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Job Title:  Technical Advisor, Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Organisation: Plan International

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: Head of Programme Development & Quality

About US:

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances
children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 80 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

Job Summary: The Technical Advisor, Early Childhood Development is responsible for ensuring programme quality and gender transformative outcomes for programming and influencing in the area of Early Childhood Development, in both development and humanitarian contexts and in line with Country Strategy and Global priorities. The Advisor will lead on new programme design, actively support business development and ensure technical soundness of all programme design and program implementation for  Early Childhood Development. The Advisor will actively represent Plan International Uganda in relevant technical working groups and other fora at National, Regional and International levels. They will also work closely with Plan International’s global network of National Organisations, its Global and Regional Hubs, and the relevant technical network, to ensure Plan Uganda is well represented and is up to date with evolving policies and trends.

Role Dimensions:

• The Technical Advisor is a member of the Country Management Team and is expected to contribute to the development of Plan International Uganda’s strategic plans – both long and short term. The job holder ensures that emerging best practice in ECD is incorporated into programme strategy and project design and that the results of learning are fed back into the design and adaptation of strategies.
• The Technical Advisor supports the design of PIU’s ECD programme/project and influencing interventions. The role is also accountable for the provision of standards, tools, advisory services and monitoring frameworks that will assure the programmatic excellence and technical quality of ECD-related programme implementation. The Technical Advisor also leads external representation to ECD sector actors, including government, international and local partners
• This position directly influences the ECD programme implementation budget of around €3-4 million annually.
• The key challenge for this position is around the profound difficulty of driving change when the root causes of inequality are systemic and multi-faceted. This requires the job holder to:
• Have an outstanding ability to think strategically and conceptually, analysing complex, multi-dimensional systems and hypothesizing logical theories of change, including an ability to conduct Gender analysis.
• Lead the team to innovate – developing new interventions and utilising MERL approaches to test their effectiveness and adapt or pivot strategies in order to optimise impact
• Influence PIU staff, partners, national-level and local-level stakeholders to understand programme approaches and to adopt new ways of thinking and acting
• Level of contact with children

• This position has been classified as “mid contact”: Occasional interaction with children

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Thought Leadership & Strategy Design

• Act as a thought leader in Early Childhood Development, contributing to the development and adaptation of new strategies at both Organisation and Intervention levels:
• Liaise with the HoPDQ and the MERL Manager to commission relevant and insightful research studies, including support for any research required to contribute to situational analysis from a ECD perspective
• Initiate and participate in the process of programmatic gap analysis at the Country Office and Programme Area level and ensure that the findings from the analysis are documented and shared with management and staff
• Regularly review the results of PIU’s research, monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities to identify key insights, develop theories of change (both new and improved) and act as a valued advisor on how to design impactful interventions
• Drive the pursuit of innovation as a result of lessons learned; ensure that effective strategies are institutionalised within PIU and widely disseminated externally (within Uganda and with partners and Plan International colleagues at regional and global levels)
• Provide ECD technical support to the Country Management Team in formulating country and specific policies, strategies and goals on ECD; includes developing tools for staff and partner capacity assessment / training needs analysis
• Work closely with the Country Programme Team to coordinate programme interventions, promote learning and review progress against the delivery of the Country Strategy

Project Design & Planning

• Lead new programme design for ECD work, actively supporting business development to develop new proposals and liaise with donors:
• Support the Business Development Team in mapping the donor landscape and proactively building relationships with current and potential donors in the ECD space; personally build relationships with strategically significant donors
• Play a proactive role in the development of project concepts and high quality project proposals; support the integration of ECD into proposals for other technical areas (e.g. Gender & Inclusion, Education, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Protection for Violence)
• Support the development of detailed implementation plans and budgets; ensure that there is clarity over what activities will be managed by the PD&Q team, and what will be managed by the Programme Implementation team
• In collaboration with MERL and Project Managers, devise effective monitoring frameworks that will support quality assurance of projects and yield important insights on how to drive beneficial change for vulnerable children and youth
• Support the Annual Planning and Budgeting process to ensure plans and budgets are contributing to the achievement of the Country Strategy, particularly in the area of ECD

Communicating for Influence

• Lead PIU’s influencing efforts on Early Childhood Development, aiming to promote child rights, gender equality, with a focus on effective systems and structures for early learning and gender responsive parenting and caregiving; ensure the development and implementation of an innovative influencing strategy:
• Participate in stakeholder analysis from an ECD perspective, identifying groups and individuals whose cooperation is necessary for the success of PIU’s ECD strategy and interventions; ensure that clear goals for stakeholder mindset or behaviour change are defined
• Participate in the generation of innovative ideas for influencing and strategic communication and subsequent formation of strategies for PIU as a whole and for each intervention / project
• Map and meet potential partners, collaborators and networks, fostering collaboration on influencing and advocacy initiatives; represent PIU in national, regional and global fora on ECD
• Lead PIU’s representation with relevant Government Ministries, technical networks and working groups, and with other NGOs and CSOs working in the areas of ECD
• Produce high quality documentation on ECD interventions to promote country profile, business development, replication and scaling up of successful models; consolidate progress for Quarterly, Annual and other relevant reports
• Liaise with other offices in Plan International – including National Organisations, Global Hub and Regional Hub, and other Country Offices for sharing, learning and collaboration on ECD work.

