Head of Evaluation, Learning and Data Analytics At Tostan

Organisation overview

Tostan is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Dakar, Senegal, currently operating in five West African countries. At the strategic level, the organization is committed to continuing to develop its core competency of empowering education, and to document and scale the sustainable impact it creates on a range of issues. Tostan’s flagship model, the three-year Community Capacity Building Programme (CCBP), has already reached thousands of communities in West and East Africa since 1991. Results in governance, education, health, economic empowerment and the environment are currently being monitored, and Tostan is particularly proud to have played an important role in the large-scale empowerment of women and girls and in community abandonment of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage. As part of its strategic engagement plan 2023-2030, Tostan focuses on strategic scaling. The organization is developing new implementation strategies to support community leadership by unlocking broader systemic changes at the regional level. It also creates new models for sharing and replicating its programs with other development partners and expands its capacity to share Tostan’s global approach to support and influence a range of local and global audiences. For more information, please visit : www.tostan.org

Roles and responsibilities

Under supervision of the Program Leadership Team (PLT), the Head of Evaluation, Learning and Data Analytics has a mission to drive Tostan’s data-driven learning and evaluation systems leading to strategic and programmatic success for communities and ecosystem partners with core activities :

Technical

• Lead the development of an evidence base necessary for the organisation’s strategic decision-making;
• Lead periodic reviews and revisions of M/E strategies to generate evidence on the capacity of communities to improve their well-being, on social change, including changes in social norms related to gender, on changes in specific dimensions of well-being, early childhood development, peace and security, and other areas as required, engaging communities as appropriate;
• Lead in the development and review of strategies to monitor and evaluate Tostan’s contribution to community well-being through its training, sharing, and mutual learning activities undertaken with networks of NGOs and of religious leaders and with other development partners, engaging them as appropriate;
• Plan and supervise the collection, treatment, and analysis of mixed-methods data for assessment (district and community diagnostics), activity and progress monitoring, and evaluation (baseline, interim, final) exercises;
• Supervise the creation and management of databases, including electronic data collection systems and tools;
• Develop visualisations and dashboards on evidence generated for strategic dissemination internally and with external partners;
• Provide technical guidance and support to the Program Leadership Team in adaptive learning and programming through the periodic review and revision of results and logical frameworks, and of monitoring/evaluation plans for specific projects;
• Develop strategic external partnerships to carry out evaluations, including impact evaluations and research studies;
• Publish research results on academic and non-academic journals, offering evidence of Tostan’s results and furthering the understanding of Tostan’s approach to development and the reasons for its effectiveness.

Management

• Periodically review Tostan MERL strategy and vision and revise high-level objectives;
• Define yearly work plans and KPIs in line with Tostan’s Strategic Plans and monitor their progress;
• Develop visualisations and dashboards on core data analytics processes.:
• Set, monitor, manage and report on budget and expenditure for the work undertaken by the Tostan International (TI) MERL team;
• Ensure the representation of Tostan through the MERL team, internally and externally when requested (meetings, conferences);
• Supervise Tostan International and Country MERL officers in the management of multi-country partnership and program initiatives;
• Recruit and supervise International and National MERL staff including volunteers and those working remotely, and manage consultants hired to support MERL activities;
• Ensure staff talent is nurtured and capacity needs are met at international and national levels, as necessary, and through performance reviews and development and implementation of training plans;
• Be a leader and inspire others in the TI MERL department. Be an example of performance and engagement with other team members. Address internal challenges through constructive and positive dialogue and teamwork.

This list is not exhaustive, the Head of Evaluation, Learning and Data Analyticswill be called upon to perform any other duties that may be assigned to him/her in connection with his/her skills or position.

Key relationships

Direct line Manager: Senior Program Officer/PLT Coordinator of the Program Leadership Team

Supervises: All TI MERL Staff, National/regional MERL Focal Points (as a technical supervision, not direct reporting), International and National MERL volunteers/consultants.

Localisation: Based in Thiès, Senegal – (25 % time remote)

Travel: A maximum of 25% of this job will be spent travelling, primarily to country offices to conduct field supervision missions when necessary and to engage with donors during their field visits.

Key qualifications required:

Education:

• Masters in Mathematics, Statistics, International Development, Human Rights; International Education or another relevant Social Science discipline;
• PhD/Doctorate is highly desirable.

Language skills:

• Excellent command of written and spoken French required;
• Excellent command of written and spoken French required;

Knowledge and Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation or research with experience in international and multicultural settings required, 7 years of experience for candidates who hold a PhD;
• Demonstrated technical competency in designing and implementing primary data collection and analysis;
• Demonstrated experience in writing high-quality evaluation reports and sharing monitoring data with internal and external stakeholders;
• Experience with data entry and analysis programs such as SPSS (preferred), Stata, CS Pro, Epi Info or similar statistical package;
• Experience in analysis of qualitative data, preferably with qualitative analysis software such as Nvivo, MaxQDA, Atlas.ti or similar;
• Experience in engaging colleagues in interpreting and learning from findings is desirable;
• Ability to effectively coordinate multiple projects simultaneously, working well under tight time constraints and meeting deadlines with attention to detail and quality.
• Experience in evaluating community well-being and/or abandonment of harmful practices and/or multidimensional human development is highly desirable;

Soft skills (characteristics)

• Enjoy working within a small NGO environment that is mission-driven;
• Very strong analytical skills required;
• Ability to prioritise among different tasks and simultaneous requests;
• Diplomatic and capable of working with other department directors and chief officers to take high-level strategy decisions.

Type of contract: local contract

Our team is made up of people who strongly believe in Tostan’s mission to empower communities to develop and realise their vision for the future and inspire large-scale movements towards dignity for all.

Vision, Mission, Values, Problem definition

Vision

Dignity of all

Mission

Empower communities to develop and realize their vision for the future and inspire large-scale movements toward dignity for all.

Values

Love – integrity, respect and humility – learning and innovation – sustainability – partnerships – and dialogue

Problem definition

Lack of success in empowerment and non-formal education, exacerbated by poverty and deeply rooted social norms, created an environment that does not adequately prepare individuals and communities to realize their own vision of well-being. Sustainable communities