Team Leader, USAID MENA Humanitarian-Development Coherence Study in the Education Sector at Social Impact

Social Impact is a global development management consulting firm. We provide monitoring, evaluation, strategic planning, and capacity building services to advance development effectiveness. We work across all development sectors including democracy and governance, health and education, the environment, and economic growth. Since 1997 we have worked in over 100 countries for clients such as US government agencies, bilateral donors, multilateral development banks, foundations, and nonprofits.

Project Objective:

Under the Middle East Education Research, Training and Support (MEERS) initiative, USAID has commissioned Social Impact to conduct a study on humanitarian-development coherence (HDC) in the education sector across the MENA region. HDC has been an elevated policy priority for the USG since 2016, following the World Humanitarian Summit. It is relevant to countries that suffer from chronic conflict or crisis, and makes a distinction between humanitarian modalities—those that focus on the creation of parallel service delivery systems when government and local systems have been overwhelmed—and development modalities—those that focus on systemic reform and institutional capacity building in direct partnership with a national government. In the past, policy makers in both camps assumed that over time, most countries in need of humanitarian aid would eventually shift to development assistance. Many countries, however, do not follow this pattern, and rather undergo chronic crises that create a back-and-forth pattern, or else both modalities exist at the same time in the same country. Today, individual bilateral, multilateral, and nongovernmental donors support both kinds of aid, and global and local implementing partners endeavor to serve their target populations in both ways.

The objectives of this study are to gather data, evidence, analysis, and tools that USAID Missions and Bureaus can use in the following ways:

1. To inform how to sequence, layer and coordinate humanitarian aid and development assistance to achieve education sector goals.
2. To better understand the role of institutional practices and financing models in enabling or hindering coherence between humanitarian aid and development assistance organizations in the education sector.
3. To identify potential opportunities for improved coherence between humanitarian and development actors in the education and other sectors, and develop, improve, or test specific policies, processes, and tools to increase their coherence and effectiveness.

Position Description:

Social Impact is seeking a Team Leader to manage this education-sector focused study on humanitarian-development coherence for USAID. This is a fully remote part-time consulting opportunity with a period of performance from December 2021 to April 2022.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and implementation of the study and manage the study team.
• Assume primary responsibility for coordinating and finalizing high-quality deliverables within established timelines.
• Lead a literature and archival review focusing on institutional policies, practices, and funding models in the education sector in MENA, culminating in a study design and workplan describing data collection and sampling methods.
• Conduct and oversee semi-structured interviews with staff from relevant bi- and multilateral donors, NGO and implementing partner staff, MOE and local education officials, community leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Manage the preparation and presentation of a workshop sharing findings from the literature review and interviews and validating recommended revisions to decision-making tools, institutional policies and practices, and financing models that support increased coherence.
• Produce a report and toolkit summarizing findings, conclusions, and recommendations accompanied by a set of practical decision-making tools.
• Ensure the timely production and submission of draft and final reports for USAID.
• Communicate regularly with SI HQ and other team members.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in education, international development, or similar field and at least 10 years of relevant work experience.
• Expertise in leading teams of researchers on education in conflict/crisis studies and evaluations.
• Experience conducting real-time evaluations of humanitarian or development actions.
• Excellent knowledge and skill level in quantitative and qualitative research methods in crisis and conflict contexts.
• Prior experience working with USAID on evaluations, assessments, and/or other research projects.
• Experience leading research studies in the MENA region.
• Oral and written fluency in English. Arabic proficiency is an asset, but not required.