Ensuring Impactful Implementation

• Advise the Country Management Team (CMT), Project Managers and Programme Area Managers to ensure quality implementation of all ECD related projects and components:
• Once a project is approved, work collaboratively with the Programme Implementation Unit, including Project Manager and Partnership Manager to ensure that start-up processes effectively incorporate input from PD&Q and understanding of the programme design, including supporting the onboarding of Partners; in particular, provide support with capacity assessments and development of capacity-building plans / training curricula
• Develop and disseminate technical Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), guidance on programme models, assessments, educational materials and trainings to enhance the capacity of both staff and partners
• Participate in the implementation of each project’s monitoring framework, including:
• Supporting baseline and evaluation studies
• Conducting agreed reviews and visits
• Reviewing programme reports
• Collaborate closely with the Programme Implementation and MERL team to track progress against outcomes, indicators, milestones and targets and to identify opportunities for improvement in a blame-free spirit of academic enquiry:
• If desired results have been achieved, initiate strategies for widespread awareness-raising
• If desired results have not been achieved, support the implementation team to adapt their approach
• Periodically review theories of change, revising as appropriate
• Monitor project implementation against the agreed ECD policies and SOPs, providing advice and guidance as necessary to assure project quality; escalate any concerns to the accountable manager

Leadership & Capacity Building

• Lead all who are involved in ECD work (staff, consultants, partners) in a manner that empowers them to contribute effectively towards achievement of PIU’s ECD strategy:
• Ensure that PIU’s ECD work is resourced with the expertise necessary to deliver on strategic & project goals through a combination of recruitment and management of staff and procurement of consultants
• Lead and coach the team towards high standards of performance through clear roles & responsibilities and provision of appropriate support; coordinate effectively with others to ensure high performance within PIU’s matrix operating structure
• Foster an inclusive environment by implementation of policies and ways-of-working that provide for diversity and equal opportunities and utilisation of a leadership style that will drive employee engagement
• Actively support technical teams, project teams and partners to access regular capacity building on ECD, through direct training support, identifying learning and training opportunities, and acting as a mentor and role model
• Collaborate with government ministries, partners and training colleges to design curricula and deliver training; support data collection to evaluate the extent to which participants have applied learning in their work and facilitate ongoing improvement as required
• Enhance the capacity of Plan International Uganda staff and partners in gender transformative programming, lobbying & advocacy, and localization of gender sensitive issues to ensure effective implementation of programmes at all levels

Safeguarding, Gender Equality & Inclusion

• Ensure that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The ideal applicant must hold a Master’s degree (preferred) in Human Rights, Social Sciences or equivalent, with professional training on child rights programming and gender
• At least seven years’ experience in design and implementation of ECD programming in a reputable organization and in both development and humanitarian contexts
• Leadership Competencies
• Myself as a Leader
• Uses own behaviour to role model the culture change we need, upholding our values and accelerating progress towards gender equality inside PIU, with our partners and in wider society; effectively manages strategic change initiatives.
• Creates space for reflection and uses external evidence and internal evaluation to identify what and how we need to improve; creates a safe environment for others to challenge self or raise concerns; leads the team to implement changes as a result of what has been learned.
• Critical Business Management Competencies
• Broad and deep understanding of the political, social, financial and cultural drivers of inequality; with practical experience of developing and implementing strategies for change
• Demonstrated expertise in designing and leading the impactful implementation of significant projects; utilising good practice in MERL to set targets and adaptively managing to ensure achievement of results
• Good grasp of financial management including understanding relevant funding sources, ability to budget and accurately estimate costs, experience with reading financial reports and taking appropriate action based on the results.
• Outstanding ability to analyse and interpret complex data-sets, both internal and external, to spot trends and patterns, opportunities and risks, and to inform decisions and action (even when the information is incomplete or ambiguous).
• Outstanding communication skills with an ability to deeply understand the starting position of an audience and produce compelling written and/or spoken communications that effectively influence others.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with an ability to relate effectively to a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds; proven track record of leading collaborative working relationships and resolving conflicts between parties with differing interests.

Critical Technical Competencies

• Demonstrated understanding of environment and current effective practices concerning ECD in Uganda, including existing networks, CSOs and government stakeholders
• Demonstrated understanding of gender transformative programming and relevant approaches
• Experience of managing compliance with safeguarding and child protection policies at a senior level
• Substantial experience in successful proposal development and report writing.

How to Apply:

All Qualified and interested candidates should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline:  2^nd September 2022

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