Learning, Evidence and Impact Lead

Job Description

• Reporting to the Programme Director, the Learning, Evidence and Impact Lead will provide strategic leadership and technical oversight for learning, evidence generation and use, and impact measurement. The role ensures that data and insights are systematically generated, shared, and used to inform implementation, support adaptive management, and strengthen impact across diverse contexts and stakeholders.
• This role also champions inclusive learning and ensures that the programme meets the expectations of donors, partners, governments, and communities.

ABOUT YOU

• You bring a strong learning mindset, seeing monitoring, evaluation and learning not only as accountability tools but as mechanisms for reflection, improvement, and innovation. You are skilled at translating complex data into clear, compelling insights and narratives that resonate with diverse audiences, including donors, senior leaders, implementing partners and community stakeholders.
• You value inclusion and collaboration, actively seeking diverse perspectives and ensuring that learning processes reflect the voices and experiences of those most affected by the programme. You are confident engaging with senior stakeholders, yet grounded and respectful when working with local teams and partners.
• You are an enabler rather than a gatekeeper - someone who builds trust, coaches others, and fosters a culture where teams feel safe to reflect, adapt, and learn. You balance strategic oversight with practical support and are energized by supporting programmes to evolve and deliver lasting impact.

PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Learning & Impact Leadership

• Lead the development and implementation of a programme-wide Learning, Impact and Adaptation Framework, aligned with programme objectives and donor requirements.
• Ensure learning is systematically embedded across the programme lifecycle - from design and implementation to scale.
• Lead periodic validation and refinement of the programme Theory of Change
• Define and track outcome-level impact pathways across countries
• Ensure learning informs scale-up strategies and policy engagement

MEL Oversight & Quality Assurance

• Define and enforce minimum datasets required for decision-making across programme levels
• Ensure evaluation findings are translated into strategic action plans
• Provide technical oversight to country-level MEL systems to ensure consistency, quality, and comparability across countries.
• Provide technical oversight for baseline, mid-term, and end-term evaluations, including coordination with government counterparts, independent evaluators, External Reference Groups, and country teams.
• Guide the design and implementation of participatory institutional, service mapping, and facility readiness assessments to identify gaps and inform targeted capacity strengthening and service improvements.
• Set standards for data quality, ethics, inclusion, and safeguarding in data collection and use.
• Support the design and implementation of impact assessments, evaluations, and learning studies.

Data Use, Sense-Making & Knowledge Translation

• Institutionalise quarterly decision-making forums based on programme data, structured learning and reflection processes, e.g. learning reviews, after-action reviews, pause-and-reflect sessions.
• Translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for diverse audiences, including programme teams, partners, and donors.
• Ensure insights are effectively communicated through appropriate knowledge products such as dashboards, publications, briefs, presentations and learning notes.
• Guides the strategic use of evidence to inform decision-making, course correction, and innovation across countries.
• Track utilisation of learning products and decisions influenced

Stakeholder Engagement & Influence

• Engage donors, government counterparts, and partners to align learning priorities, manage expectations and strengthen the use of evidence for decision-making.
• Facilitate cross-country and cross-partner learning communities to promote knowledge exchange and shared problem-solving.
• Promote co-creation of learning with implementing partners and communities, ensuring that learning processes are inclusive and contextually grounded.

Capacity Strengthening

• Develop and implement a structured MEL and learning capacity strengthening strategy
• Track improvements in partner and country-level data use and learning maturity
• Strengthen MEL and learning capacity across partners and country teams through coaching, practical tools, and ongoing technical guidance.
• Foster a culture of learning, reflection, and accountability across the programme.

Education and Experience

• Master’s degree in Epidemiology, Public Health, Development Studies, Data Science, or related field.
• Minimum 8-10 years’ experience in learning, impact measurement, MEL, or adaptive management in complex programmes.
• Proven experience leading: Baseline, midline, endline evaluations and Mixed-methods research
• Experience with: Impact evaluation OR implementation research and MEL/learning across multi-country or multi-partner programmes.
• Evidence of Influencing policy, donor strategies, or programme design and producing high-level knowledge products (briefs, publications)
• Strong understanding of complex systems, adaptive programming, and data-informed decision-making.
• Experience working with diverse stakeholders, including donors, governments, NGOs, and communities.

Skills and Competencies:

• Ability to connect: Data → insights → decision-making → programme change and a Strong Theory of Change development and validation skills
• Strong expertise in implementation research and adaptive programming in complex systems
• Technical understanding of gender-transformative programming, adolescent health and harmful practice prevention
• Ability to analyse political economy and social norms influencing programme outcomes
• Ability to design and operationalise adaptive management frameworks and decision triggers
•  Proven ability to translate evidence into policy and funding influence
•  Experience with mixed-methods analytics, real-time dashboards, and data interpretation for programme decision-making
• Integrated accountability and learning practice, including data quality assurance, ethical data governance and evidence standards.
• Culturally responsive, inclusive and participatory data and learning practices, ensuring community voice shapes evidence.
• Excellent communication, data storytelling and influence, translating complex data and evaluation findings into clear, compelling narratives for diverse stakeholders.
• Data analytics and digital capability, including design of data systems, analytical interpretation, visualisation, and use of digital tools for real‑time learning and impact tracking.
• Accountability for embedding safeguarding across all monitoring, evaluation, learning, and evidence-generation processes, ensuring ethical and safe data collection, analysis, and dissemination.

Travel Requirements:

• Approximately 20% travel is expected across