Education Assessment Officer

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarter is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

We are currently looking for an Education Assessment Officer

Position:Education Assessment Officer

Contract duration:6 months, renewable

Location: Switzerland, Geneva – with up to 50% of missions

Starting date: March 2023

CONTEXT

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated humanitarian needs around the world, compounding existing crises and resulting in an unparalleled loss of learning. The pandemic has disrupted education at unprecedented levels, impacting over 90% of the world’s student population in 2020, some 1.6 billion children, including 743 million girls.

Confined to their homes due to school closure, children whose families have turned towards negative coping mechanisms are increasingly exposed to an array of protection risks, including greater exposure to sexual and gender-based violence, especially for women and girls. Being out of school for extended periods has resulted in extraordinary loss of learning and social contact, while also increasing the risk of dropping out of school. In addition, school closures impede access to other essential school-based services, such as health and nutrition programs.

The pandemic has also revealed pervasive information gaps related to education and child protection across a number of contexts. This lack of data impedes the ability of humanitarian actors to make timely and evidence-based decisions, as well as to develop more vigilant contingency planning. Against this backdrop, the GEC and the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (GCPAoR) have developed the CP-EiE Collaboration in Coordination Framework, which outlines practical steps for education and child protection clusters and working groups to collaborate in data collection and analytical exercises. Operationalizing the CP-EiE Collaboration Framework is a vital opportunity to ensure a more comprehensive response to the complex needs of children and youth caught in humanitarian emergencies. Close partnership with and capacity building of national and local actors remains critical to understanding and addressing the needs of crisis affected populations, as well as to ensuring preparedness for contextual changes.

PROJECT

The formal partnership between REACH and the Global Education Cluster (GEC) started in 2019. In 2022, REACH has supported the GEC, the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (GCPAoR), as well as various actors in-country to develop four joint secondary data reviews and implement joint needs assessments in four countries. Two additional countries will be selected as part of this project in 2023. More generally, in response to global growing needs, REACH will continue to support the GEC in scaling up the scope and the coverage of its technical support and guidance on needs assessments and analysis to the education country clusters, working groups and partners, ultimately improving the evidence-base in the key milestones of the Humanitarian Project Cycle (HPC).

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Research Manager, the Assessment Officer will support the Global Education Cluster in improving and strengthening evidence-based humanitarian coordination. Specifically, the Assessment Officer will be in charge of:

• Supporting one national coordination platform to undertake a joint education-child-protection secondary data review.
• Strengthening assessment capacity of national coordination platforms and supporting them in the implementation of a joint education-child-protection assessment and related analysis activities (approximately 8 weeks of deployment in the selected country).
• Providing other assessment-related support and developing sector-specific global assessment policies, resources and tools.

1. Support National Coordination Platforms and Partners to undertake joint secondary data review

Supporting education cluster, CPAoR teams, national and local partners, to undertake joint secondary data review

• Building on the tools designed during the first year of the project, lead and provide guidance on the development of the joint secondary data review in the selected country .

2. Support one joint education-child protection assessment and analysis

Supporting national coordination platforms in the implementation of a joint Education-Child protection assessment and analysis activities

• Lead and provide guidance on assessment design, including analysis of cluster information needs, the development of appropriate methodologies, indicators and tools .
• Support with data collection coordination and ensuring data quality meets highest standards.
• Lead and provide guidance on data analysis and outputs production, including drafting of assessment outputs.
• Promote a broad participation of national coordination platforms’ members at all the stages of the assessment process to create a broad sense of ownership.
• Develop the materials for the joint interpretation workshop and support its organization.
• Support effective dissemination and usage of assessment findings, including through delivering presentations, mobilizing partners, ensuring synchronization with other areas of the HPC.

3. Strengthen assessment capacity of national platforms and partners

Strengthening assessment capacity of national coordination platforms and relevant partners through capacity building

• Support the design, the organization and the delivery of trainings on assessment design and implementation both to partners and national coordination platforms’ staff in the selected country.
• Provide customized training for national coordination platforms based on their specific needs and capacities.

4. Provide other assessment support to National Coordination Platforms and develop global tools and guidelines (50%)

Provide other remote or in-person support and contribute to develop sector-specific global tools and guidelines

• Building on the experience of the joint needs assessments, support the development and review of toolkits, guidance, indicator/question banks, analysis tools and reference materials, etc. developed at global level to empower field assessment activities and mainstream best practices.
• Provide ad-hoc support to other national coordination platforms in implementing other assessment related activities (training, tool review, analysis support etc.)

REQUIREMENTS

Required:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (economics, statistics, data science, sociology, development / humanitarian studies, etc).
• Minimum 2 years of experience in assessment, information management, monitoring and evaluation, or operational research.
• Minimum 1 year of field experience in complex humanitarian crises.
• Ability to operate in cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility.
• Familiarity with the humanitarian coordination architecture and mechanisms.
• Excellent leadership and supervisory skills, ability to motivate and empower colleagues.
• Fluent spoken and written English, and preferably working proficiency in either French or Spanish.
• Willingness to travel to various country missions up to 50% of the time.
• Ability to work in difficult conditions and under tight deadlines.
• Familiarity with at least one statistical analysis software, such as Excel, SPSS, STATA, R, Python, etc.

Desired:

• A good understanding of the humanitarian policy environment including latest assessment policies and standards.
• Experience in liaison with a broad range of stakeholders, ability to build relationships and networks with international donors, UN agencies and INGOs, national authorities, national/local partner agencies and affected communities.
• Training, coaching and mentoring skills.
• Work experience in child protection or working closely with child protection actors.