Research Fellow – Nairobi – Save the Children

Child Safeguarding:
Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programmes; or are visiting country programmes; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:
The Research Fellow (Child Protection) will be the senior lead in generating evidence for child protection and child rights governance programmes of the Country Office. Using empirical research approaches, the Research Fellow will identify research opportunities and conduct research to measure effectiveness of child protection programmes and provide knowledge supports in improving effectiveness. S/he will extract learning from wider research and practitioner communities to increase innovativeness and inform policy especially within the humanitarian and development sectors to deepen the impact of our work on children’s lives. S/he will establish linkages with academic institutions and position the Somalia/Somaliland Country Office as a thought leader and influencer on child protection of the country.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Director of REALM
Dimensions: Save the Children International works in Somalia/Somaliland with a current staff complement of approximately 400 staff and current expenditure of approximately 40$ million in 2015.
Staff directly reporting to this post: 2 and above (Research Associates)

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY
• Contribute to Save the Children International (SCI) strategic development and delivery in strategic breakthrough on child protection issues, and in particular for Somalia and Somaliland
• Lead the development and implementation of a coherent and coordinated research strategy on child protection programmes that aim to improve quality and impact of SCI child protection work in the country and possible integration with other sectors
• Actively promote positive attitudes towards child protection, girls’ empowerment and gender equality, both internally and externally
• Lead research, evaluations and innovations to understand what works in Somalia/Somaliland and how can they be improved
• Provide ideas and create new ways of framing or achieving policy changes
• Contribute in mobilizing resources for programme and research through competitive research bids, networking, and pre-positioning
• Lead the writing of proposals, presentations and pitches for new research contracts
• Direct the development and delivery of research and evaluation services
• Provide technical supports for monitoring of child protection and child rights projects
• Line manage and mentor research associates to conduct research
• Apply leading-edge thinking and best practice at all stages of the research process and ensure that SCI research and evaluation outputs are delivered to the highest standards, on time and on budget
• Bring research, analytical and quality assurance expertise to projects, especially in the design, implementation and reporting stages
• Work with Line Manager and other SMT members to proactively shape the CO’s work and deliver innovation in our research and data visualisation.
• Represent CO in research and policy discussions to share research findings
• Establish and maintain strong working relationship with technical teams of the Somalia/Somaliland Country Office, Save the Children Members and academia to initiate, adapt or test new practices, approaches or methodologies with a view of improving our work in the Country Programme
• Enhance SCI Somalia/Somaliland’s Country Office capability in research and evaluations through designing and implementing effective capacity building measures and development and maintaining an institutionalised knowledge base
• Follow the cutting edge research findings in child protection and gender to facilitate utilization of knowledge in programming

COMPETENCIES AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)
Innovating and Adapting (Leading Edge level)
• Drives innovations and breakthrough solutions to improve protection outcomes for children
• Promotes a culture and work environment to test new ideas, takes risk and learns from failures
• Embeds and scale evidence-based change to deliver enduring transformation for children
• Builds the confidence of others in their own ability to develop new ideas and embrace change
• Generates learning for the organization and evidence for impact and quality of our work
• Brings the best of innovations from our partnerships and other sectors in the organization
• Identifies the need for gender analysis and integration within Research, Evaluation, Analysis, Learning and Monitoring
• Sponsors initiatives to ensure that people, processes and technology create an agile organization, responding quickly to external events
Applying Technical and Professional Expertise (Leading Edge level)
• Demonstrates knowledge of the clear connection between gender equality and child rights, and what this means for programming
• Sets and drives standards for the child protection programme to deliver better outcomes for children
• Aligns technical and professional standards to support our strategy
• Coordinates and harness professional expertise across the organization
• Shares knowledge and best practices on technical solutions so that others can make best use of that expertise
Communicate with Impact (Leading Edge Level)
• Delivers influential advice and briefings to internal and external audiences to build the call for action
• Builds behind the scene support for ideas
• Conveys complex issues with clarity, brevity and confidence
Problem solving and Decision Making (Accomplished level)
• Produces data and evidence to drive decision making and quality improvement
• Provides frameworks to support decision making
• Explores and analysis external trends and their potential impact on strategic choices
Developing self and others (Accomplished level)
• Gives regular positive and constructive feedback to others
• Identifies clear development needs and development plans through regular constructive reviews of their own performance (and their team’s where appropriate)
• Creates space for others to learn and provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments when people are ready for them
• Coaches others to learn from their experiences on the job and to use the resources available to them
Networking (Accomplished level)
• Builds trust with contacts through openness and honesty
• Participates effectively in sensitive, complex and/or high impact relationships and networks
• Builds strong relationships with a broad range of stakeholders
• Spots opportunities to bring together partnerships/working alliances that have not been used before

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
• At least 5 years’ experience in research related to child protection and girls’ empowerment
• Post-graduate level academic competence (preferably with doctoral degree) in anthropology or related discipline
• Credibility and influence (externally and internally) through depth and breadth of expertise; the ability to give professional support and direction to others; seek, review and apply best practice from elsewhere.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct high quality research on child protection and experience of publications (including peer reviewed journals)
• Experience of conducting mixed-method research with strong quantitative or qualitative background, and competent in measurements of sensitive issues
• Intellect, creativity and judgement: original ideas; creative approach; sound judgement, encourage ideas, initiative and innovation in others;
• Personal effectiveness/self-management: time, pressure, flexibility, adaptability, commitment to own development;
• Leadership and vision: clear vision; ability to secure commitment to vision; initiate and manage change; to earn credibility; to inspire colleagues; to accept responsibility; integrity and fairness;
• Considerable proven experience in undertaking and leading the production of policy, research and evaluation outputs in similar organisations (Save the Children)
• Knowledge and demonstrated experience of designing and managing high level researches and evaluations
• Extensive experience in analysing the situation of children using the child rights programming/ principles framework
• Proven track record of policy influencing with partners, government and civil societies/key stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to think critically, strategically and analyse complex information and offer creative, practical and effective solutions
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, and an ability to produce and disseminate research and evaluation outputs to variety of audiences using effective approaches
• Strong inter-organisational skill such as networking including donors, negotiation and communication.
• Willing and able to travel time to Somalia/Somaliland to support field teams as security permits
• High level of fluency in English, both verbal and written, required.
• Commitment to Save the Children International values.

CHILD SAFEGUARING POLICY:
Any employee, consultant, contractor or the supplier undertaking an activity on behalf of SCI must sign the Child Safeguarding – Declaration of Acceptance Form] and comply with the SCIs Child Safeguarding Policy which is a statement of SCI’s commitment to preventing abuse and protecting children with whom it comes into contact.
This extends not only to children with whom SCI and its partners work directly, but also includes children whom staff are responsible for. SCI believes that the situation of children must be improved through the promotion of their rights supported and demonstrated by all members of staff. Save the Children International’s Code of Conduct sets out the standards which all staff members must adhere to.

HOW TO APPLY:
Interested candidates are required to submit a CV and mandatory cover letter quoting the Job Title and Vacancy Announcement No. SCI/SOM/32/16 on the subject line. The file name of the CV and attachments must be the applicants name and sent to Somalia.vacancies@savethechildren.org. For more information please visit www.somaliangoconsortium.org
Applications close on 17TH November 2016
Disclaimer:
Save the Children International does not charge any kind of fee at whichever stage of the recruitment process and does not act through recruitment agents
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted
Female candidates are encouraged to apply

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