Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In Feb 2014, we completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own. Save the Children now has an operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana and Wajir and we work through partners in many other parts of the country. In total, we employ around 188 staff and had an operating annual budget in 2019 of approximately US$ 12.4 million. In 2016, Save the Children established a new project office in Madagascar whose operations the Kenya CO manages.
Job Description:
The Research and Learning Manager will support research, learning and evidence generation for the various projects that exist in Kenya Country Office. The projects range from Health and nutrition, Education and Child Protection, Food Security and Livelihood, among others. Therefore, the Research and Learning Manager will support the learning, iterative refinement and systematic documentation of the model, which will help inform other partners and Line Ministries on scalable approaches in the various sectors. The research and learning manager, with support of Head of MEAL, will also oversee other country research and learning initiatives to provide evidence for programming. The Research and Learning Manager will be based in Nairobi with frequent visits required to collect data and hold workshops in the field offices. The specific activities include managing data collection activities, conducting a literature review, development of data collection tools as well as to perform data analysis and report writing and lead in learning and dissemination activities. The manager, with the support of Knowledge Management and Learning Officer, will also document all the learning from all projects being implemented by the Kenya Country Office. The Research and Learning Manager will play a central role in the training of field MEAL staff, and besides, he/she will be responsible for ensuring technical competence and capacity building of MEAL staff in research and learning.
Reports to: Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)
Contract Duration: 1 year
Work Location: Nairobi with frequent travel to field locations
Responsibilities:
Strategy and programme quality
- Coordinate all formative researches with the field teams and research partner and ensure that all learnings are documented.
- Lead in the development and implementation of a coherent and coordinated research strategy in Kenya country programmes that aim to improve the quality and impact of SCI work in the country.
- Enhance SCI Kenya Country Office capability in research and evaluations through designing and implementing effective capacity-building measures and development and maintaining an institutionalised knowledge base.
- Encourage a culture of professional excellence in field research teams and adequately communicate and respond to capacity building requirements.
- Bring research, analytical and quality assurance expertise to projects, especially in the design, implementation and reporting stages
- Work with Line Manager and other SMT members to proactively shape the CO’s work and deliver innovation in our research and data visualisation.
- Develop high quality quantitative and qualitative methods and participatory methodologies to monitor program quality for performance and results; design appropriate feedback mechanisms to assess whether approaches implemented by the project are effective
Evaluation and Research
- Support design, as well as pilot and adapt all data collection instruments.
- Oversee all data collection and ensure adherence to the standard dimensions of data quality; and oversee and where necessary, undertake appropriate spot-checks and other verification exercises for collected data.
- Oversee data cleaning and processing, including entry to a standard software package; and analyse collected data according to pre-agreed time frames and ensure management system the use of adequate data visualization tools to enrich the presentation of research findings.
- Proactively support the recruitment of the research team in the field, including data collectors, qualitative note-takers and enumerators.
- In consultation with the Head of MEAL, develop terms of reference for consultants ensuring all the aspects of the evaluation (formative/baseline, mid line and end line) are taken into consideration.
- In consultation with Technical Specialists, develop study protocols for interventions with studies embedded on them.
- Anticipate, identify and resolve all problems related to field implementation of programmes with a research element in a timely fashion by ensuring adequate contingency planning and, where relevant, escalating issues to management.
- Apply leading-edge thinking and best practice at all stages of the research process and ensure that SCI research and evaluation outputs the to the highest standards, on time and budget
Learning and Knowledge management:
- Ensure that all projects have a robust learning agenda, and coordinate the collection, documentation and dissemination of the project learning.
- Develop a robust Country office learning and knowledge management system.
- Review log frames and budgets developed during the proposal development phase to ensure that; learning agenda, evidence generation, knowledge management and learning activities are taken into consideration.
- Share findings from data analysis at participatory review workshop, and facilitate these workshops.
- Work closely with evaluation partners, where necessary, to ensure that the essential SCI learning agendas are embedded within the evaluation framework and provide technical support in generation evidence for the same.
Staff Management:
- Manage staff in challenging environments and ensure a balance between the safety of personnel and the quality of data.
- Manage the performance of all direct reports through: effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations; coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities; recognition and rewards for outstanding performance; documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvement work plans.
Qualifications:
- A postgraduate degree in Social sciences, Population studies, Public health, Development studies or other relevant discipline.
- Demonstrated experience of designing and managing high-level researches/operations researches and evaluations including randomized control trials.
- Exceptional skills and experience with advanced quantitative data analysis skills especially use of STATA software for quantitative data analysis is a requirement.
- Experience of conducting mixed-method research and very good background in qualitative research methods including use of software such as NVIVO.
- Familiar with learning and knowledge management systems and approaches.
- Familiar with computer adapted data collection platforms like ODK and Kobo
- Ability to give professional support and direction to others; seek, review and apply best practice from elsewhere.
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills, and an ability to produce and disseminate research and evaluation outputs to variety of audiences using effective approaches
- Demonstrated ability to think critically, strategically and analyse complex information and offer creative, practical and effective solutions
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