Director of Learning, Evaluation, and Impact, Global Fund for Women, San Francisco, CA

Director of Learning, Evaluation, and Impact

Posted on: March 5, 2013
Posted by: Global Fund for Women

JOB SUMMARY

The Global Fund for Women is committed to a learning and impact-oriented approach in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of its programmatic work. In order to meaningfully contribute to this aim, GFW is investing more deeply in its strategic approach to measuring results, changes in context and behaviors at all levels (individual, community, national, and global) and to determining the impact of its support for grantees as well as its own work.

The Director of Learning, Evaluation, and Impact (LEI) will provide the necessary capacity building, tools, and guidance to support Global Fund for Women partners, grantees, and staff to demonstrate the results of GFW's work and investment in programs to advance women's and girls' universal human rights. Internally, documenting GFW's learning and results is critical to ensuring our accountability to grantee partners and donors and to improving our program quality and strategic decision-making. Externally, doing so contributes to our advocacy, fundraising, policy influence, and communications with key stakeholders and constituencies.

The LEI role sits within the Program team and reports to the Vice President of Programs. This position is situated within a team-based work environment, where team members work collaboratively on the organization's program, monitoring, and learning objectives. The position has important accountabilities to the Development team and to the Global Fund's donors. It also requires close work with Global Fund grantee partners and advisors to guide their efforts to capture evidence and learning.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Design and Implement GFW's Learning, Evaluation, & Impact Framework

• Oversee the development of a whole-of-agency learning, monitoring, and evaluation framework and its implementation with staff, Board, grantees, advisors, and donors
• Contribute to the annual and strategic planning processes to ensure that learning, monitoring, and evaluation is a key component of this work
• Work closely with an LME consultancy in the development and operationalizing of this framework including the development of new tools and processes to capture impact data and oversee the timely and quality usage of tools
• Create and implement ongoing trainings for staff, grantees, and advisors in relation to all aspects of GFW's learning, monitoring, and evaluation approach
• Build the capacity of staff on effective approaches to capturing evidence, results, and impact
• Work closely with grantee partners to capture program impact data in line with program impact goals and priorities, and to capture emerging evidence to support advocacy strategy priorities
• Deliver a series of high impact development reports on an annual basis to meet donor commitments
• Work closely with the Development team in meeting with and reporting to donors regarding GFW's learning, monitoring, and impact assessment approaches and results
• Utilize and implement a range of mixed methodologies to capture outcomes and impact at both breadth (scale) and depth
• Develop professional contacts with other interested stakeholders (local and international NGOs, research institutions, etc.) who could collaborate on research initiatives and impact assessments
• Capture information related to the Global Fund's roles in support of social change and the realization of women's and girls' universal human rights

Reflection on GFW's Learning, Evaluation, & Impact

• Lead and facilitate ongoing reflection, learning, and program quality improvement
• Develop creative approaches to ensure unanticipated results and findings are captured, and develop and test new approaches
• Facilitate regular reflective practices with staff, partners, and communities to ensure ongoing learning and improvement
• Capture and document learning, pilots, and good practices and communicate recommendations for replication, scale-up, and improvement.
• Proactively seek relevant and potential ideas, best practices, success stories, and lessons learned in order to support grantee partners to pilot and scale-up initiatives and programs, as appropriate
• Work closely with partner and peer organizations to share data, information, and promote joint learning and reflection

External Operations

• Lead GFW's approach to project design, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting
• Assist with the development of detailed log frames for existing and new projects in line with program frameworks and donor priorities
• Support the formulation of indicators sensitive to gender and women's empowerment for all projects and build staff capacity for gender sensitive monitoring processes
• Support grantee partners with data collection processes when needed and provide oversight on analysis processes
• Provide input into project donor reports as needed to ensure key results and learning are effectively communicated
• Support grantee partners to manage internal and external evaluations (including assistance in identifying scope of evaluation and key learning questions) and M&E visits.
• Work with grantee partners and advisors to identify success stories and case studies to share with donors or post on Global Fund's website and work closely with the Global Fund's Communications team to develop the content

Database and Communication

• Ensure key data and learning is up to date and supports external communications and fundraising efforts
• Work closely with the Communications team to ensure that learning and impact is effectively communicated (through case studies, web material, etc.) to support the program and advocacy agenda
• Ensure maintenance of a database of up to date statistics and core lessons learned from previous projects and feed them into new proposals and reporting processes
• Help shape the capacity of GFW's database to support evaluation and learning
• Oversee the collection and submission of all program data to Global Fund databases

Internal Operations

• Support the overall goals and activities of the Learning, Evaluation, and Impact team
• Manage a small team in the development, implementation, and continual monitoring and improvement of program and advocacy strategies
• Actively participate with ideas, problem solving, and innovative thinking at all Program Directors and Program staff meetings and workshops and related events and meetings
• Participate in related forums, such as partner meetings, research launches, and sector meetings, and maximize follow-up on the emerging research and learning
• Provide leadership and proactive support in establishing a learning culture throughout the organization.

