War Child Holland (WCH) is an independent and impartial international non-governmental organization (INGO), with programme offices in fourteen countries, investing in a peaceful future for children and young people affected by armed conflict. We strive to empower children and young people while enabling adults to bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of conflict affected children and young people. In the WCH strategy 2016 – 2025, WCH’s Research and Development (R&D) department is responsible for the rigorous development and evaluation of a holistic, multi-level and interconnected care system with interventions focused on child protection, education and psychosocial support and supportive approaches enabling accessibility and quality.

War Child has operated in Uganda since 2004, initially focusing on children and young people affected by the 20-year long conflict between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Throughout its history in Uganda, War Child has worked across the north, including Kitgum, Gulu, Pader, Yumbe, Moyo and Arua. War Child shifted its focus to respond to the influx of refugees in 2017, providing Psychosocial Support and Education activities. Since April 2018, War Child has been part of the INCLUDE consortium in partnership with Save The Children (Consortium lead), Finn Church Aid and the Norwegian Refugee Council focusing on Accelerated Education programme (AEP). The INCLUDE project provides overage children with access to quality and protective accelerated learning opportunities including Can’t Wait To Learn, and offers psychosocial support and protection services to school-aged refugee and host community. War Child now implements in 7 refugee settlements in Uganda.

Can’t Wait to Learn
Some 59 million children in countries affected by armed conflict are out of school. Furthermore, under investment in schooling systems and infrastructures and lack of teachers has meant that entire generations of children and youth are denied the right to education. Can’t Wait to Learn provides a highly effective and cost-efficient solution to close the education gap for millions of children around the world affected by conflict. It is a digital tablet-based innovation programme providing children access to quality education, in both formal school settings or inside their communities. It offers children the opportunity to (continue to) learn to read, write and count through a self-paced digital game, which is specifically created to reflect their world and context. We work together with Ministries of Education to ensure that learning objectives are based on the national curricula. Children’s progress is monitored and used for further improvements of the programme. The programme is currently operational in Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Uganda and Chad.

Can’t Wait to Learn has been informed by research and evidence since its inception. Studies have been undertaken to prove that the concept works in different settings. Learning progress has been monitored and feedback from users serves to inform and improve all game content. Research has shown that educative gaming is an effective learning tool that delivers excellent results – for both girls and boys. Our trials have indicated that the possibilities for programme expansion are significant – the model promises to be empowering, flexible and cost-effective at wide scale. Can’t Wait to Learn programme has entered into a new research phase thanks to the funding from International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) through Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) initiative. The research aims to generate knowledge and evidence on how to adapt and scale an education programme in conflict-affected countries and is currently being carried out in Uganda, Sudan and Chad. More information on CWTL and its current research agenda can be found here.

Purpose of the Role
While positive evidence for Can’t Wait to Learn exists, a rigorous evaluation of its effectiveness is still needed. The appropriate design for this is a randomised controlled trial (RCT); the ‘gold standard’ research design to evaluate the effectiveness of a programme. The research coordinator forms the backbone of the research team for the implementation of the RCT study planned in Uganda. Prior to the RCT, it is necessary to test the programme and research processes and tools which will be done through a feasibility and validation study, also coordinated by the research coordinator.

The research coordinator will specifically carry out the following responsibilities;
• Contribute to development and contextualization of research documents and data collection tools.
• Coordinate and communicate with in-country partners including focal person in the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) in Uganda.
• Support in research ethical approval and other approval procedures.
• Manage recruitment, selection and induction of research assistants.
• Lead/co-lead research assistant training.
• Coordinate and supervise all data collection and research activities.
• Comply with data management and protection regulations and adverse events reporting.
• Coordinate closely with national programme team and global research team.
• Contribute to data cleaning, analysis and research publications.
• Contribute to donor and other reports.
Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor in fulfilment of the tasks.

Essential Functional Relations
The research coordinator reports directly to the Programme manager and works closely with all other technical counterparts including CWTL programme and research teams and the global R&D department.

Knowledge and Skills
Essential:
• A Bachelor’s degree or post-graduate diploma in Education, Social Sciences, Health or any other related field.
• A Master’s degree in Education, Social Sciences, Health is an added advantage
• At least 5 years’ research experience, including 2 years’ experience in coordinating field-based research with human subjects in a relevant field (i.e. psychosocial support, education, and/or child protection).
• Experience with conducting and coordinating randomised control trials (RCT).
• Technical expertise within the Ugandan education sector or similar and working with local authorities.
• Proven track record in implementing research activities and data management for research projects with human subjects.
• Experience in recruitment, training and supervision of research assistants.
• Demonstrable experience in coordinating smooth and efficient day-to-day operation of research and data collection activities and acting as the primary administrative point of contact for the local research team.
• Excellent English communication skills (oral and written).
• Strong research communication skills and experience in research dissemination.
• Ability to operate independently and as part of a team.
• Available full-time.

Desirable:
• Experience in (basic) analyses of data sets in SPSS or similar software package.
• Collaboration experience with governmental bodies and international organisations.

Skills
• Leadership skills
• Managerial skills
• (creative/interactive) training skills.
• Supervision, coaching and communication skills.
• Planning skills
• Able to quickly and with attention to detail identify needs / gaps and work towards solutions.
• Cultural sensitivity.
• Result-oriented.
• Willing and able to travel regularly.

Core values
• Impact
• Creativity
• Inspiration
• Integrity