Application Guide
How to Apply for Multi Year Evaluation of Redd Barna’s Introduction of Program Based Approaches (PBA) in Humanitarian Programming in Afghanistan (2025-2029)
at Save the Children
🏢 About Save the Children
Save the Children (Redd Barna) is one of the world's leading independent child rights organizations, operating in over 100 countries to ensure every child survives, learns, and is protected from harm. Its Norway office, Redd Barna, is at the forefront of innovative humanitarian financing and programming models, making it an exciting place for professionals passionate about systems-level change in complex crises. Working here means contributing directly to shifting how humanitarian aid is delivered—moving from fragmented projects to holistic, adaptive, multi-year approaches that put children at the center.
About This Role
This is a long-term, independent evaluation consultancy (2026-2028) to assess Redd Barna's introduction of a Program Based Approach (PBA) in Afghanistan from 2025-2029. You will be responsible for designing and implementing a multi-year, formative and summative evaluation that generates lessons learned and recommendations to strengthen PBA implementation across humanitarian programming. The role directly influences how Redd Barna and the wider sector adopt more flexible, needs-based, and child-focused humanitarian responses in one of the world's most challenging contexts.
💡 A Day in the Life
A typical day might involve coordinating with Redd Barna's Afghanistan Country Office and local partners to plan data collection, reviewing monitoring data and partner reports, and adapting evaluation tools to the evolving context. You could be conducting remote interviews with stakeholders, analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, or drafting sections of an interim learning report to share with the PBA team. The work is highly collaborative, requiring regular check-ins with the evaluation steering committee and flexibility to respond to emerging needs or access challenges.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Save the Children Is Looking For
- Proven experience leading multi-year, complex evaluations of humanitarian programmes, ideally in conflict-affected or fragile settings like Afghanistan.
- Strong expertise in evaluating organizational change or innovative financing modalities (e.g., program-based approaches, multi-year funding, adaptive management).
- Deep knowledge of child rights, humanitarian principles, and the Afghanistan context, including cultural and security sensitivities.
- Excellent mixed-methods research skills (quantitative and qualitative) and ability to produce actionable, utilization-focused recommendations.
- Experience working with international NGOs, preferably Save the Children or similar, and familiarity with their evaluation standards and ethical guidelines.
📝 Tips for Applying to Save the Children
Tailor your technical proposal to explicitly address the formative and summative aspects of the evaluation, showing how you will balance learning and accountability across the multi-year period.
Demonstrate your understanding of the Afghanistan context by referencing specific challenges (e.g., access constraints, gender dynamics, sudden policy shifts) and how your evaluation design will navigate them.
Highlight any experience with Program Based Approaches or similar adaptive, multi-year modalities in your past evaluations, as this is the core innovation being assessed.
Include a clear budget and timeline that reflects the 2026-2028 evaluation period, with realistic milestones for data collection, analysis, and reporting in a remote/hybrid setting.
Emphasize your ability to work independently and ethically, especially given the remote nature and the need for cultural sensitivity; mention any prior experience with remote evaluations in insecure environments.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
["Your specific experience evaluating humanitarian programmes in Afghanistan or similar complex contexts, and how that prepares you to assess PBA's impact on child-focused outcomes.", 'Your methodological approach to multi-year, formative evaluations that generate real-time learning and adaptive recommendations for programme improvement.', 'Your understanding of the shift from project-based to program-based approaches and why this matters for humanitarian effectiveness in protracted crises.', 'Your commitment to ethical, child-safe, and culturally appropriate evaluation practices, particularly in remote management settings.']
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Study Redd Barna's (Save the Children Norway) strategy and previous work in Afghanistan, especially their Country Strategic Plan (CSP) and any public reports on PBA or multi-year programming.
- → Research the broader discourse on Program Based Approaches in humanitarian aid, including literature from ALNAP, ODI, and other think tanks, to understand best practices and common pitfalls.
- → Familiarize yourself with the Afghanistan context, including recent political, security, and humanitarian developments, and how they affect NGO operations and evaluation access.
- → Look into Save the Children's evaluation policies, ethical standards, and child safeguarding protocols to align your proposal with their requirements.
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Submitting a generic evaluation proposal that does not specifically address the PBA modality, Afghanistan context, or the multi-year formative/summative requirement.
- Underestimating the logistical and ethical challenges of remote evaluation in Afghanistan, such as data collection constraints or gender-sensitive access issues.
- Failing to demonstrate how the evaluation will be utilization-focused and feed into ongoing programme adaptation, rather than being a one-off accountability exercise.
📅 Application Timeline
⏰ Deadline: September 28, 2026
We recommend applying at least a few days early to avoid last-minute technical issues.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!
Ready to Apply?
Good luck with your application to Save the Children!