Senior Manager of Evidence and Learning

iDE BACKGROUND

iDE is an international nonprofit dedicated to combating poverty in the developing world not through handouts, but by helping rural households access the tools and knowledge they need to increase their income and improve their health and well-being. iDE has 40 years of experience and programs in 11 countries in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, and Central America.

iDE's vision, to catalyze the power of entrepreneurship to allow millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty, is ambitious and bold. We need a person who is, first and foremost, passionate about this vision.

iDE uses an integrated monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) approach to measure our progress on delivering programs that center client needs and offer clear value for donors and stakeholders. With an emphasis on not only rigor but inclusive and ethical measurement, we are committed to incorporating participatory approaches in our MERL work and to converting our quantitative and qualitative evidence into actionable learnings. We generate monitoring and impact data to guide program decisions, aiming to leverage the best systems and tools to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. 

The Senior Manager of Evidence and Learning is responsible for the “L” in MERL. The MERL team formally incorporated learning in our department in early 2023, and we have been met with a lot of early successes and strong internal demand for learning activities and external interest in learning outputs. We are seeking a candidate who has already established their expertise in evidence-based learning skills, and will take the lead to build up iDE’s learning program from the initial foundation we have established. This position will work to expand iDE’s ability to learn and adapt from monitoring, evaluation, research, and other sources of knowledge we identify, which will help iDE continuously improve its work, broaden its evidence base, and share more powerful stories and thought leadership on its work. Reporting to the Global Director of MERL or their designee and as a member of iDE’s Headquarters team, the Senior Manager of Evidence and Learning will support efforts across these key areas:

• Manage project-level learning activities and strategies across iDE’s portfolio.
• Work collaboratively to establish organizational processes, guidance, and training around learning at both the project level and for strategic initiatives at the organizational level while enhancing iDE’s organizational culture of learning. 
• Facilitate the creation, testing, and exploration of project and organizational theories of change to help systematize and promote the use of iDE’s empirical evidence base.
• Support the development and implementation of participatory qualitative methods at the organizational and project level that leverage ethical storytelling and other methods used to inform learning.

Requirements

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following:

Manage Project Learning Processes and Systems - 30%

• Guide project and country teams - or lead when needed by country teams - in the design and implementation of learning activities in MEL plans and/or learning agendas that create learning products, enable effective adaptive management approaches such as Pause & Reflect workshops, disseminate knowledge across different communication channels with internal and external stakeholders, and meet or exceed donor requirements. This includes working with all MERL team members to ensure learning activities are well-integrated with all monitoring, evaluation, and research activities in projects. 
• Explore, coach and assist project/country teams on how to incorporate various sources of evidence for learning - including monitoring and evaluation data, research, informal assessments, stories, experience, and reflection - to promote effective adaptive management techniques.
• Provide business development support, including but not limited to learning-related budgeting guidance, developing learning agendas and playing a technical writing role, especially for learning-oriented concept notes and proposals. 
• Create guides, templates, and other support materials on learning for the MERL Support Package. 
• Lead on leveraging AI in ethical ways for MERL purposes that support projects from the proposal stage through endline MERL activities.

Establish Organizational Learning Processes and Systems - 30%

• Devize ways to capture, store, share and apply critical knowledge generated by MERL systems and processes to share best practices and learn from failure between country programs.
• Develop and maintain global MERL institutional memory, ensuring access to institutional knowledge and managing staff transitions effectively.
• As assigne