Research and Knowledge Management Specialist (m/f)

Description

• Team/Programme: Programme Development and Quality Team
• Child Safeguarding: Level 3 – the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people
• Role purpose: As a member of the East and Southern Africa Program Quality team, the Regional Research and Evidence Specialist provides leadership to brings consistency, quality and strategic direction to the use of evidence in our work in East and Southern Africa. The role will support Country Offices to monitor, report on and improve programme quality based on evidence generated of what works for children
• The position will institutionalize evidence uptake and learning practices for adaptive Child Rights Programming geared towards achieving lasting outcomes for children. He/She will support alignment and tracking of strong country strategic plans, annual plans and reports that demonstrate progress in achieving our Breakthroughs in survival, learning and protection. A strong Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system will be supported in each country to demonstrate impact, specifically aligned to our Global Results Framework, from which this position will build effective evidence and learning systems

Duties

• The position contributes to the following components of program quality as supported by the regional office:
• Ensuring development and monitoring of clear country strategic and country annual plans, including assisting country offices to effectively utilize reporting tools to articulate impact Developing and tracking a relevant CO research strategy and plan, leading to multiple learning opportunities for COs, and effective representation of CO programme outcomes and impact in regional and global forums
• Facilitating learning within countries based on their research strategy, but also across countries in the region and externally
• Coordinating inputs to global reports, initiatives and evidence agendas to learn and demonstrate results
• Maintain effective surveillance of key websites and other sources of information to ensure that relevant material is extracted and disseminated in a succinct form to the CO staffs
• Monitor and share data illustrating SC progress in achieving its breakthrough and strategic objectives
• Undertake research on behalf of COs and disseminate the results to relevant parties
• Take the lead in encouraging employees to share knowledge, ensuring they are aware of the knowledge management resources available to support their work
• Reports to: Program Development and Quality Director
• Dimensions: SCI Mozambique works in 7 provinces of Mozambique, implementing programs in the sectors of Education, Health, Nutrition, Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Resilience, Livelihoods, and disaster risk reduction as well as humanitarian assistance. SCIMOZ currently has approximately 550 staff and current expenditure of approximately $25 million each year
• Competencies - Working effectively with others, problem solving and decision making, applying technical and professional expertise, networking, innovating and adapting Key working contacts: Field and programmatic teams; SC Mozambique thematic specialists, Technical Advisers
• Staff directly reporting to this post: None at present

Strategy

• Lead the tracking of Country Office (CO) CSP implementation and ensuring that research and learning form the foundation for all CO strategy development processes and program design Manage interdependencies with other functional teams (e.g. Advocacy, Emerging Issues, MEAL, Operations, Awards) and strategic initiatives across Save the Children to ensure alignment in research and evidence agenda
• Participate in the development and implementation of a coherent and coordinated Research, Evaluation and Learning Strategy and Plan aimed at improving quality outcomes for children and demonstrating what works for children in East and Southern Africa, in what context and why
• Support the application of SCI Theory of Change (Innovation, Scale, Be the Voice and Partnerships) with particular reference to learning and impact
• Support on-going research and learning to improve, refine and establish Common Approaches

Leadership and Management

• Provide overall supervision and leadership on the LKM functions and strategy in the country office
• Provide leadership and supervision to subordinates on LKM, GIS/MIS and research
• Provide support and advise the Head of MEAL in leading, design and implementation of comprehensive MEAL system in the CO
• Prove supervision, mentorship and professional development to staffs on MEAL/LKM system

Analytics and use of Evidence in Decision Making

• Ensure MEAL evidences (IPTT, project performance/action trackers, output tracker, etc.) are used for management decision making and continuous performance improvement and be part of the provincial level management team members
• Provide leadership on the LKM system of the country office and MEAL evidences are used for programme improvement
• Undertake analytical work on quality child rights programming to generate CO, sectoral and cross thematic learning on trends and opportunities for SCI to achieve better outcomes for children. This includes analytics on integrated programming, CSP and AMS data mining etc.
• Develop accessible capacity building methods for improving CO analytical capacity, and presentation in formats for decision-making at management level

System Design and Roll-Out

• Working closely with the Head of MEAL, design SCI’s approach to knowledge management and learning, setting down the minimum requirements (following SCI MOS) and ensuring that it complements and forms part of the overall MEAL system
• Ensure that a learning culture is fostered within the organization and the KM&L is an integral element of programming
• Work closely with PDQ team members to promote understanding of the importance of KM&L to achieve quality programming
• At the CO level be a key link between the PDQ and Programme Implementation Strategy teams, to ensure that KM&L is promoted as a key tool in programme management and strategy development

