National Education Coordinator

Reference:	SOT/NEC/SL
Country:	Sierra Leone
Job Title:	National Education Coordinator

Contract Grade:                                B

Contract Length:                               2 years

Date Needed By:                             ASAP

New Post or Replacement:          Replacement

Accompanied /Unaccompanied:  Unaccompanied

Exact Job Location: Magburaka, Tonkolili District with frequent travel to the 8 chiefdoms of operation and to Freetown. The post holder will spend at least 70% of her/his time in Tonkolili District.

Reports To:  Assistant Country Direct for Programmes (ACD-P)

Responsible For:  (Staff):  Line Management of two Project Managers

Liaises With: 

- Country Director, Assistant Country Director for Systems (ACD-S),  National and District Coordinators (FIM, Health and Programme Quality and Monitoring), Project Managers, Human Resources, Systems and Finance departments

- Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MEST), District authorities, Other INGOs and NGOs,

- Education Consortium members- IRC, Plan Sierra Leone, Ibis and Save the Children

- Other stakeholders as required by the programme

Job Purpose:

To lead the strategic development, financial management and implementation of the projects of the education programme, ensuring links between Concern projects and at local, district and national level.  This involves the direct management of the two education programme managers, as well as supporting their management of the wider education team and ensuring that robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) information is used to inform quality programming.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

General Responsibilities:

• Promote accountability and ensure compliance with Concern’s Programme Participants Protection Policy, Anti- Fraud Policy and Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) standards, including the complaint and response mechanism (CRM), to ensure maximum protection of programme participants and the efficient and transparent use of Concern’s resources.
• Promote equality, especially gender, within the organisation and across programmes, in line with Concern’s Equality Policy and, ensure targeting and project implementation is informed by How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty (HCUEP).
• Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organisation’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked upon as a professional organisation, guided by organisational policies and Concern’s Code of Conduct

Specific Responsibilities:

Human Resource Management:

·           Directly manage two project managers;

·           Assist in the recruitment, management and support of education programme staff to ensure that staff have the required skill sets and competencies;

·           Assist in identifying training needs for staff and provide (or coordinate) the training necessary for the delivery of a high quality education programme. In particular, build the capacity of staff involved in the programme through the provision of technical support, training and advice;

·           Support the development of objectives for team members and develop job descriptions for newly joining team members as appropriate;

·           Conduct performance reviews on a regular basis and as per Concern National and International Staff Manuals;

·           Ensure that staff are properly monitored and supervised and that necessary action is provided when staff are found to be under performing (capacity building or disciplinary action as appropriate);

·           Support staff with regular visits to the field to complement the information garnered through reports and discussions.

Programme Management:         

·           Lead the strategic development and implementation of the education programme in line with Concern’s organisational policy framework;

·           Ensure linkages, synergy and complementary with other Concern sector programmes through joint planning, monitoring and evaluation with the coordinators and teams of other sector programmes;

·           Take a lead on researching new initiates that lead to improved education outcomes for children;

·           Maintain positive relationships with partners (Pikin to Pikin, DEO and the Northern Polytechnic) with a focus on continuously improving the quality of the interventions;

·           Develop capacity building strategies (for partner and Concern staff)  to ensure partner support;

·           Ensure that issues of gender, equality, safe learning (with a focus on school-related-gender-based-violence), accountability, risk and vulnerability are addressed and monitored;

·           Ensure our teams have strong community facilitation and coaching skills, and have a good understanding of participatory and child centred learning methodologies;

·           Support the management and development of  research and advocacy interventions related to the programme;

·           As the budget holder for the education projects, oversee and support the budgeting (submission of budget revisions), expenditure tracking and all aspects of financial management of the programme;  

·           Ensure finance management capacity of programme managers is built, particularly budget, forecast and expenditure management;

·           Participate in all budget planning, projections, monitoring and financial reporting exercises with regular liaison with the Country Financial Controller; and where necessary with the Area Coordinator;

·           Produce high quality programme reports

Networking

·           Represent (or coordinate representation of) Concern at district and national education meetings, while coordinating with NGOs and other organisations to Concern’s work is linked into the bigger national picture;

·           Link with the government at the district and national levels to ensure that programming is jointly planned and that the sustainability of the interventions is maximised;

·           Lead research and advocacy interventions related to the programme at national and international level, using data from school-level interventions to advocate for national-level policy development/implementation;

