Title: Education Specialist

Team: USAID/Nigeria MEL Support Activity

Project: EDUCATION MIDTERM PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE EVALUATION USAID/Nigeria

Location: Federal Capital Territory – Abuja, Nigeria

Reporting to: Assessment and Evaluation Advisor

Employment Type: Independent Contractor / Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA)

Period of Performance: August 2023 – February 2024

Number of Positions: 2

Background:

Navanti supports a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Support Activity program that assists USAID/Nigeria in advancing its broader organizational learning and development efforts. This program strengthens the Mission’s capacity and performance in programmatic monitoring, evaluation, learning, collaborating, and adapting. The MEL Support Activity closely aligns with USAID/Nigeria’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and provides a broad range of specialized technical assistance, training, data gathering and analysis, field-based monitoring, evaluations and assessments, facilitation of organizational learning and adaptation initiatives, and short-term technical assistance.

Performance Evaluation Objectives:

USAID/Nigeria has engaged the MEL Support Activity to conduct a midterm performance evaluation of the education portfolio. The purpose of the performance evaluation of the USAID/Nigeria Education portfolio is threefold:

1. To assess the extent to which all the recently completed and current activities together contribute to achieving the Education Development Objective.
2. To inform mid-course corrective actions on the implementation of ongoing or upcoming activities; and
3. To inform the next Country Development Coordination Strategy design.

The results will be shared with broader USAID audiences, including USAID/Washington and other missions, to highlight best practices and lessons learned, and to inform upper management of the results achieved by the Nigeria mission in basic education and early grade reading. Finally, relevant results will be shared with Government of Nigeria (GON) counterparts at the Federal and State levels, and other donors to further promote collaboration on improving foundational learning in Nigeria.

This evaluation is not intended to be an impact evaluation. The education specialist and the team of research experts are expected to use a primarily qualitative approach to addressing the research questions of interest. The team is highly encouraged to consider and suggest the collection and use of quantitative data, whenever possible and relevant, to help strengthen and nuance the qualitative findings.

The estimated start date will be August 28, 2023. The evaluation is expected to last until February 2024, and the estimated LOE will be 52 days, maximum.

Candidates are advised to submit applications early.

Position Description:

Navanti is seeking an education specialist who will provide technical support for the evaluation in areas assessing early grade reading standards, curriculum and pedagogy review, teachers’ professional development, Universal Design for Learning. Under the technical leadership of the MEL Support Activity, the education specialist will be working alongside other evaluation team members.

Locations:

• Abakaliki, Ebonyi state
• Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
• Bauchi, Bauchi State
• Damaturu, Yobe state
• Gombe, Gombe State
• Ibadan, Oyo State
• Maiduguri, Borno State
• Minna, Niger State
• Sokoto, Sokoto State
• Yola, Adamawa State

Responsibilities:

The education specialist is expected to:

• Coordinate with the team leader and other team members to conduct interviews.
• Conduct desk review of the activity and support education contextual understanding of the evaluation.
• Work with the evaluation specialist to design the data collection instruments and ensure it addresses all evaluation objectives.
• Interpret and analyze qualitative and quantitative data.
• Support in preparing reports of research findings.
• Work with the team leader in planning, developing, coordinating, and administering research tools.
• Perform quality assurance reviews of both quantitative and qualitative data.
• Support the team leader in writing or editing technical reports and summaries of findings.
• Work with the team leader to perform desk review and identify additional information required for analysis.
• Work with the Team Leader in preparation and presentation of the In-brief and Out-brief to USAID/Nigeria and other stakeholders as requested.
• Support the team leader to develop the draft Evaluation report with support from the team members, taking into consideration feedback from the Out-brief presentation.
• Work with the team leader to respond to USAID comments on the draft report, incorporate USAID/Nigeria staff comments into the final version of the report and finalize the report.
• Work collaboratively with team members throughout design, implementation, analysis, and report writing to complement each other's areas of expertise.

Qualifications:

The candidate is expected to have the following qualifications:

• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in the implementation of large and complex education development projects including Early Grade Reading and access to quality education.
• Advanced graduate degree in a relevant field: education program, measurement and evaluation, international development, or related fields.
• Contextual experience working in the Nigerian educational sector is required, work outside the Nigeria context will be an added advantage.
• Excellent ability to communicate in English, both verbally and in writing
• Previous experience as education specialist on education evaluations, assessments, and research studies. USAID evaluation experience strongly preferred.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.