Requisition ID: req14241

Job Title: Research Consultant

Sector: Research & Development

Employment Category: Consultant

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: Yes

Location: IRC Global

Job Description

Background:

PlayMatters (2020-2025) is an education initiative funded through a $100 million grant from the LEGO Foundation. The program reimagines childhood for 800,000+ refugee and host-community children across Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda – children whose education and social development has been affected by displacement and trauma. Building on children’s amazing resilience and a growing evidence base supporting Learning through Play methodologies, PlayMatters cultivates holistic learning for children ages 3-12+. PlayMatters is led by the International Rescue Committee and includes Plan International, War Child Holland, Innovations for Poverty Action, the Behavioral Insights Team in partnership with the LEGO Foundation.

Scope of Work:

The four PlayMatters Content Development Committees (which focus on educators, caregivers, communities, and systems actors) urgently need a clear description of current practices and structures in PlayMatters sites, with a focus on practices and structures that are relevant to LtP programming (including those that do not specifically involve play, but are still important for LtP implementation, such as information about teacher education systems and psychosocial support services in schools). A significant amount of relevant information has already been gathered by PlayMatters Consortium members and partners through literature reviews, stakeholder mappings, behavioral mappings, commissioned research, situational analyses, and other studies. At the moment, however, this information is currently not easy to find, pick up, and use, and some important questions may still need direct investigation.

Thus, the PlayMatters research team will carry out a rapid mapping and synthesis of existing LtP-relevant practices, asking the specific questions of importance to the Content Development Committees, and organizing the findings in a way that is of direct use for implementation (including PlayMatters content as well as research activities).

• Carry out desk review with a focus on answering research questions and identifying gaps in data: 12 days.
• Carry out key informant interviews (virtually) and transcribe interviews, including following informed consent procedures: 5 days.
• Analysis and synthesis of data with a focus on answering research questions: 10 days.
• Validation workshop: 1.5 days
• Dissemination workshop: 1.5 days

Deliverables:

• 
  Desk Review and analysis of data gaps
• Key informant interviews transcripts
• First Draft Synthesis Report
• Validation Workshop
• Final Draft Synthesis Report
• Dissemination workshop

Qualifications

Requirements:

• A Masters or doctoral degree in Education, Psychology, International Development, or Social Sciences-Related discipline.
• Experience leading qualitative research studies focused on education, psychosocial support, or other areas related to Learning through Play.
• Very strong writing skills (in English) and significant writing experience.
• Experience conducting key informant interviews with a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Experience conducting desk reviews and other types of secondary academic research.
• Previous preparation and writing of evaluative reports.
• Presentation and workshop facilitation skills.
• Fluent English speaking and writing ability.