Regional Evidence and Learning Advisor

The Opportunity

This is a remote position that may be based in: Panama, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala or El Salvador.

Regional Evidence and Learning Advisor

ROLE PURPOSE

The generation and use of evidence plays a key role in Save the Children’s global strategic ambition to increase the impact of our work on children. The Regional Evidence & Learning Advisor will use their technical expertise, contextual understanding and relationship building skills to provide a critical link between Save the Children’s global and country-level E&L work, strengthening our E&L technical offer at the regional level.

Strengthen evidence and learning in the LAC region by supporting the generation, analysis, dissemination and use of strategic, high quality, ethical and useful evaluation, research, and learning activities that enable Save the Children to reach its national, regional and global objectives. Represent the region and provide technical support to movement-wide initiatives through participation in global governance groups and communities of practice. 

Promote good knowledge management, evidence uptake and learning practices for adaptive Child Rights Programming to achieve lasting outcomes for children. 

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder may be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly. 

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

Strategy: 

• Support the Country Office Country Strategy Planning process, tracking implementation of commitments and ensuring that research, evidence, accountability and learning form the foundation for all CO strategy development processes and program design. 
• Develop and implement a regional Evidence and Learning Strategy for Save the Children LAC, securing broad buy in across the countries and Regional Office/projects and targeting interventions that will achieve the greatest impact in the short and medium term, whether using evidence in innovation, delivery at scale or for advocacy and campaigns
• Help drive progress on Save the Children’s regional strategic priorities (Migration, SB2S, Safety Nets and Resilient Families and Violence and Adolescence), by ensuring that approaches are grounded in evidence, with evidence gaps targeted. 
• Link with SCI work on  the Global Research, Evidence and Learning agenda and Common Approaches to ensure that LAC countries are using and informing best practice in the region and globally. 
• Manage interdependencies with other functional teams and strategic initiatives across LAC countries to ensure alignment in Research and MEAL work. 

Analytics and use of Evidence in Decision Making: 

• Undertake analytical work on quality child rights programming to generate CO, thematic and cross-thematic learning on trends and opportunities for SCI to achieve better outcomes for children. 
• Support Cos to strengthen their use of evidence in decision making. 

Developing, Managing and Disseminating Learning Products: 

• Lead the development of learning products such as fact sheets, policy briefs, policy position papers, publications, etc. and, work with the Communications Team to identify innovative ways of packaging such products for children and young people. 
• Ensure that knowledge management platforms are available and used to support access and use of  these learning products within and outside the region. 
• Lead the regional Community of Practice for MEAL, Evidence and Learning and support talent development of CO MEAL staff. 
• Promote an organizational culture for knowledge sharing and cross learning in LAC. 

• Country Office Research and MEAL Uplift: 
• Support and sometimes lead the development of systems, processes and country capability for quality Research and MEAL. 
• Support COs in commissioning and managing of research and evaluations, including connecting them with deployable Global Research & Evaluation unit staff for LAC 
• Participate in talent development of CO MEAL staff in Child Rights Programming, Gender etc.
• Support the rolling out and proper use of the SCI Ethics and Evidence Generation policy and procedure in the LAC region.

Resourcing Research, Evaluation and Learning 

• Work across LAC countries to ensure that robust use of evidence and a strong learning culture is built systemically into the design, approval, implementation and review of programmes, including budgeting appropriately for strategic evidence generation in proposals. 
• Provide a knowledge and learning management lens in reviewing and strengthening proposals.

Networking and Partnerships: 

• Establish and maintain strong working relationship with other technical leads (thematic and cross functional), Save the Children Members and Academia to initiate, adapt or test new practices, approaches or methodologies with a view to improving outcomes for children and our ability to demonstrate and showcase that impact. 
• Support establishing and managing strategic partnerships with regional research and learning institutions.  

Other areas include working with MEAL advisors to

• Support MEAL aspects of Country Annual Planning, Country Strategic Planning, and reporting processes at the Country and Global level, including programme KPI, Total Reach, among others. 
• Support MEAL aspects of proposal development and donor reporting for key strategic programmes and opportunities.

To be successful, you will bring/have: 

You will have strong analytical skills, including working with research and evidence relevant to Save the Children’s agenda and a proven ability to build strong collaborative networks and influence, externally and internally. In addition, you will have: 

• Undergraduate degree in a relevant field and post-graduate studies in M&E or a related area with a sound understanding of different research, evaluation and monitoring methods relevant to Save the Children’s work.  
• High level of fluency in English and Spanish, both verbal and written. Portuguese and or French a plus.  Experience in more than one country desirable.
• Experience in knowledge management and organisational learning in order to help drive improvements in evidence understanding and uptake 
• Experience working for an international humanitarian or development agency.       
• Experience in writing policy papers, research or evaluation reports 
• Knowledge and demonstrated experience of designing and managing research and evaluations 
• Demonstrated ability to think critically, strategically and analyse complex information and offer creative, practical and effective solutions 
• Ability to give professional support and direction to others 
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, and an ability to produce and disseminate research and evaluation outputs to a variety of audiences 
• Willing and able to travel to COs to support field teams and lead particular pieces of work 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to adapt communication style to different stakeholders 

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. 

Application Information:

Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your salary expectations. 

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.

Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Early applications will have priority. Qualified candidates could be interviewed before de application closing date.