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Internal Relationships

In this newly created role, the Director of Learning and Impact will lead a small team comprising a Senior Manager of Learning and Impact and a Program Officer of Learning and Impact. S/he will work closely with the Operations, Development, and Communication teams as well as with grantee partners and advisors to oversee their efforts in evidence gathering and data collection.

External Relationships

The Director of Learning and Impact will liaise with staff, grantee partners, advisors, donors, and NGO agencies to ensure synergies, collaboration, and networking on impact monitoring, research, and analysis; to strengthen partner and community capacity on participatory approaches to project and program monitoring and evaluation; and to ensure ongoing engagement of Global Fund's key stakeholders throughout.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Required

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written)
• Strong leader, team player, and experienced collaborator
• Outstanding action research and analysis skills
• Experience in managing consultancies in relation to developing a learning, monitoring, and evaluation framework
• Proven skills in design, monitoring, and evaluation
• Proven skills in capturing, analyzing, and documenting evidence from programming and advocacy initiatives
• Knowledge of and experience with databases
• Excellent understanding of development issues with emphasis on rights, partnership, participation, and sustainability
• Good understanding of gender issues and skills in conducting gender sensitive M&E and gender mainstreaming
• Leadership, managing staff, self-direction, and reporting
• Networking, partnering, and liaising with both external and internal stakeholders
• Research, evidence gathering, knowledge sharing, and reporting
• Conceptual and analytical thinking
• Gender awareness and sensitivity

Competencies

• Respect - Behaving in a manner that reflects a true belief in, and appreciation for, the dignity and potential of all human beings. Gaining other people's confidence and setting an environment of trust and openness.
• Integrity - Maintaining social, ethical, and organizational norms; adhering to codes of conduct and ethical principles inherent to the Global Fund for Women.
• Excellence - Setting high standards of performance for self and/or others; assuming responsibility and accountability for successfully completing assignments or tasks; self-imposing standards of excellence; ensuring interactions and transactions are ethical and convey integrity.
• Diversity - Promoting, valuing, respecting, and fully benefiting from each individual's unique qualities, background, race, culture, age, gender, ability, values, lifestyle, perspectives, or interests; creating and maintaining a work environment that promotes diversity.

Preferred

• Background/qualifications in participatory methodologies that promote learning and social change; participatory research and evaluation designs
• Building Partnerships - Identifying opportunities and establishing effective strategic relationships with other teams or external organizations to help achieve the Global Fund's objectives
• Communicating with Impact - Clearly conveying information and ideas through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the key messages
• Information Monitoring - Setting up ongoing procedures to collect, review, and synthesize information
• Spanish, Arabic, or French language skills

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Required

• Master's degree in gender or women's studies, economics, social sciences, political science, or public administration
• Background/qualifications in monitoring, evaluation, impact measurement, and social science research methodologies
• Minimum of 10 years experience working in development programming, with special emphasis on evidence gathering
• Proven experience in developing a learning, monitoring, and evaluation framework for an NGO
• Track record working collaboratively with civil society, communities, local NGO partners, and government officials
• Experience using participatory methods and rights based approaches
• Experience in leading monitoring and evaluating large programs and/or multiple projects/initiatives
• Experience of attribution, aggregation, analysis, and communication of impact data

Preferred

• Experience working with or within a feminist organization
• Experience of integrating and measuring gender transformative approaches to sectorial programs (e.g. food and livelihoods, health, education, humanitarian)

START DATE AND COMPENSATION

The projected start date for this position is March/April. The Director of Learning, Evaluation, and Impact position is full-time. Salary will be commensurate with experience. The Global Fund for Women offers 100% employer paid premium medical, dental, vision, chiropractic, and acupuncture insurance; an excellent paid leave package; a generous retirement plan; a professional development stipend; and other benefits.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications and all supporting documents will be received until position is filled. To submit your application materials, please visit our website: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/who-we-are/job-opportunities. All pages of the application should be typed and should include the following:

• Cover letter, with the applicant's current contact information
• Resume, including references with contact information

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE! Please note: due to the volume of applications we receive, we will not process incomplete applications.