Lead Research Consultancy

Consultancy Overview

The engagement centres on designing, coordinating, and delivering a comprehensive impact evaluation portfolio covering school leadership, professional development, policy implementation, research capacity, collaboration, and education system strengthening across multiple African countries.

The consultancy requires strong expertise in programme evaluation, mixed-methods research, contribution analysis, education policy, and large-scale project coordination. The successful consortium will work closely with ESSA, ACSL partners, governments, and education stakeholders throughout the evaluation lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the design and implementation of six interconnected impact studies.
• Review programme documentation, theories of change, and evaluation frameworks.
• Develop evaluation methodologies, sampling strategies, research tools, and analytical approaches.
• Apply mixed-methods, contribution analysis, and context-sensitive evaluation techniques.
• Coordinate consortium partners and assign clear technical leadership across studies.
• Support longitudinal evaluation activities, policy analysis, institutional assessments, and professional development evaluations.
• Ensure research activities comply with ethical standards, safeguarding requirements, and data protection policies.
• Provide technical oversight for fieldwork conducted with implementation partners.
• Analyse quantitative and qualitative data across multiple countries and research themes.
• Prepare integrated findings that demonstrate programme contribution and learning.
• Develop policy briefs, learning reports, technical publications, and evidence products.
• Support stakeholder engagement, policy dialogue, and knowledge-sharing activities.
• Maintain quality assurance processes across all participating consortium members.
• Produce an integrated evidence and learning framework for the overall programme.

Required Qualifications

• African-led consortium with the lead organisation legally registered and headquartered in Africa.
• Demonstrated experience leading large multi-country education research or evaluation programmes.
• Strong expertise in school leadership, education systems, or education policy evaluation.
• Experience conducting mixed-methods research and contribution-focused evaluations.
• Experience with gender-responsive and equity-focused research.
• Knowledge of African education systems and contextually relevant leadership models.
• Ability to coordinate large multi-partner evaluation portfolios across several countries.
• Strong analytical writing, reporting, and knowledge translation capabilities.
• Well-defined governance, financial management, quality assurance, and coordination structures.

Study Areas

• School leadership practices, data use, and learner outcomes.
• Gender, equity, and inclusion within school leadership.
• Policy development and institutionalisation of school leadership professional development.
• Effectiveness of professional development programmes.
• Research capacity, blended learning, and evidence use.
• Collaboration, partnerships, and formative assessment supporting ACSL development.

Expected Deliverables

• Integrated inception and evaluation design report.
• Technical reports and case studies for each agreed study.
• Mid-term learning and adaptive management briefs.
• Integrated impact, contribution, and learning synthesis report.
• Policy briefs, practice guidance, and strategic recommendations supporting the African Centre for School Leadership.

Contract Details

• Contractor engagement.
• Remote work across Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Project period: 2026–2030.
• Reporting to the Senior Research, Evaluation and Impact Manager at ESSA.
• Close collaboration with ACSL partner organisations and national education stakeholders.

Compensation

Competitive consultancy compensation based on organisational experience, technical expertise, and the approved financial proposal.