Seeking Research, Design, and Learning (RDL) Specialist for
Liberia Foundational Skills Activity (LFSA)
Applications due: Tuesday, September 10, 2024

To support the USAID-funded Liberia Foundational Skills Activity (LFSA), Mathematica seeks to contract a Research, Design, and Learning (RDL) Specialist. The LFSA, implemented by Chemonics and a consortium of international and Liberian partners including FREE Liberia, Mathematica, and others, is intended to enable more children—particularly the most marginalized and vulnerable—to master foundational reading and social-emotional skills through schooling that is safe, relevant, and promotes well-being. To support this objective, Chemonics will implement activities to achieve four results: (1) age six children are enrolled on time; (2) children are placed in developmentally- or age-appropriate classrooms, including accelerated learning classes; (3) sufficient and contextually appropriate reading, teaching, and learning materials are available and used by learners; and (4) teachers consistently apply evidence-based and developmentally appropriate teaching practices and learning materials in the classroom.

Mathematica is the LFSA’s learning partner and will lead on activities related to the development of a learning agenda; collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) activities to facilitate continuous improvement of the LFSA activity implementation; as well as developing or updating student assessments.

The RDL specialist will have expertise in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) and will be based in Monrovia, Liberia for the duration of the project (now through March 2029). This person will work closely with Mathematica, the MERL Director (Chemonics personnel), Research Coordinator (FREE Liberia personnel), and others on that team, as well as with relevant technical team leads and specialists. This person should have expertise in working with education-related data and relevant methodologies, and substantive experience with strategic communications that include knowledge management and dissemination. Additionally, the candidate must demonstrate broad understanding of USAID priorities and approaches in the education sector, including foundational skills, inclusive education and Universal Design for Learning, social and emotional learning, education in crisis and conflict, student learning assessment, and remedial interventions.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Overall support for Mathematica team

• Gather information as needed to support Mathematica and collaborators at other organizations, including FREE Liberia and potentially others.
• Develop and cultivate close relationships with local stakeholders in education, including but not limited to staff at the Ministry of Education, FREE Liberia, and other parties.
• Facilitate collaboration across stakeholders as appropriate.
• Build a network of potential service providers who can deliver seamless coverage of requests for (1) a broad range of long and short-term education services and (2) data collection services (survey and quantitative).

Support for development of learning agenda and carrying out learning activities

• Support Mathematica’s efforts to assess existing evidence and evidence gaps as they relate to activities that may be part of the LFSA.
• Support the development of a learning agenda for the LFSA.
• Strategically advise and ensure high quality study designs and evaluation methodologies that correspond to evidence gaps and learning agenda.
• Lead and support implementation of rapid cycle evaluation activities, including supporting evaluation design, meetings and coordination, data collection, and analysis and reporting.
• Undertakes other technical assignments designated by the LFSA MERL director or the lead technical contact at Mathematica.

Support for Mathematica’s assessment-related work

• Facilitate gaining access to documentation related to existing student assessments.
• Liaise between Mathematica team and local stakeholders to support the roll-out of new assessments.

The engagement will be a full-time consultancy beginning in mid-2024 and will go through roughly March 2029.

Key Qualifications:

• Deep expertise in the education sector, with particular focus on the policy landscape, coordination and collaboration, service delivery, and data for monitoring, evaluation, research and learning.
• Extensive experience conducting monitoring, evaluation, research and learning in the education sector, including experience coordinating with data collection partners on survey and qualitative data collection.
• Leadership experience on projects that require internal and external coordination and interactions with government officials, local nongovernmental organizations, relevant private sector and international actors.
• Strong leadership skills with a demonstrated ability to manage and motivate teams.
• Ability to travel throughout the six counties included in LFSA: Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa, Margibi, Montserrado, and Nimba.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills.
• Oral and written fluency in English.
• Advanced degree in education or relevant social science strongly preferred; minimum of a bachelors degree required.
• 10 years of relevant work experience preferred; fewer years may be considered in combination with an advanced degree.

To Apply:

Interested individuals should email application materials to globalconsultants@mathematica-mpr.com with “LFSA RDL Specialist” in the subject line. Please submit your application by Tuesday, September 10. Please include the following three items in this email:

1. A cover letter describing your fit for the position
2. An up-to-date resumé
3. A document with your responses to each of these questions:
   1. Please list your university degree(s), including the university, the degree, and area of focus.
   2. How many years of professional experience do you have in education, research, or policy work?
   3. Please describe what type of interaction, if any, you have had with Liberia’s Ministry of Education.
   4. Please describe your understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of conducting a randomized evaluation in education. Please limit your response to 150 words.
   5. Please describe a few things you would consider when arranging focus group discussions with teachers.
   6. Are you able to travel throughout the six counties where LFSA will take place? These are Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa, Margibi, Montserrado, and Nimba. If not, please describe your concern or limitation.

Interested candidates may send specific questions to Ms. Ale Aponte at Mathematica (aaponte@mathematica-mpr.com) please use this email only for specific questions, not to express general interest in the role.