SEL Learning and Evidence Building (M&E) Manager - Beirut - National Candidates Only

Background/IRC Summary:  

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

In mid-2012, IRC launched a humanitarian assistance programming. IRC operates throughout Lebanon, with the main office in Beirut and field offices in Qobayat, Zahle, Tripoli, and Mount Lebanon. The IRC’s educational interventions strive to help children and youth gain valuable skills and knowledge that will increase their opportunities and life chances, and contribute to their well-being and livelihood. The IRC supports formal and non-formal learning activities that lead to tangible learning outcomes in literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional learning, and marketable skills and promotes the protection and psychosocial well-being of conflict-affected children and youth.

Job Overview/Summary:

USAID’s “Quality Instruction towards Access and Basic Education Improvement” (QITABI 2) is a five-year program seeking to improve learning outcomes for all students in public primary schools in Lebanon awarded to Word Learning.  The International Rescue Committee (IRC) will lead the social and emotional learning (SEL) component of the program. The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) research and evidence building (M&E) Manager will be responsible for leading the design and implementation of SEL research and evaluations. He /She will be in charge of developing a research based on desk review and previous evidence of IRC SEL programs around Integration of SEL into national curriculum. He/she will be advising on what is the best approach to build evidence on the QITABI 2, including development of Monitoring tools, liaising with Other QITABI 2 partners such as MSI to coordinate the integration of those tools into the baseline.  The SEL learning and evidence building M&E Manager  will work in collaboration with other members of the SEL QITABI II Team and key stakeholders in the execution of several crucial functions. Specifically, this position will lead the generation, production and dissemination of communication and other documentation that highlights innovations, lessons and challenges, promising practices and impact for the purposes of learning, informing program practice, increased visibility of the SEL Team’s activities and priority areas, resource mobilization and policy action.

The SEL learning and evidence building M&E Manager will provide technical assistance for knowledge management and program design, ensuring that quality knowledge products are developed based on the evidence generated by  the project activities and  best practices across SEL.  S/he will guide the SEL team in knowledge generation, production and communications. This includes driving the implementation of a learning agenda in consultation with the team and other stakeholders, develop knowledge products feeding into the learning agenda, exploring learning platforms and supporting the facilitation of knowledge sharing through communities of practice, workshops and trainings.

He/she will provide overall technical support to the M&E plan for implementation and outcomes related to SEL within QITABI 2, including the development of monitoring and measurement tools, planning for their implementation, and data analysis, while ensuring alignment with overall consortium objectives.

Responsibilities:

• Knowledge generation, production, and communications.
• Coordinate and implement a coherent knowledge management strategy for the education team.
• Technical assistance for knowledge management and program design.
• Education Team membership.
• Other duties as assigned.

Specific Responsibilities:

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Learning and evidence building

• Focal point for the implementation of the SEL learning and building evidence assignments, methods and tools.
• Serve as lead analyst for interpreting the results of surveys and other field data and will be responsible for preparing an evaluation and building evidence reports.
• Develop a detailed work plan for SEL research and learning activities.
• Generate quarterly update results and accomplishments per the SEL monitoring and evaluation plan.
• Review evidence building and learning design and tools to ensure contextual & programmatic feasibility and appropriateness.
• Ensure communication and harmonization between research activities and program implementation, including ensuring fidelity of research design implementation.
• Collaborate with primary stakeholders to develop feasible and effective SEL research discussion events where data is analyzed, and programming action is agreed upon.
• Participate in and represent IRC in all relevant meetings, as necessary.

Monitoring Tool Development

• Review existing SEL M&E tools, systems and approaches used in Lebanon and globally.
• Collaborate with IRC Technical Advisors and QITABI 2 partners to design SEL related data collection tools.
• Organize and lead workshops to support development of M&E tools.

Data Analysis, Management and Application

• Organize and participate in program review and reflection meetings.
• Document, disseminate and apply good practices and lessons learned to program development and implementation.
• Work with consortium colleagues to use data to inform periodic review and course correction.
• Report best practices and lessons learned related to SEL data collection and M&E tools.
• Process weekly and monthly qualitative and quantitative reports analyzing and evaluating data collection.

Capacity-Building and Coordination

• Proactively collaborate with QITABI 2 lead World Learning, M&E partner MSI, government stakeholders, and other partners to ensure SEL monitoring and evaluation occurs and maintains high quality.
• Develop materials to build capacity related to monitoring and evaluation of SEL within the consortium and government. 
• Oversee and support implementation of technical capacity building plans at field level in collaboration with SEL Technical Team.
• Support the training of partners and government stakeholders on SEL M&E tools and other relevant topics.
• Support teams with implementation of SEL M&E tools.
• Set regular coordination meetings with SEL Technical Team to monitor implementation and follow up on deliverables.

Management and technical support

• Support the Senior SEL manager the planning, implementation, and continuous improvement of SEL strategies.
• Contribute in the review SEL technical documents and training material.
• Develop SEL material development plans and timelines.
• Attend regular technical meeting to discuss the development of SEL strategic planning and material development.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: IRC SEL Senior Manager, with a dotted line to IRC MEAL Coordinator.

Position directly supervises: Enumerators and consultants as required.

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal:  Regular communication with QITABI 2 team, other consortium members, IRC Lebanon team, IRC team, and IRC global technical advisors.

External: Support SEL lead in consortium-related meetings on M&E, collaborate with and train government stakeholders and partners as needed.

Job Qualifications:

Education: Master’ degree in education, developmental psychology, public health, public administration, international relief and development, statistics, applied statistics, social sciences, information management or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.

Qualifications:

• 3-5 years of professional experience related to development programming ( in Education, Social Emotional learning, Psychosocial support, protection, life skills..)
• A minimum of 3 years in research, evidence building, monitoring and evaluating education programs is required, with a focus on social and emotional learning or psychosocial support, in Lebanon.
• Designing and implementing M&E systems is required.
• Monitoring tool development and capacity-building is required.
• Excellent verbal and written English skills, particularly presentation skills for coordinating and facilitating workshops and trainings.
• Excellent leadership, relationship management, and teamwork skills.
• Demonstrated ability to operationalize strategies.
• Ability to work independently and with a virtual team.
• Demonstrated capacity to utilize and support others in utilizing a range of learning tools and approaches, both virtual and in-person.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Demonstrated commitment to renewing and maintaining currency with best practices.
• Experience in designing data collection, analysis and reporting tools using appropriate software systems (SPSS, etc.) is required.
• Experience in data processing and analysis, and applying qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods to research, assessment, and monitoring is required.
• Proven strategic and implementation ability with strong conceptual and analytical skills for planning, monitoring, and learning.
• Outstanding ability to build the capacity of teams and partners.
• Demonstrable understanding and experience of gender and diversity issues and inclusive programming.
• Outstanding report writing and information dissemination skills.
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills across a wide social range including project beneficiaries, community members, IRC colleagues, government officials, academics, partners, donors, etc.

Language Skills: Fluency in Arabic and English required.   Proficiency in French is an advantage.

Working Environment: This position will be based in Beirut, Lebanon, with up to 30% travel within the country required.