Senior Officer, Learning from Evidence, GPE

Senior Officer, Learning from Evidence, GPE

Senior Officer, Learning from Evidence, GPE

Job #: req22813
Organization: World Bank
Sector: Education
Grade: GG
Term Duration: 2 years 0 months
Recruitment Type: International Recruitment
Location: Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s): English
Preferred Language(s): Spanish, French
Closing Date: 6/16/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Are you a very passionate advocate for education? Do you want to make a difference in the lives of children? The Global Partnership for Education Secretariat (GPE) would like to hear from you.

Who We Are

GPE is a shared commitment to end the world’s learning crisis. It is the only global partnership and fund dedicated entirely to helping children in lower-income countries get a quality education, so they can unlock their potential and contribute to building a better world.

We bring together governments, teachers, civil society, donors, United Nations agencies, development banks, businesses and private foundations to transform education systems so that every girl and boy can have hope, opportunity and agency.

What We Do

GPE helps low- and lower-middle-income countries to build stronger education systems so that all children can get the education they need to thrive. We currently support nearly 90 countries where the needs are greatest and focus on reaching the children who are the most vulnerable, including girls, children with disabilities and those affected by extreme poverty or conflict.

Our unique approach works. Since 2002, 160 million more children in GPE partner countries have set foot in classrooms for the first time, more than half of them girls. GPE is also the largest provider of education grants in the global COVID-19 response, providing partner countries with vital resources to ensure that learning can safely continue.

How We Work

Now, GPE is working to help governments transform their education systems to get the most vulnerable children in school, improve teaching and learning, and build equitable, inclusive and resilient education systems fit for the 21st century. Between 2020-2025, GPE will support transformative change in up to 90 countries and territories, which are home to 1 billion children.

Transforming education is about creating lasting changes and achieving impact at scale. GPE sets out to deliver this transformative change by convening partners, mobilizing funds and catalyzing reforms to help partner countries accelerate access, learning outcomes and gender equality.

Raise Your Hand

In July 2021, the Global Education Summit put GPE firmly on the path to be fully funded by 2025, by raising a record US $4 billion from donors for GPE’s Raise Your Hand campaign. At the Summit, Heads of State and Government from partner countries made historic commitments to education financing and GPE also mobilized an unprecedented number of pledges from businesses, private foundations and development banks.

A fully funded GPE would support transformed education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, enable up to 175 million children to learn and help get 88 million more girls and boys in school by 2025. In the longer term, this investment could add $164 billion to economies in GPE partner countries, lift 18 million people out of poverty, and protect 2 million girls from early marriage.

Governance And Organizational Arrangements

The GPE Board of Directors includes ministerial-level board members and alternates representing 20 constituencies that reflect the Partnership’s breadth. The Board Chair is HE President Jakaya Kikwete and the Board Vice Chair is Dr Susan Liautaud. The Board of Directors, with its three standing committees, provides policy and strategic oversight and approves or delegates funding decisions.

The GPE Secretariat, with 160 employees and hosted by the World Bank, is responsible for translating the policies and strategies set by the Board into practical support for partner countries, coordinating with diverse stakeholders and galvanizing global support for SDG4. The Secretariat’s headquarters are in the World Bank’s offices in Washington, D.C. and the European office is in Paris with a satellite office in Brussels.

ABOUT THE TEAM

GPE has committed to becoming an evidence-based learning partnership as part of its 2021-2025 strategy. To support this effort, GPE has developed a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework, that outlines how data and evidence will be generated and used across the partnership through both efforts at the country level and a specific Secretariat five-year work plan on: a results framework; a monitoring and data system; an annual results report; a portfolio of reviews and evaluations; a program of knowledge management and learning; and the management of a strategic partnership that provides advisory and capacity development support to countries for evaluations. For details, see: https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/gpe-2025-monitoring-evaluation-and-learning-framework-december-2020. Also see the evaluation policy: GPE evaluation policy. May 2021 | Documents | Global Partnership for Education.

