Research Assistant

Call for Research Assistant

Background

Alejandra Sanchez is a Masters student at the University of California, Davis studying International Agricultural Development and Economics. Her current research is on Food Systems in Vietnam, more specifically the role of food safety within the food system.

In partnership with the international NGO VECO Vietnam, she will be conducting food safety research amongst consumers and policy makers in Hanoi. Through both surveys and semi-structured interviews, she hopes to gain new insights into the current state and future of food safety policies in Vietnam and the potential role food safety certifications & standards (VietGAP and BasicGAP) can play in achieving the country’s goals. She will be traveling to Vietnam December 13th-January 3rd to conduct consumer baseline surveys on food safety perceptions, concerns, and expectations in traditional markets. In addition to the surveys, she plans to conduct semi-structured interviews with policymakers including: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Health, FAO food safety working group, etc.

Roles and responsibilities

The Research assistant will assist Alejandra with the following:

• Attend some, not all, meetings with policy makers and help with any necessary translations;
• Attend some visits to the traditional market with the enumerators/surveyors;
• Assist her in translating documents;
• Assist her in translating and transcribing meeting records/recordings;
• Assist her in translating survey results.

Desired skills:

• Familiarity with agriculture and food systems vocabulary;
• Familiarity with traditional food markets in Hanoi;
• Research experience;
• Advanced level of both written and spoken English;
• Translating experience;
• Native Vietnamese speaker.

Duration of the assignment

Alejandra is requesting the assistance of a student researcher during the time of December 14th-December 29th (with potential of extension).

Geographic scope of the assignment

Data collection will take place in Hanoi. The Research Assistant will accompany Alejandra in her travels across the city to meet with different stakeholders.

Financial compensation

All travel expenses will be reimbursed and a small stipend will be provided depending on the total amount of time spent on the research assignment.

Application process

Interested candidates should send a short cover letter , their resume and two examples of past work in English to Alejandra at [email protected] before 5 December 2017.