PROGRAM QUALITY AND LEARNING LEAD

The Syria Resilience Initiative (SRI) is a partnership of organizations working together to increase the resilience of people affected by the conflict in Syria. The SRI is led by three multi-mandate agencies – CARE, IRC, and Mercy Corps – who have been on the ground in Syria for over a decade, working together with local and international partners to help Syrians overcome repeated shocks and stresses.

The SRI is seeking a highly experienced Program Quality & Learning (PQL) Lead to join the SRI's Program Management Unit (PMU). The position is responsible for driving the SRI's strategic priorities to generate evidence on resilience programming in Syria and sharing the SRI's expertise widely within the sector. The PQL Lead will ensure high quality programming through identifying consortium-wide approaches and facilitating the adoption and documentation of good practices and standards, establishing processes for collective reflection and program adaptation, and overseeing SRI technical advisors and technical working groups. They will foster internal and external learning, and lead on generating evidence on the impact of resilience programming, working together with the PMU Monitoring & Evaluation Lead to ask deeper questions and interpret results from program data. The post-holder will identify evidence gaps for the Syria humanitarian response, in collaboration with the PMU's Advocacy and Policy Lead, and work with SRI partners and establish research partnerships to capture evidence from SRI programming, mine existing data and reports to extract new learning and evidence, and document this evidence for wider sharing.    

The Program Quality and Learning Lead will have a minimum of 8 years experience working with INGOs facilitating participatory learning processes, conducting action research or establishing technical guidelines and quality standards. This person will have strong analytical and research skills but also be a 'big picture' thinker, able to look across the program portfolio and identify strategic areas of learning for the SRI. To be successful, they will need to be a good collaborator and influencer, to build partnerships within SRI and external organizations to strengthen program quality and learning. 

The position is open to national or international candidates, based in Jordan or Lebanon, with the ability to travel to all locations where SRI partners are based (Gaziantep, Beirut, Al-Hasakah, Amman).

RESPONSIBILITIES:

·       Ensure quality of SRI programming:

·Identify areas of common practices and interventions across SRI programming and together with SRI technical advisors, facilitate sharing of approaches among partners, development of harmonized guidance and cross-consortium standards.

·Provide direction and oversight of SRI technical advisors contracted by the PMU or SRI partners on their deliverables and activities (dotted line management).

·Support SRI technical advisors in facilitating their technical working groups and communities of practice to develop and adopt good practice standards, guidance and learning for the SRI.

·Review SRI partners products (e.g. studies, assessments, reports) and support partners in maintaining high quality of products.

·Draft inputs for donor reports on areas of program improvements and adaptations, successes and challenges, learning, and other relevant reporting topics.

·Contribute to new program design and redesign drawing on knowledge of SRI good practice, common approaches and partner expertise.

·       Lead internal reflection and adaptive programming:

·Use results monitoring, M&E data and report submissions to assess quality and impact of SRI programming, and lead on improving SRI programs based on findings, in collaboration with the PMU's Monitoring & Evaluation Lead.

·Establish and lead regular processes for learning and reflection among SRI partners, and for translating lessons into program adaptations (as a Collaborating, Learning and Adapting strategy)

·Extract learnings and lessons from SRI and partner products, studies, documents, case studies and reports for sharing between partners, working with technical leads and working groups.

·Ensure M&E and Third-party monitoring recommendations are reflected on by partners and adopted into programs.

·Establish and implement mechanisms for monitoring the effect of learning and adaptation processes in SRI programming.

·       Generate evidence and learning for external sharing:

·Identify key evidence gaps and research questions of importance for early recovery and resilience programming in Syria, in collaboration with the SRI's Advocacy & Policy Lead, and establish and implement an evidence and learning plan for the SRI.

·Ensure impact and results data being captured on SRI's programming is able to contribute to meeting the broader evidence needs of the sector, working with the Monitoring and Evaluation Lead.

·Establish research partnerships among SRI partners, external stakeholders and institutes to investigate research questions and capture learning.

·Investigate opportunities for resourcing and funding evidence generation for SRI programming.

·Assist SRI technical advisors and working groups to capture learning and lessons for wider dissemination.

·Lead production of documents for external sharing on evidence and good practice from SRI experience (e.g. learning briefs, approach papers, case studies, etc.)

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Advanced degree in social sciences, data management, economics, international development, or any other related technical field requiring high analytical and communication skills. An equivalent combination of education and work experience may also be considered.
• Minimum 8 years’ work experience in humanitarian/development contexts, leading action research and/or ensuring quality of programming and adaptive management processes.
• Proven experience developing and facilitating organizational reflection and learning processes.
• Proven ability to positively influence colleagues, teams and organizations to adopt change and improve when needed. 
• Demonstrated experience developing guidance or standard-setting for program interventions. 
• Experience in developing research questions and strategies, and practical experience conducting studies.
• Strong analytical skills, able to synthesize large amounts of information to identify overarching trends and lessons.
• High level of attention to detail and ensuring quality of outputs and deliverables.  
• Excellent writing, editing, and speaking standards in English.