Senior Research and Development Consultant

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Egypt, working through the Learning Activity contractor Q2 Impact, is seeking to hire a consultant to carry out an annual review for all USAID funded activities in Egypt. This activity review aims to assess the USAID/Egypt funded activities progress towards the Country Development Collaboration Strategy (CDCS) development results, revalidate the CDCS development hypothesis in relation to the local context with the objective of better aligning the implementation of the Mission’s activities with changes in the local context and agency direction as well as with emerging knowledge and lessons learned. The review will be designed to complement other performance and context data analysis and research tasks as well as site visits that would help initiate and inform discussions around learning gaps, emerging priorities, changes in context and needed adaptations for the current CDCS to achieve its results. The activity review will also allow for the opportunity to better understand the Implementing Partners (IPs) learning and adaptation practices and continually recommend ways to further improve them.

Specifically, this Activity Review aims to focus on:

- _The_**_ CDCS achievements _**
- _The_**_ operational, technical and/or contextual challenges_**_ _
- _The _**_lessons learned_**_ (What worked and did not work)_
- _L_**_earning gaps_**_ _
- **_Adaptive management approaches_**_ used._

**Estimated Start Date**: 1st January 2025

**Estimated LOE**: up to 25 days

**Background**

USAID/Egypt is in the process of launching its new Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) exercise, with the aim of articulating Egypt’s priorities for the coming five years 2026-2030. Through the CDCS, the Egypt Mission in collaboration with its Implementing Partners (IPs), consider current resource and policy parameters, review lessons learned from monitoring data and evaluation of implementation experience, explore development hypotheses, and understand the perspectives of local partners and explore ways to complement and leverage efforts for sustainability. For that, this activity review is designed to **_assess, review, and/or synthesize evidence and lessons learned_** from program implementation and other sources to inform strategic choices and priorities for the CDCS.

This task specifically focuses on the following sectors:

- Democracy and Governance: Governance, Gender Equality and Rule of Law
- Economic Growth: Agriculture, Tourism, Trade, Climate, Water
- Heath and Population: Family Planning and Global Health
- Education and Partnership: Basic and Higher Education
- Cross-Cutting Themes: ICT, Private Sector Engagement, and Women Empowerment

**Scope of work**:

- Conduct a Desk Review for the USAID funded activities.
- Conduct thematic and content analysis.
- Participate in 2-3 days workshop to confirm methodology, clarify review approach, and develop research plan.
- Participate in 2-3 days synthesis workshop to identify initial findings.
- Out brief on initial findings and next steps with the Learning Activity Team and the USAID Egypt mission leadership, and others (TBD).
- Document findings in a draft report, following the reporting template that will be agreed on.
- Determine specified check-in points for exchange and follow-up on the activity review experience, to support highlights from the activity review on programming; ideally how the review process help not only to think differently but also to work differently.

**Estimated Timeline/Deliverables Table**:
**Timeline and Deliverables**:

- Activity Review prep and planning workshop (First week of Jan 2025): Plan of reviews and work distribution on team members

2. Activity reviews and data analysis by individual team member (Third week of Jan 2025): Conduct reviews by individual team members

3. Collective Data analysis discussions and prepare for reporting (First week of Feb 2025): Discuss individual FCRs and agree on preliminary findings

4. Develop and submit preliminary report (Second week of February 2025): report on preliminary findings i.e., 3-4 pages

5. Design and submit Graphic representation (Third week of February 2025): Graphic representation of the FCRs (exact format TBD)

6. Review and submit report and graphic representation for final review and comments (Third week of February 2025): Final report

7. Review the comments and address them (Forth week of February 2025): Address the comments as needed

8. Report and Graphic comments addressed, and report resubmitted to PO to approve for presenting at the retreat (First week of March 2025): Final Activity Review report

**Qualifications Requirements**:

- Must be a Master and/or a PhD holder in a relevant field with min experience of 10 years with the USAID in one or more of the following sectors: democracy and governance, health, education and economic growth.
- Demonstrable experience with research and development.
- Superior le