.
Somalia and South Sudan are among the world’s most complex humanitarian contexts, where protracted conflict, displacement, food insecurity, and acute health needs intersect. Both countries face severe deficits in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and data: maternal mortality rates are among the highest globally, access to family planning remains critically low, and adolescent girls and women in displacement face compounded vulnerabilities. Robust, longitudinal research on SRH outcomes in these settings is essential to inform programming and advocacy – yet remains rare.
In Somalia, SRH service delivery is fragmented across a patchwork of humanitarian and development actors, with major gaps in data on how displaced, rural, and urban poor populations access and experience reproductive health care. In South Sudan, years of conflict have devastated health infrastructure, leaving women and girls with limited access to maternal health, family planning, and gender-based violence response services. In both countries, generating high-quality longitudinal evidence through a randomised control trial (RCT) methodology offers a unique opportunity to understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions – and to build a rigorous evidence base for SRH programming across fragile settings.
IMPACT is active in both Somalia and South Sudan, with established capacity in needs assessments, health and nutrition surveys, and household-level data collection. Building on this foundation, IMPACT is undertaking a four-year research programme using a randomised control trial design to generate longitudinal evidence on SRH outcomes, access, and barriers in both countries, with annual quantitative and qualitative data collection rounds.
The SAO will serve as the primary IMPACT focal point for a four-year SRH research programme spanning Somalia and South Sudan. Based in Nairobi, the position involves regular travel to both countries and close collaboration with the donor, implementing partners, and in-country IMPACT teams. The SAO will have overall responsibility for the integrity, quality, and timeliness of the research programme, providing strategic direction and technical oversight across all data collection rounds.
The ideal candidate will combine strong technical expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies with demonstrable experience in research in humanitarian or low-resource settings. They will be skilled at managing complex, multi-country research projects and at building and sustaining productive relationships with donors and partners. Experience providing remote oversight and mentorship to in-country research teams is essential.
