The Asia Foundation Vacancy for Director of Impact

1. SUMMARY OF RESPONSIBILITIES

The Director of Impact will lead a key pillar of The Asia Foundation (the Foundation) Nepal portfolio supporting the ensuring of high impact development operations and programming. This Director will require strong management and leadership skills to establish a matrix-driven approach within the institution, while essentially serving as a technical expert on measuring impact through diverse rigorous models. The position will serve on the Foundation’s Senior Leadership Team, while leading an impact pillar. The position will be responsible to provide partial technical support and oversight to the Monitoring Evaluation Research and Learning Unit and the exceptional functioning of that cross-cutting team.

2. RELATIONSHIPS

Internal

Contact with all staff within the Foundation’s Nepal offices and Foundation’s regional units and communities of practice. As needed, technical support to other country offices.

External

Regular contact with grantees, independent contractors, government officials and agencies in Nepal, bilateral and multi-lateral development agencies, business sector and civil society organizations, professional organizations, and academic and other local institutions.

3. REQUIREMENTS

Education

Master’s degree, or advanced degree in economics, international development, public policy, law, environmental science, or other relevant disciplines.

 4. EXPERIENCE

Managerial and Leadership

The Director position includes the needed communication, financial oversight, supervisory, and interpersonal skills to manage a team, alongside the below technical skills unique and distinct from a management position. 

Minimum ten years of experience in the development sector, government, civil society or academic institutions; and at least seven years in a monitoring, evaluation, research or learning-specific position within the field.  Strong program management skills as they relate to monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL); demonstrated experience on learning and adaptive management; excellent verbal and written communications skills; a willingness to work closely in team settings with other staff and partners; a proactive and independent work style; and demonstrated in-depth knowledge of Nepal’s political, economic, and social context. Experience in report writing of publishable quality; some experience in financial and grants management and budget control and managing development projects. Experience in project management, strategic planning and leadership, impact assessment and social entrepreneurship. Specific knowledge on impact metrics will be an additional benefit. 

Technical

Specific technical skills required include formal training and/or demonstrated work experience qualitative/quantitative research and evaluation methodology, data collection tools, developmental evaluation, outcome harvesting, impact evaluation  (including randomized control trials), perception survey design and sampling modalities, field data collection, data storage and analysis methods and tools, research ethics and board review/approval experience, oral communication, data software fluency (e.g., SPSS, STATA, SAS, PowerBI), cost benefit analysis, statistics fluency and experience with regression analysis, data visualization software fluency, open data protocol and hygiene, knowledge management and dissemination approaches.

Other

Seasoned facilitation, presentation and instruction skills with knowledge, experience and confidence supporting others to learn through a range of modalities, including formal presentations, didactic/interactive instruction, tailored workshops, virtual meetings and webinars experience leading teams and supervising others. Interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. Preference for familiarity with U Theory and Conscious Leadership approaches. Ability to work under pressure; good communication skills in English (and Nepali, preferred); good interpersonal skills; willingness to travel in project areas outside of Kathmandu; highly self-motivated, creative and adaptive thinker, comfortable leading. Demonstrated cross-cultural competence. Preference given to Nepali nationals or ability to independently secure visa required. May be required to travel regionally on temporary assignments.

Preferred: 

Candidates with these qualifications and work experience will be considered favorably. Demonstrated experience having built team capacity to complete data quality, gender integration, indicator and data tracking, analysis, and adaptive management. Preference to those who have supporting international or multi-country programming learning, monitoring, research projects, and evaluations. Experience with donor organizations, including USAID, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office UK, US Government, Swiss Development Corporation, and World Bank to name a few. Preference for candidates that have completed cross-sectoral developmental evaluation, outcome harvesting and political economy analysis (in environment, energy, and climate action for example). Demonstrate coaching skills and demonstrated history of scaling a team through a Mission approach with progressive responsibilities of team members (staffing up and up-skilling). Support to programmatic behaviors (through a MERL mindset). Preference for those with Asia regional experience.

5. JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Leadership

• Establish the Impact Pillar and strategic vision to support programming in the Foundation’s Nepal office, in alignment and support of country offices across the region.
• Create a Coherence Mechanism to make the Pillar fully functioning across projects beyond MERL (including data governance/subnational governance/small grants programming, and opportunities to advance reform agendas; GON coherent approaches including to advisory committees, tips for working, etc.; program budget and staff efficiencies for impact; standardizing bottom-up, demand driven programming across our portfolios).
• Provide technical guidance to the Foundation’s Nepal office with partner offices as appropriate, which could include technical upskilling of individuals and teams, as well as facilitating team sessions around targeted impact sub-themes. 
• Establish the process and tools to support program teams and MERL Unit to collect, measure, and draft “impact stories” and “Impact harvesting” over time-series.
• Provide substantive inputs/support to the program director and the program team to identify key areas of research and other policy and data analysis/information needed for effective implementation of programs activities.
• Support the Foundation’s problem-driven approach to adaptive programming while identifying methodological approaches for replicability, scalability and sustainability models.
• Support rigor around capturing reflective models/practices for emerging impacts. 
• Employ best fit technical frameworks for policy support programming, including policy evaluation, positive deviance measuring and other appropriate tools.
• Work to established renewed quality assurance of the Foundation’s brand across our programs/portfolio/partnerships 
• Supporting partnerships models and communication strategies, particularly for donor partners, to ensure messages of impact and strategy are well communicated, and evidence-driven (including partnership-brokering); standardizing best-fit partnership models that support bottom-up programming across our local partners in particular. 

Management Leadership

• Serve as the senior-most technical lead of the MERL Unit to ensure the highest quality programming.
• Serve on Senior Leadership Team to report on impact and help create ecosystems of feedback across the portfolio. 
• Support right fit visibility and thought leadership (including through strategic communications, conference participation, innovation, knowledge products, and methodologies). 
• Support a high-performance work environment. 
• Help identify places of organizational efficiencies in project management.   
• Learning management that enhances the Foundation technical skills and links team with other opportunities for professional and technical growth.   

Thought Leadership

• Support upscaling research, learning, and knowledge management strategy for the program as a critical component of the Impact Strategy and MERL system.  
• Support establishment of methodologies coherence throughout our program and partners.
• Expand targeted macro, multi-year learning agendas that come out of portfolio review issues (e.g., competitive vs. non-competitive partnership models for impact).
• Support partnership models with research and academic institutions.    

Representation

• Contact with donors, experts, civil society, and academicians on behalf of the Foundation and arrange meetings. 
• Participate in meetings and events with development partners, governments, and civil society organizations as assigned. 
• Contribute to articles, written materials, and documentation for publication.
• Participate in Foundation meetings and other relevant professional forums and events within Nepal and regionally.
• Participate in international academic, and conferences and support the Foundation's broader efforts to do so. 

Other Responsibilities

• Provide support to other on-going programs and activities of the Foundation as may be necessary.
• Support research and development of new impact programming opportunities. 
• Other duties as assigned by the Country Representative or designate.

Applicants are requested to read through the job descriptions above for each position. Job shall be applied through the Foundation Online job application form by July 31, 2023, click here: Job Application form . Please attach your Curriculum Vitae (CV) along with a cover letter describing your suitability for the position in the Job Application form. In case of any technical difficulties, queries can be forwarded to [email protected]. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Telephone calls will not be entertained.