OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST:

The International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) is a UNESCO specialized institute with Offices in Buenos Aires, Dakar, and Paris. The mandate of IIEP-UNESCO is to strengthen Member States’ capacity to plan and manage their education systems. The IIEP-UNESCO Office in Dakar (IIEP-UNESCO Dakar) is renowned for its cutting-edge educational sector analyses and supports African countries in developing realistic and credible education system development plans in support of the Education 2030 agenda, an essential part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. IIEP-UNESCO Dakar is also actively involved in the curation, generation, refinement, and expansion of bodies of knowledge and analytical efforts, and in the development of cutting-edge tools for the strengthening of education decision and policy making across the continent.

Through a well-crafted and targeted capacity development approach, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar contributes to diagnostic analyses, sector plans, policymaking support and the development of pedagogical as well as methodological tools. These contribute to more relevant and sustainable educational policies across the African continent, and beyond. IIEP-UNESCO Dakar is also actively involved in the generation of knowledge for the education sector, not just in Africa but for countries that share similar development profiles, following a co-production approach. Over the past years, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar has strengthened its commitment to reducing gender inequalities in and through education by integrating specific programmatic activities, including applied research and development projects. For more information about its activities please follow this link: IIEP-UNESCO Dakar. Under the overall authority of the IIEP Director and of the Head of IIEP Dakar Office, and under the direct supervision of IIEP Dakar Research & Development Programme Manager, the successful candidate will contribute to activities related to the design, planning and execution of IIEP-UNESCO Research and Development and Technical Cooperation portfolios, nourishing, with new knowledge and innovative tools, the transformation of education in Africa. His/her work’ s outputs will be subject to internal validation procedures, under the responsibility of the Head of IIEP Dakar Office and of IIEP Dakar Research & Development Programme Manager.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSABILITIES

1. Support in managing and coordinating Research and Development projects through all phases of the project lifecycle.

• Contribute to the conceptualization and design of new projects to ensure smooth and successful implementation within the team, across teams and with external stakeholders (including project beneficiaries and partners).
• Contribute to the coordination of project implementation tasks including but not limited to information analysis, synthesis production, policy analysis, context analysis, policy dialogue, field work, etc.
• Support policy dialogue with countries, in particular governments, and co-production research activities, ensuring that there is contextualisation, coherence and alignment with their priorities.
• Support in tracking project progress, updating timelines, and preparing project reports.
• Contribute to conducting thorough reviews of project materials for accuracy, clarity, and coherence.
• Support the smooth integration of gender equality and equity dimensions across the project portfolio.

2. Prepare and execute analytical tasks using both quantitative and qualitative techniques, ensuring the mainstreaming of gender equality and equity dimensions:

• Support the design of research frameworks, outlining the analytical approaches to investigate project problem and questions.
• Conduct desk-based and documentary analysis, as well as literature reviews, to gather and synthesize relevant information, identify key trends, and provide a comprehensive overview of the research topics and issues.
• Conduct co-production workshops, interviews, focus groups, and qualitative surveys to gather insights, identify key problems, and better understand the different perspectives surrounding the topics being researched.
• Using thematic, coding, and content analysis techniques to interpret qualitative information and data.

3. Support the preparation of Research and Development materials (e.g. presentations, documents and dissemination) in English and French.

• Participate in the process of drafting, editing, and formatting research documents, including reports, articles, and policy briefs.
• Ensure all materials are clear, concise, and appropriately structured for the target audience.
• Create visually engaging PowerPoint presentations or other formats to effectively communicate research findings.
• Incorporate graphics, charts, and images to enhance understanding and retention of information.
• Adapt content to cater to cultural nuances and audience preferences in both languages.

4. Support African countries in the development, implementation and monitoring of education and training policies:

• Support the education and training sectors analysis, planning, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation.
• Support the development of education and training sectors, sub-sectors, and thematic diagnoses.
• Support the development of education and training strategy documents (policy orientation, simulation models, sector plans, medium term expenditure frameworks, costed action plan, etc.).
• Support the implementation of education and training policies and the monitoring and evaluation of education and training policies.
• Support the monitoring and evaluation of education and training policies.
• Support the integration of gender, disability and crisis perspectives in the analysis, planning, implementation, management and monitoring of education and training policies.
• Contribute to the improvement of education sector analysis and planning tools.
• Build on Technical Cooperation activities to serve the R&D team more effectively, acting as a bridge to ensure seamless collaboration and alignment between both teams.

5. Contribute to capacity building of IIEP-UNESCO Dakar:

• Contribute to forums for internal sharing of practices across projects and the reinforcement of capacities of IIEP-UNESCO Dakar’s staff.

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial):

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:

• Advanced university degree (at least master’s or equivalent) in Education, Statistics, Economics, Political Science, Behavioral Sciences, Public Policy, Sociology, International Development, or related social sciences.

Work Experience

• Minimum two (2) years of relevant work experience in the field of applied research and policy analysis in education, and related social sector issues, on developing countries, preferably in Africa.

Skills and competencies

• Demonstrated experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis and research in education (including the design, collection, cleaning, coding and analysis of administrative data, surveys, conducting interviews, facilitating focus groups discussions, conducting case studies, analyzing and synthetizing documents and contents, etc.).
• Proven skills in producing high quality written documents in English and French (e.g. concept notes, media products, policy briefs, working papers, blog posts, literature and desk reviews, synthesis, etc.).
• Creative thinking and ability to conceive, develop and execute new projects from the initial stages to completion.
• Ability to communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders and audiences, both verbal and written.
• Good knowledge of programming languages for quantitative and qualitative analysis (e.g. Stata, SPSS, Python, R, NVivo or similar), and reference management software (e.g. Zotero or similar).
• Good understanding of the challenges of education in Africa, with special emphasis on the integration of the equity dimensions in education analysis and policy making, in particular gender equality.
• Proven organizational skills, and able to multitask.

• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate with colleagues to achieve organizational and team goals.
• Ability to travel internationally, including fragile and challenging context countries.

Languages

• Very good knowledge of English and French.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

• Knowledge of and experience using project and knowledge management tools.

Languages

• Proficiency in another official language of UNESCO (Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish).