Director of Evidence & Information Management at Save the Children

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC)

LOCATION: Yangon, Myanmar

Number of Position: 1

GRADE**: NAT-1**

CONTRACT LENGTH: Fixed term

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE: The Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) partners with selected ethnic and monastic education providers to strengthen their capacity to deliver and sustain good quality learning opportunities for hard-to-reach children in Myanmar. MEC provides funding, coordination, technical assistance and research across different complementary education systems to promote continuous improvement of education services and a supportive operating environment for ethnic and monastic education providers.

Under the direction of the MEC Director, the Director of Evidence and Information Management (EIM) will provide technical and managerial oversight and capacity development support to the EIM team, and be a member of the MEC Senior Leadership Team, working in close collaboration with the Directors of Education, Partnership & Programme Support (PPS) and Strategy, Policy, Planning and Learning (SPPL) to provide leadership and strategic direction to the full MEC team.

The EIM Director is responsible for ensuring that the Evidence & Information Management team is adequately resourced to proactively lead and implement Evidence generation and Information Management activities, which includes a focus on Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and Accountability. The post-holder directs a concerted and comprehensive focus on the outcomes and impact of MEC activity, including results at different levels in the short as well as in the long term. The Director ensures that the insights and conclusions drawn from the M&E programme cycle inform and improve MEC programming. The EIM Director works directly with ethnic and monastic partners, local and international development agencies as well as broader stakeholders in complementary education. The Director ensures that high-calibre technical support in M&E and Education Information Management is provided across complementary education partners.

The role requires excellent skills and experience in monitoring and evaluation systems and structures, as well as technical expertise to lead on education information management and education systems. The role also requires significant experience in people management and working across a diverse set of stakeholders.

NOTE: The successful candidate will be a Myanmar national who will work alongside the current international EIM Director as the Deputy EIM Director for a period of 1-2 months until the current post holder completes her contract in March 2022.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: MEC Director

Staff reporting to this post: 1 Manager, 1 Advisor, 1 Assistant, 1 (part-time) Specialist

The Evidence and Information Management Director plays a key role in contributing to the strategy and direction of the MEC program, as well as in leading and managing the Evidence and Information

Management team within the MEC team structure under the overall leadership and direction of the MEC Director.

The EIM Director will:

· Lead strong, effective Monitoring, Evaluation & Accountability activity through providing technical, organizational and operational direction.

· Lead the rollout of the MEAL Strategy and MEAL Plan, ensuring that activity is developed and implemented in a timely fashion that recognizes and builds upon the existing structures in place. S/he will be responsible for the operationalizing of the MEC results framework and the generation of evidence through coherent information management systems.

· Ensure the implementation of strong accountability structures and mechanisms.

· Lead the design and implementation of targeted evaluation studies to address strategic knowledge gaps and information needed to inform and sharpen MEC’s program interventions in support of complementary systems strengthening.

· Contribute to the overall strategic direction, design and planning of MEC activities in close collaboration with the Senior Management team (SMT), in line with the MEC Phase 3 Program Strategy.

· Design and provide high-calibre technical support to complementary education systems, in line with identified priorities, including education information management systems strengthening.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

Monitoring and Evaluation

· Lead the Monitoring and Evaluation activity to ensure that the MEC M&E system delivers sufficient quantitative and qualitative data to reflect program results, and to capture progress in the short, intermediate and long term in line with identified indicators within the results framework;

· Ensure systems are in place to effectively monitor quality implementation of programmes and ensure accountability across different levels of implementation, and manage data;

· Provide technical support to strengthen partners’ MEAL systems, as necessary.

Evidence

· Ensure MEC routinely collects, analyses and uses evidence, including with appropriate disaggregation.

· Lead the delivery of multi-year Impact Evaluations studies, to ensure evidence is generated, documented and utilised to inform management, strategic direction, programmatic adaptations and policy and program solutions.

· Champion knowledge management through the development and use of platforms that store and display evidence and learning that is made accessible and actively used.

· Foster innovation by identifying opportunities to pilot new approaches and to upgrade tools, systems, and processes based on advances in education.

Accountability

· Lead the use of systems that safely and appropriately ensure accountability to partners, children and communities with whom we work by building trusting and collaborative relationships through information sharing and two-way communication, participation, and feedback and reporting mechanisms, consistent with the MEC Accountability and Partnership Guidelines.

· Champion the use of accountability data and community participation analysis to influence strategic decision-making and advocacy.

Partner Support

· Lead and direct the implementation of high-calibre technical support in areas of M&E, Accountability and Education Information Management across MEC partners, in line with identified and emerging priorities.

Strategy and Management

· Support the MEC Director and wider Senior Management Team (SMT) in strategy development and implementation of MEC program;

· Participate actively in the SMT to effectively support the coordination and delivery of the MEC strategy.

Team Management

· Lead, direct and support the EIM Team to ensure that team members have clearly defined objectives and that individual staff understand their roles and responsibilities.

· Incorporate staff development strategies and Develop to Perform objectives into the capacity development plan of the team.

· Support direct supervisees through one-to-one coaching.

· Ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for the team.

· Encourage a team culture and partnership approach based on sharing, learning and creativity.

Child Safeguarding Responsibility:

· Develop specific and contextual guidance to ensure that the safeguarding of children is incorporated into MEC strategies and children are protected from exploitation, increased vulnerability, or any form of harm or indignity.

General

· Promote and support a strong collaborative team culture across the EIM and wider MEC teams.

· Additional responsibilities as assigned and agreed with the MEC Director.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Qualifications

· Master’s degree (or higher) in areas of development studies / management, statistics, research or relevant disciplines; or equivalent qualifications through work experience

· Minimum of 7 years of experience within the development sector, working in program management, technical, and/or MEAL roles including in managerial/leadership responsibilities, preferably linked to education and with the majority of that time focused on overseeing comprehensive MEAL systems that ensure programme effectiveness and quality.

· Proficient in English, Myanmar and (preferably) another ethnic Myanmar language

Skills and Experience

· Understanding of emergency/humanitarian and development contexts, with a preference for experience in both contexts.

· Significant demonstrated experience and knowledge of monitoring systems, including robust and responsible data collection and use.

· Demonstrated experience and knowledge of evidence generation for learning, including designing/commissioning, implementing and applying: needs assessments, baseline studies, evaluations and research.

· Direct experience of working with communities in participatory activities. Experience and knowledge of systems for accountability to children and communities, including information sharing, the participation of adults and children, and feedback and reporting mechanisms.

· Ability to prepare and facilitate technical MEAL training and workshops (including remotely).

· Experience in Education Information Management Systems highly desired.

· Proven success in building and managing a team and dedication to developing staff capacity through training, supervising, coaching, and mentoring.

· Skilled at communicating and influencing across relevant teams and offices. Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets.

· Demonstrable analytical and problem-solving skills and experience in solving complex issues through analysis, defining, and planning a clear way forward and ensuring buy-in.

· Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

· Ability to work independently and as part of teams/groups.

· Strong remote-working and management abilities and self-motivated.

· Willingness to travel to field sites.