Director of Learning

<!–

Description

–>

Background

The Girls First Fund is a donor collaborative supported by leading philanthropic organizations and individual philanthropists who have come together to champion community-led efforts so that all girls can live free from child marriage and create their own future. We focus on girls, families, and communities because we believe they are in the best position to create lasting, local change and address the causes of child marriage at their roots.

Through our funding+ model, we provide core, flexible and long-term grants to community-based organizations in the global South. In addition, we ensure that our partners are connected to each other for peer-to-peer learnings and exchange and facilitate access to accompaniment and technical assistance. We currently resource partners in the Dominican Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Nepal, Niger, and Uganda; and we are expanding to more geographies.

Since issuing our first round of grants in May 2019, we have developed a dynamic internal learning system. We have also partnered with the Population Council to carry out an external mixed method evaluation of our grantee partners’ work in three countries. Our current approach to learning has enabled us to (i) strategically facilitate learnings among grantee partners based on their interests and priorities; (ii) strategize on how best to support our grantee partners; and (iii) document changes, progress, and challenges towards ending child marriage in communities where our grantee partners operate.

As we continue our current funding and expand to new geographies, we wish to deepen our learning agenda and optimize our Monitoring Evaluation and Learning systems to:

• document the journey of GFF grantees to “deliver locally relevant, girl-led and/or -centered, gender-transformative strategies” in order to gather insights on how grantees operationalize these strategies, where do they face obstacles in doing so, and how do these strategies contribute to the goal of “positive shifts toward gender equality”;
• contribute to the broader philanthropic discourse on how to support and resource CBOs to impact child marriage through gender transformative strategies;
• contribute practice-based and CBO-centered learning to the global knowledge base on efforts to address child marriage
• To that end, the Girls First Fund is recruiting a Director of Learning to update, coordinate, and execute the implementation of our learning agenda and evaluation efforts. 

Your Role 

Under the overall guidance and direction of the GFF director, you will work as part of the GFF team to update the design and delivery of all monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategies by building on and adapting what is currently in place. This will include:

• Updating and coordinating the overarching monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategy and systems so that evaluation and learning is embedded into the overall practice and culture of GFF.
• Guiding and supporting the staff and grantee partners, as relevant and appropriate, to identify, gather, and synthesize meaningful and relevant learnings. 
• Co-facilitating conversations with representatives of the fund’s core donors and external partners on issues related to MEL in partnership with the Fund director.
• Proactively connecting GFF’s learnings with the latest global evidence on the role of community-based organizations in preventing and mitigating child marriage and increasing visibility of the work of our grantee partners, such as through the development and dissemination of case studies, lessons learned and/or other relevant outputs—in partnership with the Sr. Communications Officer.
• Co-creating with staff and country-based consultants processes to provide MEL-focused accompaniment to grantees, to ensure the amplification of community-based perspectives and voices and to support and resource grantee partners to embed learning into their organizational practices and culture.
• Partnering with the Fund director to ensure that all processes are in line with the priorities and values of the fund, which include being girl-centered, grantee-centered, community-driven, gender-transformative, and aiming to reduce the burden on grantees while generating meaningful evidence on the role that CBOs play within the ecosystem to prevent and respond to child marriage.

The Director of Learning will report to the Fund director and will work closely with the GFF leadership and programs team. The position will coordinate and oversee a team of globally based part-time learning consultants.

Your Experience and Abilities Demonstrated

Master’s degree in social sciences, public health, international development or a related field
13 + years of professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, research and learning and preferably 5+ years in an international development context
Formal training and experience with mixed methods in research and evaluation, i.e. in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
Experience with feminist and/or equity-focused approaches to evaluation and learning  
Experience leading teams that are based in multiple countries
Experience managing large evaluation contracts
Experience coordinating learning processes with community-based organizations and local non-governmental organizations on gender and/or girls’ rights focused programming in low and middle-income countries required
Demonstrated experience leading dissemination efforts of learnings
Strong facilitation skills and experience working with donor collaboratives preferred
Strong writing skills
Demonstrated ability to work independently and in advising senior leadership on MEL strategy
Experience using at least one quantitative and one qualitative data collection and analysis software such as Qualtrics, Dedoose. SPSS, Smart Simple, etc.
In-depth topical knowledge of girls’ rights, especially related to child, early and forced marriage and early unions, as well as the fund’s other priority areas (education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, social norms change, and girls’ leadership)
Fluency in English is required
Professional proficiency in at least one other language spoken in the communities where our partners operate is required. French or Spanish preferred.

The Details

This role is fully virtual. Candidates from and based in countries where child marriage and early unions are a common occurrence are strongly encouraged to apply. The position will require possible international every year. We will consider proposals from independent consultants who can work on a retainer basis and deliver this work; as well as from candidates interested in a full-time role.

US-based full-term employees are eligible for a 401k and health care benefits package, a stipend for professional development and wellbeing, and a competitive leave policy.  Non-US based personnel will be offered a contractual status with allowance offerings.  

The Girls First Fund is a project of Capital for Good, a US 501 C 3. We are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion. With our commitment to ensure diverse representation, we strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should upload a cover letter, CV/resume (including names and contact information for references), and two writing samples in English (two to five pages each; excerpts from longer documents accepted) here.

Deadline to submit application is February 15th, 2023.  

Source: https://www.fitzii.com/apply/74478?s=c41

<!—

<!–

–>