Developing, Managing and Disseminating Learning Products and Outlets

• Lead the development of learning products such as Fact Sheets, Policy briefs, Policy Position papers, Publications, etc. and innovative ways of packaging such products for children and young people
• Build repository/stock of these learning products (including Evaluations and recordings of East and Southern Africa learning events)
• Lead the management and implementation of learning outlets such as Evidence Days/Events, Webinar Series, and professional talent development of CO staff in regards to Child Rights Programming and cross-cutting issues, including humanitarian learning
• Be a champion in the development of an organizational culture for knowledge sharing and cross learning
• Keep track of all project evaluations and, in coordination with technical/project managers, design evaluation TORs, provide briefings to consultants and provide logistical support to ensure evaluations happen smoothly
• Capture and disseminate lessons learned from evaluations and follow up on action planning, maintain a lessons learned database
• Ensure that learning is accessed and used as an integral part of programme design and implementation
• As required provide trainings to raise awareness on the importance of learning
• Lead knowledgebase planning, initial load execution and all future maintenance planning. Compose a range of strategies and practices used at organizational level to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of new organizational knowledge
• Determine long-term and short-term strategic plans to achieve the objectives of the organization. Provide guidance to subordinates to achieve goals in accordance with established policies
• With the Head of MEAL, feed into programme and proposal design to ensure that new programme design is based on previous learning
• Make sure that technical advisors have easy access to learning documents for reference purpose

Country Office R&E Uplift

• Ensure clear evidence and learning agenda with an implementation plan, linked to CSP strategic goals, in each CO in the region
• Support and sometimes lead the development of systems, processes and country capability for quality evaluations
• Support the development of a consultant database to assist in evaluations and research, working with Supply Chain to pre-qualify excellent consultants
• Participate in talent development of CO staff in research, evaluation and validation of evidence
• Support COs to secure funding for research and evaluation as part of new business development or through specific research awards by networking, pre-positioning and reviewing research proposals
• Manage the evaluation tracking database for the region, customizing with IT to meet CO needs

Communication and Reporting

• Coordinate, collaborate and oversee best practice consolidation with all thematic areas, ensure that the knowledgebase is configured appropriately for optimum performance and widely adopted use
• Promote learning in the country office, particularly on issues of programme quality. Regularly analyze and produce reports on best practices and case studies; ensure new analysis and information is available, including for the forthcoming communications strategy Ensure effective storage of assessment, surveys and evaluations and/or organizational knowledge on the shared folders, and to use this knowledge base to promote learning across the organization
• To manage and lead on key pieces of M&E research and development, for example providing advice on how SC determines issues of attribution/contribution
• One-pagers describing the project, key activities, approaches, outcomes and impacts
• Produce case studies, best practices; lessons learned and project audit documents for internal and external use

Networking and Partnerships

• Establish and maintain strong working relationship with other technical leads (thematic and cross functional), Save the Children Members and academic to initiate, adapt or test new practices, approaches or methodologies with a view of improving outcomes for children and our ability to demonstrate and showcase that impact
• Support the establishment and management of strategic partnerships with research and learning institutions in the region, and/or globally

General

• Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures
• Undertake any other reasonable duty as may be assigned by line manager. In case of emergency
• Promote children rights, contributing for children wellness and protection during emergencies, guided by the humanitarian principles and the Save the Children code of conduct
• Be prepared to support Save the Children interventions in response to emergencies and able to be allocated in any province in the country
• Develop any activity requested by line managers

Child Safeguardin

• Support the process of ensuring that child safeguarding mainstreaming are integrated into all M&E frameworks through measurable output and outcome indicators; and support the process of piloting and scaling up local level beneficiary complaints’ mechanisms in relation to staff conduct, with an emphasis on the Child Safeguarding Policy and measure to prevent sexual exploitation of women and children

Accountability

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically

Collaboration

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally

Creativity

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages a pragmatic approach

Integrity

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
• Displays consistent excellent judgement, managing resources efficiently

Requisites

• 7-10 years expertise, and doctoral level academic competence is a plus, Master’s level required
• Demonstrated credibility and influence (externally and internally) through depth and breadth of expertise; ability to give professional support and direction to senior country office staff
• Knowledge of international humanitarian and development systems, institutions and donors, and of procedures, accountability frameworks and best practices
• Proven intellect, creativity and judgement: original ideas; creative approach; sound judgement and ability to encourage ideas, initiative and innovation in others
• Personal effectiveness/self-management: ability to work under time pressures, but also to allow flexibility and adapting of the research and learning agenda
• Leadership and vision: clear vision; ability to secure commitment to vision; experience in initiating and managing change; inspiring to colleagues and model of integrity and honesty
• Considerable proven experience in undertaking and leading the production of policy, research and evaluation outputs in similar organizations similar to Save the Children, or other development settings
• Knowledge and demonstrated experience of designing and managing high level research and evaluations, including RCTs
• Extensive experience in analyzing the situation of children using the child rights programming/principles framework
• Demonstrated ability to think critically, strategically and analyze complex information and offer creative, practical and effective solutions
• Ability to quickly and competently consolidate and summarize information across multiple data sources
• Strong written and verbal skills in English
• Ability to make compelling and informative oral presentations
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a matrix management environment.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching

Desirable

• Commitment to Save the Children values, including safeguarding of staff and children
• Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours when essential to success of endeavours
• Willingness to travel within the region

Notes

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted
• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience
• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures
• Child Safeguarding: Behave towards children in a way which reflects the Code of Conduct and Safeguarding Policy Health and Safety