Advisor, Economic Evaluation (P3

Save the Children

For over 100 years, Save the Children has been fighting for the rights of children. The right to a healthy start in life. To have access to education. To be in a safe environment, protected from harm. We work in some of the world s hardest-to-reach places - over 100 countries, including the U.S. No matter what your role is, when you join Save the Children, you re creating positive, irreversible change for children, and the future we all share.

As the Economic Evaluation Advisor, you will be integral to our work in helping vulnerable children achieve a brighter future. You will strengthen the cost modeling and benchmarking that underpins our proposals and new business development, helping Save the Children develop competitive, evidence-based budgets for strategic projects that accurately reflect what programs should cost to deliver results for children. You will also contribute to our cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analysis, generating and applying evidence that improves how we design, deliver, and communicate the impact of our programs.

Reporting to the Lead Advisor for Economics and Data Analytics, you will work closely with technical advisors, country offices, finance, awards management, new business development teams, and counterparts across the Save the Children movement to ensure resources are used as effectively as possible in service of our mission.

The ideal candidate for this role is curious about how much aid programs cost and why, is comfortable problem solving with incomplete or ambiguous information under tight timelines and is open to questioning their assumptions about how things work.

Hybrid - Washington DC, Fairfield, CT or Lexington, KY office locations

not inclusive of all role responsibilities. May be subject to change

• Lead the development of program cost models to support proposal design, translating program strategies into activity-based budgets that reflect realistic, competitive, and defensible unit costs (e.g., cost per beneficiary and cost per output, and - where prior impact evidence permits - expected cost per outcome), in collaboration with technical advisors, new business development teams, country offices, and monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) colleagues where applicable.
• Develop and maintain internal cost benchmarks by analyzing historical Save the Children program financial and results data across sectors and geographies, and by drawing on external benchmarks from peer organizations, donors, and published research.
• Support new business development, technical, and country office colleagues in interpreting cost benchmarks and building "top-down" cost estimates for proposals, so that program budget and results targets are set consistently and can be articulated clearly to stakeholders.
• Analyze cost drivers and cost variation across contexts, sectors, delivery modalities, and program phases, and translate findings into practical guidance for proposal design, budget review, and program adaptation.
• Proactively engage in the early stages of proposal design to embed cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness considerations, respond to donor cost-effectiveness thresholds and value-for-money requirements, and strengthen the narrative linking costs to expected results.
• Build the capacity of colleagues across new business development, technical, finance, and awards management teams to use cost modeling tools, benchmarks, and best practices through mentoring, coaching, training, and technical guidance.
• Contribute to the design and continuous improvement of Save the Children s tools, templates, guidance, and processes for cost modeling, activity-based budgeting, and cost benchmarking.

• Plan, conduct and support retrospective economic evaluations of Save the Children programs - including cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analysis, bringing together financial data, program/MERL data, impact evaluations, and external evidence to produce a holistic picture of program performance, in collaboration with internal and external researchers, technical advisors and country office colleagues.
• Apply and promote best-practice economic evaluation tools and methodologies (including the "4
  
  Es" framework: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity) in program design, evaluation, and reporting.
• Synthesize and communicate cost and economic evaluation evidence for internal and external audiences through briefs, presentations, learning events, and contributions to knowledge products.
• Support and train colleagues across Save the Children on the principles and practice of economic evaluations
• Participate actively in Save the Children s economic evaluation and evidence and learning communities of practice and keep apprised of external thinking and practice in cost analysis, cost-efficiency, and…