Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA) was created in 2003 and is the only not-for-profit organisation in southern Africa committed to advocating for an enabling environment for volunteerism and civic service in the region through research, knowledge building and evidence-based advocacy.

VOSESA has received support from Trust Africa to conduct a study on the scope and extent of international volunteering in southern Africa. The study is designed to generate findings about the impacts of international volunteers on host communities in developing countries as well as the impact on volunteers, from a developing nation perspective. The study will help to fill a critical gap in the knowledge base concerning international volunteering in the region.

VOSESA requires two well-qualified and experienced researchers to conduct the fieldwork for the study in Mozambique and Tanzania . The researchers must be available to conduct fieldwork in late July/early August and should ideally be located in the countries in which the study is taking place. Researchers should have the following qualifications:

-       Post-graduate degree (preferably PhD) in social sciences or related field
-       Experience of carrying out in-depth interviews and focus groups
-       Excellent writing and analytic skills in English
-       Ability to conduct interviews in Portuguese/ KiSwahili
-       In-depth knowledge of social development issues in the country concerned
-       Good communication and people skills
-       Attention to detail
-       Ability to deliver to deadline
-       An interest in or experience of volunteering would be an advantage.

Researchers will be required to:

1. Make themselves available for a thorough research briefing over the telephone
2. Write a brief (up to 5-page) country contextual profile which should include information on the history, socio-political landscape, demographics, and major development challenges facing the country.
3. Make arrangements to visit four organisations identified by VOSESA for approximately 1 day each. Two of these will be organisations that have hosted international volunteers and two will be comparison organisations.
4. Visit each host organisation (two in each country) to conduct the following processes using the research instruments provided by VOSESA:
1. Interview two international volunteers currently serving in the programme (provided the volunteers are still in their placements when the research takes place);
2. Interview the programme manager or volunteer manager;
3. Set up and conduct a focus group with community members who are benefiting from the programme in which the volunteer is assisting.
4. Observe and take notes about volunteer interactions with staff, other volunteers and community members. This component will fall away if the volunteers have already returned to their home country by the time the research takes place.
5. Visit each comparative organisation (two in each country)  to conduct the following processes using the research instruments provided by VOSESA:
1. Interview the programme manager
2. Set up and conduct a focus group with community members who are benefiting from the organisation's services.
6. Write up each of the interviews and focus group discussions according to the templates provided by VOSESA.
7. Write up a country report according to the template provided by VOSESA.
8. Be available for an analysis workshop in Johannesburg.

VOSESA has worked hard to establish a reputation for high quality research. Researchers must therefore be committed to conducting thorough research and providing as much detail as possible to enable VOSESA to finalise the analysis and report writing.

It is estimated that each researcher will have to spend the following amount of time on the research project:

VOSESA has a very small budget for this project and has budgeted to pay researchers a professional fee of $275 per day. Once the final sites have been selected for the fieldwork in each country, VOSESA will determine the per diem required to cover travel and accommodation costs, where necessary.

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