Results and Performance (R&P) team within the GPE Secretariat leads on the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework of GPE and helps the partnership learn from evidence generated through MEL. R&P is directly responsible for the following work program:

• Produce annual results reports, reviews, and analyses of GPE data.
•  Generate results framework country-level data, including profiles which are published on the external website.
•  Develop guidelines and templates for grant and compact monitoring and results reporting.
•  Manage a portfolio of corporate evaluations.
•  Stimulate learning from the monitoring and evaluation evidence generated at global and country levels, among the Partnership and within the Secretariat.
•  Manage strategic relationships with technical partners related to data and evidence

ABOUT THE JOB

This job will be based in either the Washington, D.C. office or the Paris, France office.

Description

A key tenet of GPE’s 2025 strategy is to drive evidence-based agile learning: “At its core, GPE’s effectiveness as a partnership is grounded in our ability to learn from our shared experiences. Under GPE 2025, we will pursue a balanced approach between two aims: supporting learning and the use of evidence at the country level to enable adaptive management and strengthen the capacity to drive results, and strategic monitoring, evaluation and learning for accountability, transparency, and aggregating results at the partnership level”. An important aspect of this strategy also pertains to rapid and agile learning from lessons of implementation and ongoing monitoring to inform how we work and support strategic decisions through GPE’s governing bodies, including the Board and its Committees. To this end, a Learning Leadership Team (2LT) has been established to operationalize key aspects of GPE’s “becoming a learning partnership.”

A strong leadership position is required to further define and support the operationalization of an agile and robust organizational learning strategy, including its connections to learning from implementation and the monitoring and evaluation portfolio, synergies with the strategic capability in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) for countries, and alignment with strategic learning at the Board, all with the aim of driving education transformation in GPE’s partner countries.

The incumbent will participate in GPE’s Learning Leadership Tem and play a senior leadership role in guiding and supporting GPE—Secretariat, Board and its Committees, and the broader Partnership—in learning from evidence as well as systematic lessons from experience and implementation for agile operational model adaptations and strategy refinement. The incumbent will collaborate with members of the Learning Leadership Team to drive an overall approach that synthesizes learning from implementation, monitoring data from GPE operations, and evidence from evaluations and ensures its practical applications in a complex business environment.

The position is staffed in the Results and Performance (R&P) team and reports to the R&P manager for the analytic work (data, monitoring, evaluation, syntheses of qualitative feedback, etc.) undertaken for the learning function.

Duties And Accountabilities

The job comprises four major streams of work as follows:

Strategic leadership on supporting learning in GPE. Leading the cross-Secretariat Learning Leadership Team on key aspects of learning from evidence. This will include the development of an overall strategy and approach on the learning function in collaboration with 2LT members. It will also include aggregating and analyzing knowledge for learning from implementation (e.g., through After-Action Reviews), data, and evaluation evidence streams of work for agile management and adaptions in GPE’s operating model and strategy.

Strategic and technical leadership on GPE grant monitoring design and ongoing analysis. This work will ensure that monitoring data are used regularly for strategic management and learning in the aggregate, through grant analyses, dashboards, and systematic reviews of monitoring reports.

Strategic and technical leadership on the MEL strategic capability. This work is important as it will enable countries to strengthen their MEL systems with respect to Compacts, a major aspect of GPE’s operating model. It will also allow GPE to gain strategic oversight and knowledge of key country-level issues in Compact MEL and therefore to adapt and strengthen GPE’s approach to supporting countries’ system transformation.

Technical support on the evaluation portfolio, especially on analytic questions and analyses of key importance for the evolution of GPE’s operating model and system transformation (the findings from which are integrated into the learning stream).

Selection Criteria

Education

Master’s degree with a strong emphasis on policy and practice implications of research, data, and evidence, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience

Eight years of experience and substantive experience in designing and operationalizing adaptive learning strategies, using a collaborative and consultative approach and working in consultation with stakeholders and across team boundaries. Experience in managing consultants and firms. Experience in the education sector a plus, including with GPE at the country level.

