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Position Overview

Educate! is seeking a driven, organized, and collaborative Evaluation Associate to design and manage research and evaluation projects, build research partnerships, and analyze and disseminate the results of our research. In ten years of operating in East Africa, one of Educate!’s differentiating factors has been our commitment to impact evaluation and learning, and we believe that continuing to invest in research & development is a key component of continued growth and innovation. As Evaluation Associate, you’ll work closely with our Director of Monitoring and Evaluation and country M&E teams, as well as with our programs, design, and innovation teams, to implement our ambitious evaluation and learning strategy across three countries.

The right person for this role will have at least 2 years of work experience, have taken courses in statistics or econometrics, and have either a master’s degree or equivalent work experience in a field like M&E, research methods, or public policy. You’ll be an ultra-organized and self-motivated planner and project manager, capable of keeping multiple balls in the air with limited supervision, and a collaborative team player who can build relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders and engage team members over whom you won’t have direct authority. You’ll also be fluent in Microsoft excel and STATA (or other data analysis software) and bring strong skills in research and evaluation design, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and writing.

About Educate!

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined. At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent.

Educate! prepares youth in Africa learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by:

1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and

2) delivering livelihood bootcamps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 250,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy, #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth.

Performance Objectives

Research & Evaluation Design

• Support design of qualitative and quantitative evaluation and research projects to answer pressing program and policy questions, working closely with our design, innovation, and national programs teams to ensure that evaluation and research projects meet the needs of the intended user
• Coordinate measurement and tool design to ensure evaluation and research precisely measures target outcomes including teacher pedagogy adoption and quality, student-level soft and hard skills, and economic and life outcomes
• Collaborate with country Monitoring and Evaluation teams programs to integrate monitoring data into evaluations

Research & Evaluation Management

• Plan and project-manage research and evaluation projects, including evaluations run internally and with external consultants
• Ensure that research and evaluation projects are well-planned and coordinated with other team priorities, and that projects proceed on time with course corrections as needed
• Ensure all research and evaluation projects adhere to best practices for delivering high quality, fit-for-purpose research

Research Partnerships

• Support research-focused interactions with government partners and contribute to ensuring that the priorities of our government partners are considered in each step of research process
• Work on cross-functional teams that strategically plan and execute research to further Educate!'s advocacy and learning agendas government partnership and advocacy

Research Analysis and Dissemination

• Analyze and package the results of research and evaluation to facilitate action by internal and external stakeholders, including Educate!'s Design and Program Implementation teams as well as government partners and funders, and provide useful information for government partners and funders
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis of data from internally-conducted evaluations, under the direction of the Technical Evaluation Lead
• Interpret and summarize, under the direction of the Technical Evaluation Lead, complex research and evaluations for program, government, and funder audiences
• Produce policy briefs and user-friendly presentations for program and policy audiences
• Support and lead learning processes to ensure that results and findings from internally and externally conducted evaluations are fed back into program design

Qualifications

• Masters degree or equivalent work experience in related field such as M&E, research methods, public policy, or education
• Coursework in econometrics or statistics
• Minimum of 2 - 5 years work experience including internships and fellowships (international education experience/ knowledge is a plus!)
• Fluency with excel as well as STATA or other quantitative data analysis software
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Collaborative team player, able to work with and engage a diverse range of external and internal partners spread across multiple countries
• Organized, detail-oriented self-starter
• Willing to travel frequently and/or for significant time periods within East Africa (the role can be based in, Kigali, or Kampala, with up to 25% - 50% of time spent outside of the main duty station)
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here What is Educate! About?

What Is Educate! About?

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value.
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down.

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.