·           Ensure positive linkages with other agencies within the Education Consortium to maximise coordination and learning. Ensure Concern’s policy and strategy framework are represented within the Education Consortium programme;

·           Link with national and international organisations (IRC, IBIS, Plan, Action Aid, Pikin to Pikin, EFA coalition, UNICEF, World Bank, TALLE-RSL etc.) working in the area of education, specifically those focused on reading interventions, safe learning and support to Chiefdom Education Committees and School Management Committees);

·           Enhance programme integration and efficiency in targeting the poorest, through liaising and planning with coordinators of the other Concern Sierra Leone sector programmes;

·           Disseminate learning internally, nationally and internationally from our Education programme

Programme Planning Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)

·           Strengthen the monitoring and evaluation systems for the Education Programme; ensuring the programme M&E plans are implemented and revised as necessary, all staff and partners understand their roles related to M&E, and all programme documentation is based on robust data;

·           Ensure that Concern’s Programme Cycle Management  System (PCMS) and M&E guidelines are followed throughout programme development and implementation;

·           Ensure programme data is used for programme learning and revision, where applicable;

·           Ensure effective monitoring and evaluation is in line with Concern policies, and uses standard and approved tools to measure impact and ensure efficiency against programme indicators;

·           Support the team and partners to analyse data collected and to use the information to inform programming;

·           Ensure M&E is incorporated into all education programme plans;

·           Ensure that Concern’s accountability and HAP commitments are reflected in programme design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation;

·           Support the development of downward accountability mechanisms as an integrated part of the planning and evaluation cycles

Coordination with other sectors

·           Provide technical assistance to all Area and Programme Coordinators on issues of education, particularly for adult literacy activities and ;

·           Ensure work related to addressing School Related Gender Based Violence is implemented in a holistic manner, in collaboration with Health team (particularly related to PHU support), and wider integrated programme and other actors.

·           Support the sourcing of funding to integrate adult education throughout the Tonkolili Integrated Programme, and lead on the development and design of adult education;

·           Support the targeting of the Tonkolili Integrated Programme’s Village Savings and Loans initiatives to include families of out of school children or those at risk of early school leaving;

·           Ensure that the following development and cross cutting approaches are incorporated into targeting and programme implementation: How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty (HCUEP) especially equality (with a special focus on gender equality) and risk (including HIV&AIDS) and DRR;

Other

·           Undertake any other relevant duties as may be assigned by the ACDP

·           Ensure team members are aware of core Concern policies and procedures relevant to their work, and with the support of others, carry out regular briefings on these policies, including the P4, security management, accountability.  Contribute to the implementation of these policies.

  PERSON SPECIFICATION

Experience Required:

Essential: 

• Minimum 3 yrs experience working overseas in education related development programmes
• Experience working with local NGOs and partners in the implementation of programmes and support in institutional development.
• Experience in results based management and M&E (including quantitative and qualitative methodologies)
• Technical understanding related to early grade reading assessments and interventions;
• Strong understanding of community development principles and practice
• Experience of coaching, training and building the capacity of international and national staff
•  Experience in budget management

Desirable:

• Experience working overseas in development programme’s in a coordinator/advisor role
• Experience developing and monitoring reading interventions
• Experience managing research and advocacy
• Experience working in West Africa and/or Sierra Leone
• Experience working in large consortia

Education & Qualifications Required:

Essential:

• Essential: Third level qualification in Education.

Desirable:

• MA/Diploma in Education, development studies, social sciences or other related discipline

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements

Highly computer literate with extensive knowledge of Word and Excel

• Very strong technical knowledge of education programming and recent developments in child protection, community involvement in education and teacher professional development interventions.
• Ability to translate monitoring and evaluation into practical evidence that can be used to inform lobbying and advocacy messages
• Training and facilitation skills; ability to motivate and develop skills of others
• Flexible, reliable, culturally sensitive and with the ability/willingness to frequently spend prolonged periods of time in isolated project sites with field staff
• Initiative and ability to work with minimal supervision
• Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity.
• Ability to work both as part of a team and independently
• Empathy with organisational Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives
• Initiative and ability to work with minimal supervision
• Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity.
• Positive thinking and attitude
• Strong report-writing skills in English

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date December 4^th 2013. CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be short listed on a regular basis and we may offer posts before the closing date.

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them.  In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment.   By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year.  Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List).  Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will not be made pending a clearance check being conducted on the applicant.  For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.