Evidence to Action Senior Advisor (E2A)

ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the largest humanitarian agencies in the world, providing relief, rehabilitation and post-conflict reconstruction support to victims of oppression and violent conflict. IRC has worked for over eight decades and today is involved in over 40 countries. We address both the immediate, lifesaving needs of conflict affected people in an emergency and the reconstruction needs in post conflict societies. IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation, creative partnerships, and thorough accountability to those we serve. The IRC has HQ offices in London, New York, Berlin and Geneva.

IRC’s International Programs focus on various relief, rehabilitation, and development programs for refugees, internally displaced persons and those affected by conflict in different regions worldwide. Each region is managed by a regional team that oversees the region’s country programs, which focus on different sectors, including health; water and sanitation; children and youth protection and development; protection; gender-based violence protection; economic development; civil society development; community-driven reconstruction; and refugee camp management. The IRC’s Latin America region is IRC’s newest and with the ambition of substantially increasing its portfolio across the three country programs which cover seven countries (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico). IRC’s country programs work closely with the Airbel Impact Lab, a center within IRC that combines on-the-ground expertise with disciplines like research, human-centered design, costing analysis, and behavioral insights. Within Airbel, the Evidence to Action (E2A) team specializes in reviewing and synthesizing multiple kinds of research evidence to support decision-making across the IRC—this position will also be a member of the E2A team.

Background:

Led by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the potential USAID Research Utilization to Advance Education Evidence for Youth Violence Prevention (RUTA) in Northern Central America (NCA) project aims to assist key education stakeholders in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, to access, understand, and better utilize evidence in order to design, implement, and communicate about effective education programs and policies that contribute to violence prevention. Outcomes will be achieved through a multi-country and multi-sectoral integrated approach that achieves behavior change in key stakeholders’ use of evidence and tools to positively impact youth through education to reduce violence. The objectives include:

1. Gathering and curating existing evidence and knowledge on education’s role in violence prevention to address expressed needs of key stakeholders including local governments and civil society partners including local researchers;

2. Translating and disseminating evidence for use by key stakeholders;

3. Providing customized, demand-driven technical assistance to key stakeholders to help them utilize research findings and related best practices; and

4. Strengthening knowledge systems within countries in order to improve the use of evidence in decision making around education for youth violence prevention.

RUTA will leverage the IRC’s strengths in violence prevention, education programming, and evidence-based research, and will work primarily through partnerships across the NCA countries. RUTA’s project staffing and management structure will consist of a small, decentralized team with a Chief of Party based in San Salvador and technical program teams in Tegucigalpa, San Salvador, and Guatemala City. The project is expected to be implemented for three years, from 2021-2024. The E2A Senior Advisor will report directly to the Chief of Party (COP), providing strong methodological guidance to the project´s senior management, the project’s country staff, local partners, and USAID.

Please note: This position is contingent upon award. Within the current COVID context, deployment actions will be conducted remotely, until the resumption of travel for the position is approved by the RVP.

Major Responsibilities:

*The E2A Senior Advisor will:*

• Develop and oversee the project’s approach for evidence collection, synthesis, and dissemination in line with standards established by E2A HQ;
• Provide guidance to local project staff, partners, and other stakeholders on creating linkages between evidence and practical program decision-making;
• Review and validate advanced evidence products and communication pieces developed by the project’s team
• Lead the creation of a RUTA knowledge management hub for evidence inputs and products;
• Lead trainings on search, critical appraisal, and synthesis for RUTA partners, in collaboration with E2A HQ;
• Communicate IRC’s use of evidence approaches externally though project publications, engagements and advisory support within NCA;
• Review and provide input into project quarterly and annual reports, including M&E.;
• Management of E2A Managers in each of the three programming countries;
• Report directly to the Chief of Party (COP) and serve on the senior management of the project.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD with at least 6-8 years of experience in research, research communication or evidence synthesis;
• Previous experience working on education, youth violence prevention, or social protection programs;
• Proven ability to define problems and to use quantitative and qualitative evidence to identify solutions; strong customer service orientation;
• Ability to work with multiple stakeholders across governments, research institutions, and civil society organizations.
• Excellent English and Spanish written and verbal communication skills;
• Enhanced interpersonal skills and ability to work in a diverse team setting;
• Ability and willingness to travel (25% of the time);
• Ability to prioritize high volumes of work to meet tight deadlines;
• Previous experience working in Latin America required, with a preference for the program counties;
• Previous experience with USAID programming preferred.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.