LNGB Research Manager

The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, provides relief, rehabilitation and post-conflict reconstruction support to victims of natural disaster, oppression and violent conflict in 42 countries. The IRC has worked in Sierra Leone since 1999.The IRC currently programs across three core sectors 1) Health 2) Women and Girls’ Protection and Empowerment (WGPE), and 3) Education. The IRC is committed to supporting the Government of Sierra Leone in the strengthening of the country. We seek to build upon our programming experience and introduce new programs that are adaptive, collaborative and evidence-driven, leading to a more educated, safe, healthy and empowered Sierra Leone.

SCOPE OF WORK

Building on this work over the years, the IRC in Sierra Leone has developed a new program framework, strategy and vision for 2016 – 2020. The country program has committed to ensuring that children, both in and out of school, have appropriate literacy, numeracy, social-emotional skills, and will work towards the reduction and elimination of barriers to ensure that girls are equally skilled and safe as boys. In line with this commitment, and in partnership with Concern International, Restless Development and BBC Media Action, the IRC will implement the four-year Leave No Girl behind project which targets 32,500 out-of-school girls (aged 13-17) and aims to ensure they have significantly improved learning outcomes and transition to education, training or employment. Upon completion of the learning programme, girls will receive one-on-one mentorship to develop their individual transition plans.

The LNGB Research Manager will be responsible for day-to-day management of the program impact evaluation to ensure quality and timely implementation of the research. This will include excellent coordination of the External Evaluator (EE-to be contracted). The EE will be responsible for designing and deliver the project evaluation, in close collaborarion with the IRC. The Resarch Manager will proactivley contribute to select, commission and support the EE and the LNGB consortium to plan, design, conduct, manage and report on the project research.

The Research Manager will be a key member of the Consortium Coordination Unit (CCU) and report to the LNGB Senior Consortium Coordinator. S/he will work closely both with the wider IRC Research, Evaluation and Learning unit and incorporate their strategic guidance and technical advice, and with the other partners of the LNGB Consortium to ensure common understanding and effective delivery of the evaluation approach across the consortium. As a key member of the CCU, s/he will work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator to align monitoring and evaluation plans and strategies. Although the role does not have direct line management responsibility, s/he will periodically oversee project team members in the districts providing support to project staff and EE as needed to implement the research.

Major Responsibilities:

Management and supervision

• Participate in planning and – when required – budgeting processes for the project research, overseeing and monitoring the budget for the external evaluation component;
• Under the supervision of the Sr. Consortium Coordinator and the technical oversight of the REL unit, provide direction to the LNGB consortium partners at the country level, ensuring full understanding of the research approach;
• In coordination with the REL unit, lead on collaborating with the EE for establishing workplans, setting targets, reviewing progress and identifying challenges and solutions to achieve project aims. In addition, maintain compliance with project agreement, relaying feedback to the Sr. Consortium Coordinator as required;
• Work closely with the BBC MA research team to review and oversee the project radio program research, and ensure this does not duplicate but is complimentary to the project external evaluation carried out by the EE.

Technical responsibilities

• Managing the EE as required, including support scoping the research and defining research methodology;
• Working closely with the EE to develop, review and test measurement tools, ensuring alignment with best practices and the IRC and international standards, as well as compliance with the GEC-LNGB requirments;
• Work closely with the EE to support the establishment of qualitative and quantitave research processes and participate in the development and refinement of quality metrics through a participatory approach, whereby abiding by the GEC-LNGB requirments; this includes reviewing and updating the project logical framework as required;
• Work closely with the EE on reviewing quality data and analysis;
• Develop plans with the EE and other teams to engage stakeholders in the research work and ensure the feedback from stakeholders and especially children and their families is sought and utilized as appropriate;
• In collaboration with the CCU Protection Specialist, ensure safeguarding standards are mainstreamed in the research methodology, upheld in the research delivery and regularly monitored throughout implementation;
• In collaboration with the CCU MEL Coordinator, ensure that monitoring and research streams of data are linked up and coordination mechanisms are in place.

Reporting

• Act as consortium focal point for providing support to the EE in the delivery of accurate and timely baseline, midline and endline reporting;
• In conjunction with the Sr. Consortium Coordinator and the REL unit, curate all research reports submitted by the EE to ensure a thorough review of significant findings and trends, get value from them and report them back to the CCU and the REL unit. This includes ensuring that all reports are reviewed and approved by the IRC before submission to the Fund Manager.

Coordination with external stakeholders

In close collaboration with and under the oversight of the Sr. Consortium Coordinator:

• Respond in a timely manner to information requests on the research from consortium program teams, finance teams, the Fund Manager or DFID Sierra Leone;
• Maintain a solid, positive working relationship with the EE and research partners;
• Represent the IRC and the partners with the donor in different fora on research as it may be required;
• Provide support to the LNGB Consortium Coordinator to manage external relations by ensuring the dissemination of information about project research and its findings to different audiences is effective;
• Ensure timely, accurate and good quality reporting to the donor and others stakeholders as it may be required ;
• Ensure the IRC meets contractual project, legal and financial requirements of the research.

Job Requirements:

• Master’s level education in education, international development or a related subject including experience of quantitative and qualitative research in a social science subject;
• Experience of measuring impact of youth or education programmes;
• Strong analytic skills and high-level understanding of statistical data (e.g., statistical analysis, social science research, programme evaluation), ability to recognise, interpret and synthesise patterns in data;
• Experience building or contributing to building an impact measurement programme in an organisation, either as a direct employee or in a consulting/advisory capacity;
• Ability to and experience of driving and project managing an impact measurement programme or analogous programme in a large sized organisation with limited oversight;
• Excellent IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)
• Ability to manage a large and varied workload, work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Fluent in English
• Previous Experience in West Africa of similar context preferred.
• Capability in statistical analysis programming languages/software such as SPSS/STATA highly desirable.