Language

Proficiency in English, both written and verbal, is required for this role. Spanish and/or French is desirable but not required.
Skills and Competencies

Essential to this role is the ability to work collaboratively across teams and senior representatives of the partnership with excellent teamwork, listening skills, confidence, and soft power to foster productive dynamics and generate an open and learning mindset. Another critical component will be to help formulate a strategy operationalized to enhance practical and timely uptake and use of the learning, in order to live the concept of “learn and adapt.” These approaches will collectively deepen a culture of evidence-based decisions across the partnership. The position requires the following specific competencies:

Understanding and operationalizing the use of evidence for learning and decision-making, including through a gender and inclusion lens, as applied in education – Has experience in translating evidence into action and being able to distinguish between actionable and non-actionable evidence; recognizing the role evidence can play in immediate and longer-term changes; recognizing the change process required for evidence uptake. Demonstrating independence and a focus on quality, while working constructively to engage colleagues in evidence-informed conversations that support the organizations’ mission and objectives. Understanding of data and evaluations and their uses for learning and strategic change, and their role in organizational functioning and development effectiveness

Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills, as applied to monitoring and using the monitoring data for agile management and learning – Has experience in developing monitoring systems and results frameworks and using these for communication and learning.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills – Has extensive experience & success working in multicultural environments. Is confident and speaks constructively to engage colleagues in evidence-informed conversations that support the organization’s mission and coaches others to do the same. Speaks and writes clearly and effectively, adapting language, tone, style, and message to diverse, multicultural audiences, internally and externally. Is skilled at communicating complex information in succinct and digestible ways. Shares information and keeps people informed and engages in active listening and two-way conversations. Maintains productive working relationships with colleagues and holds team members responsible for doing the same. Asks questions for clarification and responds to others appropriately. Learns from others’ ideas and expertise.

Collaboration & Teamwork – Views the whole of the Secretariat as greater than sum of the parts and works collaboratively with colleagues with shared goals and fostering a productive group dynamics and mindset. Acts as a teammate; steps in to support teammates and colleagues across teams as needed, regardless of organizational boundaries. Recognizes, values, and reinforces the role of each team in delivering on GPE’s mission. Approaches challenges and obstacles as shared challenges to be overcome and leads groups to this outcome. Fosters productive group dynamics and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches. Supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when decisions do not reflect own position.

Adaptability – Models flexibility – responds to changing circumstances by innovating and altering behavior to better fit different situations. Learns new skills, performs work in different ways and coaches team members to do the same. Exerts a calming influence on colleagues and staff in stressful situations. Professionally deals with personal discomfort in a changing work environment and helps others do so.

Accountability & Results Focus – Engages in productive consultation without losing sight of responsibility for own, and team, decisions, deliverables, and deadlines. Does not let the pursuit of perfection prevent forward progress, in self or on teams. Seeks clarity from colleagues or leadership team when needed; Helps junior staff get needed clarity to move work forward; works within and across teams to remove obstacles and resolve issues. Takes ownership of own mistakes, failures, or oversights, and seeks to correct them; Shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team mistakes. Manages differences of opinion to productive resolution so as not to impede progress. Ensures group efforts produce clear actions and decisions and tasks conclude.

Planning & Organizing – Works well independently and in teams. Develops clear goals aligned to agreed strategies and direction. Plans and prioritizes work effectively, for self and assigned teams Works under pressure and against tight timelines, and still delivers high-quality work. Manages own and team time efficiently, and delegates appropriately. Foresees risks and identifies mitigation strategies and contingencies.

Diversity and Inclusion: Fosters equity and inclusion in teams, and encourages and supports diverse voices, relationships, networks, and collaborations. Contributes to building an environment of psychological safety, respectful behaviors, and trust to promote a healthy organizational culture.

BENEFITS FOR THIS POSITION

Term appointments include, but are not limited to, medical benefits, including dental and vision, Staff Retirement Plan, financial assistance program, life & disability insurance, comprehensive leave policy (minimum 26 days/annum) and parental leave policy (50-100 days).

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Poverty has no borders. Neither does excellence. This is why we continually search for qualified individuals with a diverse set of backgrounds from around the globe. We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, creed, race, color, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability.

GPE has a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in line with its PSEAH policy.

Individuals with disabilities may be provided reasonable accommodations to perform essential functions of the role and support in receiving other workplace accommodations. Please contact the DAF-Disability Accommodation Fund at disabilityfund@worldbank.org for further information and support.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.