Regional Senior Research and Learning Manager

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Background

In the MENAU region (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, oPt, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen) IRC responds to displaced people’s acute and longer-term needs with integrated programs that improve health and safety, prioritize children’s education, foster economic wellbeing, and empower communities to regain control over their lives.

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development Portfolio

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development (ECD) portfolio builds on over eight years of programming, starting with the Ahlan Simsim and Play to Learn initiatives, launched in 2018. These initiatives reached millions of children and caregivers with ECD services, generated a library of high-quality ECD content, and established a resource bank of proven program models. Partnerships with Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development produced co-designed programs that are now embedded within government services across the region.

The portfolio today spans multiple grants and donors across the MENA region, with an overarching aim of supporting the youngest children and their caregivers — particularly those affected by crisis and conflict — with high-quality, scalable, and sustainable interventions. Interventions target children directly and through their caregivers and communities. The portfolio also strengthens the capacity of the ECD workforce — including teachers, multi-sector facilitators, and health workers — advances national systems and policy through advocacy efforts, and delivers innovative digital technology solutions. The IRC works alongside key public and private stakeholders across health, protection, education, and economic recovery and development to co-design and expand partner-led interventions. For more information on the IRC's ECD work in the region, visit: https://www.rescue.org/ahlansimsim.

The MENA regional ECD team manages core regional grants, supports country programs on country-specific awards, and actively contributes to business development efforts to expand programming reach, deepen impact, and mobilize resources from a growing base of public and private donors. The team also supports country programs in program quality and fidelity, content development, research, learning and monitoring, policy, advocacy and communications, project and financial management, and digital technology solutions.

Job Overview/ Summary:

The Regional Senior Research and Learning Manager will be responsible to coordinate, design, manage, implement, and disseminate research and learning related to ECD in the MENA region, and support country teams to collect, store, analyze, validate, use, and disseminate research and learning internally and externally. He/she will work closely with IRC’s global team, MENA regional ECD team and country-based teams in support of quality evidence-building and actionable learning activities. This role also serves as a key coordination point between the IRC, its internal research teams and external research partners, ensuring alignment across technical design, implementation timelines, and evidence dissemination.

Major Responsibilities: 

The Regional Senior Research and Learning Manager will lead and support a broad range of research and learning activities, including the following: 

Lead, Coordinate and Manage the Operationalization of the Research and Evaluation Agenda:

• Lead and/or contribute to the design of the research agenda, in coordination with relevant IRC HQ, regional and country-program ECD and MEAL teams, and external stakeholders (such as donors and external evaluators).
• In collaboration with IRC’s relevant research teams, external evaluators and donors, support in Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) preparation across countries, including support with path to scale planning, RCT design, timelines, data collection strategies, logistics, etc.
• In coordination with relevant IRC research, regional and country-program teams, external partners and donors, lead the planning, management, and implementation of research and evaluation studies, that utilize a range of methods and analytical strategies, including:
  • Coordinate on study design, data management, budget/level-of-effort alignment, and quality assurance of research outputs.
  • Ensure communication and harmonization between research activities and program implementation, including ensuring fidelity of research design implementation.
  • Secure required approvals – IRC’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and any local IRB or government approvals if needed.
  • Ensure that research instruments are adapted and contextualized, including piloting of tools across languages and cultures. 
  • Coordinate programming of tools as needed for the different studies, in preparation for data collection activities.
  • Conduct or support in enumerator recruitment and trainings, as needed for the different studies, in preparation for data collection activities. 
  • Oversee implementation of research work plans, ensuring that field data collection is accurate, standardized, complete, and timely.
  • Lead and/or contribute with data cleaning and analysis, including both quantitative and qualitative analysis. 
  • Ensure compliance with IRC research standards and protocols, and implement best practices in research ethics, data protection, and data management throughout all stages of the research process.

• Support in and contribute to the write-up, quality assurance, and review of research products and peer-reviewed articles, as needed.
• Translate research results into user friendly-briefs, reports, Powerpoint presentations, and other products, for dissemination to non-research audiences.
• Serve as a key point of contact and coordination lead between the various IRC teams and external stakeholders (donors and external evaluators).

Lead the Regional ECD Learning Agenda design and implementation:

• Co-design and lead the implementation of the Regional ECD Learning Agenda and Learning and Reflection Cycle, including a range of learning studies and questions utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Provide support to country teams in the implementation of the learning agenda and learning questions, such as developing data collection tools, training, analysis and reporting.
• Support the collection, storage, analysis, use, and dissemination of learning across global, regional, and country avenues.
• Recruit consultants to support with the implementation of learning studies, as needed.
• Facilitate learning activities, including learning and reflection meetings, workshops, presentations, webinars, etc.
• Co-develop and/or input into learning products (including reports, briefs, blogs) and disseminate findings to influence practice and policy.
• Provide high-quality connections with IRC’s HQ to connect with broader organizational and Education sector learning, strategy and programs.
• Serve as a focal point for learning, providing strategic thinking and design to establish a culture of learning and viable learning products and opportunities.

Key Working Relationships: 

• Position Reports to: Regional Research, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Lead, MENA Regional ECD Team
• Position directly supervises: N/A
• Indirect Reporting: N/A
• Other Internal and/or external contacts: 
  • Internal: IRC Research Teams, relevant award-management and leadership teams; Regional ECD Team, Country Program and MEAL Teams, Education Technical Unit within IRC, other IRC projects contributing to connected learning agendas.
  • External: Partners including international, national and local entities, External Evaluators, Donors, Academic Institutions, consultants and service providers.

Required Education, Skills and Competencies

• University degree in public health, Public Administration, International Relief and Development, Statistics, Applied Statistics, Social Sciences, Education, Early Childhood Development or any relevant related field.
• At least four years of experience implementing mixed-method research or evaluation studies in emergency, humanitarian, or development settings.
• Experience conducting randomized impact evaluations (or randomized controlled trials) of development or humanitarian interventions.
• Experience coordinating research and evaluation activities across multiple institutional partners (e.g., research organizations, academic institutions, or external evaluators).
• Demonstrated experience managing large scale quantitative and qualitative data collection in the field.
• Experience analyzing qualitative data using Dedoose, nVivo or other qualitative data analysis software.
• Experience analyzing quantitative data using SPSS, Stata, or other statistical analysis packages.
• At least three years of experience in training and facilitation.
• Excellent writing and oral skills (in English and Arabic).
• Experience working in MENA Region.  
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills across a wide range, including clients, community members, government officials, academics, partners, donors, etc.
• Demonstrated experience communicating complex research results to non-research audiences, including program teams and policymakers.
• Strong ability to work independently, organize work, meet deadlines, prioritize work under pressure, proactively coordinate multiple tasks, and maintain attention to detail.
• Excellent knowledge of and experience with humanitarian guidelines and principles.

Preferred Education, Skills and Competencies

• Experience working on research or evaluation studies in education or ECD in low-resource environments.
• Experience publishing in peer-reviewed journals is a plus. 
• Experience supporting the implementation of measurement and learning systems in complex programs.
• Master’s Degree in Public Health, Public Administration, International Relief and Development, Statistics, Applied Statistics, Social Sciences, Education, Early Childhood Development or any relevant related field is a plus.

Working Environment:

• Standard office working environment; partial remote work is possible.
• Travel required ~ 15%.
• The position may be based in Jordan or Lebanon.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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