Team Leader: Learning & Innovation – USAID/Vietnam Reducing Pollution Activity

BACKGROUND:
In support of Vietnam’s efforts to address environmental pollution challenges, the five-year USAID Reducing Pollution Activity fosters locally-driven initiatives and facilitates capacity for local actors/networks to address environmental pollution challenges using a collective impact approach. Collective impact addresses complex challenges by mobilizing diverse actors to collaborate, identify ways to solve a shared problem, and take action based on their roles and comparative advantages. The Activity demonstrates clear connections between environmental benefits and other social benefits, including public health, employment, and sustainable economic growth.

Through this Activity, USAID expects to attain the following results:

• Strengthened networks of local organizations, government, private sector, and academic institutions working together to prevent, mitigate, and/or reduce environmental pollution; and
• Increased capacity of stakeholders to generate, share, and use pollution data to support policy/implementation solutions for locally-determined environmental pollution challenges.

POSITION SUMMARY:
The Team Leader: Learning and Innovation plays a critical role in the Reducing Pollution Activity team by providing leadership, guidance and overall direction to ensure and advance collaborative efforts with key stakeholders, promote learning and support processes to enable adaptative management within the project.

S/he will be responsible for implementing a systematic, intentional, and resourced approach to integrating collaboration, learning, and adapting efforts, and serve as the Activity’s overall leader for performance monitoring. Working under the supervision of the Chief of Party, the Team Leader: Learning and Innovation will champion and coordinate organizational reflection and learning opportunities as well as foster strong collaboration and coordination with all key stakeholders, including Government of Vietnam, leading local NGOs, social organizations and private sector entities.

S/he will be based in Hanoi, with periodic travel to the project’s target sites as required for project activities.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
Organizational Learning and Adaptive Management

• Leading the development of the project’s Results Framework and ensure adaptation as required, in line with USAID frameworks, tools and approaches
• Designing, and leading the implementation of an effective, inclusive, systematic, intentional, and resourced approach to organizational learning (by creating and implementing an organizational learning agenda) to enable continuous improvement of the Activity
• Coordinating participatory analyses at regular intervals to ensure that Activity understanding remains current to inform ongoing efforts, and to document how linkages among local actors are changing over time
• Overseeing the Activity baseline and developmental evaluation by collecting and analyzing real-time data in ways that will lead to informed and ongoing decision making as part of the design, development, and implementation process of the project as well as rapid evaluation of innovative activities and technologies
• Designing and coordinating implementation of needs-based implementation research studies and protocols to generate evidence for innovations that work and do not work, ensuring methodological rigor of research undertaken
• Supporting and guiding leading grantees and partner sub-awardees with collaborative learning and measurement for a collective impact process

Knowledge Management & Communications

• Leading the design and implementation of learning platforms and networks (internally within the project and externally with multiple stakeholders) for quick uptake of learning for programmatic adaptation
• Articulating strategy and plans for outreach, dissemination and collaborative learning on results (outputs and outcomes) of the project/activity, performance improvements, and convening lessons learned throughout project phases – discovery, organize for action, and implementation
• Facilitating collaboration, learning and sharing of experiences among local partners
• Establishing communication systems with partner grantees and helps to support and/or create an enabling environment for collective action among and between partners
• Overseeing the communication activities of the project

Staff management and contributions to organizational culture

• Recruiting, orienting, strengthening the capacity, and overseeing the performance of MEL, Communications and Data Management staff members
• Embedding a collaborating and learning focus into the project culture and implementation process

Other

• Travel domestically to support project sub-grantees

QUALIFICATIONS AND BACKGROUND:
Education:

• A minimum Master’s degree in Social Science or related fields, or BA/BS and equivalent years of experience

Work Experience:

• A minimum of ten (10) years working in international development and/or social scientific research
• Established experience facilitating effective collaboration and organizational learning practices internally and with external stakeholders

Skills:

• Ability to apply tested approaches and frameworks, while demonstrating ability to think “outside the box” to bring in new innovative ideas and processes
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work well in a team setting
• Creativity and enthusiasm to tackle new challenges
• Experience with collective impact, multistakeholder facilitation, and/or community development required
• Experience managing research or learning agendas, knowledge management processes, qualitative and quantitative data management and analysis, and/or research methods required
• Familiarity with the USAID Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) framework, tools and approaches is an advantage
• Proven experience with qualitative and innovative research, monitoring, or evaluation methodologies
• Experience in capacity strengthening of local organizations
• Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Vietnamese
• Excellent written and oral communication
• Proficient in Microsoft Office

About Winrock International

Winrock is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and value diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law.

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