**INOVASI 3 - Evaluation and Research Specialist****Project Overview and Role**:Indonesia's Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia's human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia's 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values.Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program's approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia's development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels and use the well attested-success of INOVASI's local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.The Program is managed by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.**Primary Duties and Responsibilities**:**Purpose of the Position**:The **Evaluation and Research Specialist **will contribute to the work of the Performance and Learning (PNL) team in supporting implementation of MERL activities and operation. INOVASI's MERL Strategy will describe (i) the program's approach to assessing and reporting progress towards and achievement of EOPOs and IOs, (ii) how evidence generated by the MERL system will be used in program decision making, adaptation, communications, and policy dialogue, (iii) the program's research agenda and how it will contribute to and support assessment of progress and achievement of IOs and EOPOs, and (iv) the resourcing and roles and responsibilities of the Performance and Learning (PNL) team. Implementation of the MERL Strategy will involve the Jakarta PNL team as well as MERL personnel in each provincial team.The Evaluation and Research Specialist will be responsible to ensure that the Performance and Learning (PNL) team is collecting and building robust evidence of how education ecosystem works and improves, what interventions work to improve learning and student learning outcomes in Indonesia, what does not work, and under which circumstances. The work will involve long-term pilot and program evaluation, research and short-term quick turnaround analytical pieces as needed.**Working with children**Is this position likely to come into contact with children? Yes No**Duties**: Under the direction of Performance and Learning Manager, the Evaluation and Research Specialist will:- Support the Performance and Learning Manager to develop the INOVASI Phase 3 MERL strategy, design the overall INOVASI Results Framework, develop annual plan and targets, including the budget, in line with INOVASI Phase 3 purpose and in compliance with DFAT requirements.- Develop an evaluation and research plan to best serve INOVASI needs for policy dialogue at national and subnational level, providing feedback for key stakeholders in targeted districts for improving education ecosystem, enabling INOVASI to assess and report on its progress and achievement. The evaluation and research plan will integrate new program features such as climate change and GEDSI elements on boys' and youth' engagement and women's leadership.- Manage the INOVASI evaluation and research system to ensure accuracy, timely input, and meaningful data and information.- Manage the implementation of INOVASI's evaluation and research plan to ensure timely feedback for INOVASI management and relevant key partners decision making, incorporating high quality process and products, in compliance with DFAT requirements. The task involves:- Managing the design and implementation of
