Director of Research and Learning (DRL) -Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

LINC is a mission-driven US-based small business organized around a commitment to local organizations leading their own development. We do this by implementing programs and delivering consulting and training in the areas of monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL), capacity-strengthening, and collective action. The recipient of USAID’s Small Business of the Year award in 2017, we are a team of reflective and passionate development professionals. Our country experience spans Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. For more information on LINC, please visit www.linclocal.org.

In Ethiopia, LINC is implementing the new five-year, USAID-funded Resilience Learning Activity (RLA). The activity supports USAID and its resilience partners with learning, collaboration, and research around resilience issues in Ethiopia. RLA serves as a “learning sidecar” to USAID/Ethiopia and its implementing partners, helping them to better understand what relief and development interventions can help make households, communities, and systems more resilient to increasingly persistent shocks and stresses. RLA provides support with learning processes and frameworks, development and consolidation of learning and research agendas, and support to resilience partners for adaptive management, results measurement, and the increased integration of systems thinking and rapid feedback into their respective toolboxes.

Position Description

The Director of Research and Learning (DRL) will be responsible for providing resilience research and learning support to USAID, implementing partners, and other development and relief partners working to build resilience in Ethiopia. S/he will combine strong analytical skills with technical expertise in resilience programming and direct experience and familiarity with both the USAID’s resilience investments and the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) in Ethiopia. The candidate should have a good understanding of both the theoretical and practical application of various resilience measurement and impact frameworks, and be able to access available knowledge resources. The candidate should have practical experience in applying systems and complexity aware monitoring and rapid feedback tools and methods to track development effectiveness, and be able to transfer that knowledge to staff and partners in an easy-to-understand way.

Responsibilities

• Leading a major effort to collect, organize and synthesize available data and information on resilience programming from databases, USAID and resilience implementing partner documentation (e.g. research, evaluations, reports), government statistical resources, the PSNP, and elsewhere.
• Identify resilience evidence gaps and work with staff and stakeholders to map out a process for filling those gaps.
• Contribute to a high level, multi-partner Resilience Learning Agenda and assist implementing partners to develop bottom-up research agenda.
• Work with implementing partners to prioritize areas of research that can be built into programming and harvest evidence and results.
• Provide technical assistance to resilience partners and various project-supported “communities of practice” to introduce and apply appropriate rapid feedback and systems thinking monitoring and learning tools, potentially including systems mapping, systems and causal dynamics analysis, network analysis, and ethnographic methods to provide more immediate feedback and inform program implementation.

Skills and Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in research and evaluation, social sciences, or a related field
• 15 years or more of progressively responsible work experience
• Technical expertise in resilience
• Experience supporting the learning and analytical needs of USAID-funded resilience projects in Ethiopia
• Experience coordinating the development of a comprehensive plan to translate evidence into practice.
• Significant and demonstrated experience identifying, generating, and disseminating evidence informed, action-oriented information and innovation.
• Demonstrated experience translating fragmented data from a number of sectors into content and process adaptation, development and dissemination.
• Experience creating materials that reflect high standards of technical and operational excellence and are consistent with donor and other key stakeholder expectations.
• Facilitate the rollout of content and processes, in coordination with partners, key events and priorities; where appropriate, directly deliver training to advance improved application of promising practices.
• Ability to provide content expertise and creating and leveraging systems integration and strategic learning and engagement opportunities.
• Applies critical thinking, meaningful analysis, and creativity to close gaps, test assumptions and current approaches, address pressing challenges, and share information and innovation in a variety of ways using various technologies and engagement strategies
• Significant experience using or creating data for a variety of audiences to drive decision making.
• Strong verbal and written skills in English (Level III for both) are required. Knowledge of Amharic is required.