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Job Title:   Program Officer, Education – Leave No One Behind (2 Placements)

Organisation: Save the Children International

Duty Station: Gulu, Uganda

About US:

Save the Children International is an international relief organization that was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts.

Job Summary:  The Programme Officer – Education (Gulu) will take responsibility for planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the Education interventions under Leave No One Behind programme to improve children’s learning outcomes and development through implementation of the QLE Framework. The QLE Framework has 4 pillars: Guiding Principle 1 – emotional and psychological needs of all learners; Guiding Principle 2 – learning environment must protect children’s physical wellbeing; Guiding Principle 3 – learning environment encourages and supports active engagements for learners, child-cantered teaching and improved learning outcomes for all learners; Guiding Principle 4 – parents and local communities are actively involved in planning, decision making and action to improve education. The position holder will also support Teachers Professional Development (TPD) interventions aimed at enhancing teachers’ wellbeing and teaching competencies.

The job holder may be called upon as and when necessary to support the emergency team in cases of humanitarian crisis.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: As a member of the team, and in line with Save the Children strategy, policies, and procedures:

Planning:

• Develop monthly and quarterly work plans that are aligned to the DIP.
• Lead planning efforts at community and district levels so as to ensure effective and efficient resource tracking and use in line with approved project plans and budgets and within the complete project cycle.
• Participate in planning efforts to ensure availability of updated budgets, log frames, workplans, and proposal documents.
• Take lead in planning and implementing community empowerment.
• Take active role in unpacking and roll out of new projects with staff, partners and eventually community or project areas.
• Co-ordinate planning and implementation of Education activities under Leave no behind project within the designated area of operation.

Implementation:

• In line with approved monthly, quarterly, and annual work plans, ensure 100% implementation of Education project activities in the area of operation and in accordance with the project proposal, Save the Children policies and per operational guidelines.
• Provide strategic and technical support to education partners and facilitators.
• Prepare and submit activity memos/concepts and budgets for review and approval prior to activity implementation.
• Provide technical support to the stakeholders to ensure effective implementation.
• Ensure 100% monthly budget utilization based on project work plans and budgets.
• Follow-up on implementation of agreed project and community action plans that will harness improvement in schools and sustainability of project interventions.
• Involve beneficiaries throughout all stages of programme cycle – assessment, design, implementation, and maintenance.
• Roll-out of the Project Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning
• Support the implementation of the accountability and learning framework for the organization.
• Participate in the filling of the monthly activity target tracker and quarterly Indicator Performance Tracking Table Tracker
• Identify areas for capacity building and follow-up on implementation of action plans.
• Document best practices and most significant stories under education.
• Conduct regular meetings with community leaders and stakeholders.
• Implement project sustainability and exit strategy throughout the period of the project.
• Monthly monitor of project activities in the respective schools and follow up in implementation of planned tasks, activities and agreed actions in the sub county.
• Monitor and follow up the Project Partner’s activities and ensure their timely delivery of the Planned activities.
• Provide direct education backup technical support supervision to all partner staff as well as teachers in the operational area.
• Support proper documentation of the project activities conducted –case studies, best practices, and unique experiences for sharing and learning to Line Manager.
• Regularly monitor project activities with the frequency and tools as reflected in the M&E plans.
• Submit monthly reports (progress against planned activities, expense against estimated budget) of project activities to the line manager as per agreed schedule.
• Participate in the preparation of semi-annual and annual reports on project interventions.
• Ensure appropriate filing and availability of documentation required for internal and external communications, accountability, audits, evaluation purposes and reporting.
• Monthly take pictures of project implementation and share with the PM.
• Weekly up-date and file project documents

Technical Support and back-stopping

• Build capacity and provide direct backup technical support supervision to teachers and other community resource persons engaged in the project, in collaboration with the district education technical staff.
• Participate and contribute to Project reviews on the program as required.
• Provide technical back stopping to teachers, headteachers and partners on the QLE Framework: collaborate with district technocrats in education.
• Contribute to intervention design, including building linkages within the education sector.
• Review and provide input to reports, briefs, and other documents.
• Organize and participate in school –based meetings.

Budget Monitoring responsibility:

• Monitor daily expenditure to ensure project budgets are spent within acceptable limits and timelines as per set and approved monthly, quarterly and annual budget forecasts.
• Track budgets to avoid over and under expenditure and most importantly follow donor requirements.
• Take due diligence in ensuring correct coding and verification of expenditure as per financial reports. Officer will review financial reports with support from Education Manager and Area Manager to ensure accuracy of reporting.

Coordination and Collaborations

• Provide coordination of all Education Programs at district and sub-County levels in the areas of intervention.
• Work closely with the District Education Department, other NGOs and Agencies in the Education sector, Schools, SMCs, CCTs among others to identify areas of collaboration and leverage against District resources so as to maximize impact.
• Network with other Save the Children International Projects in their areas of operation to improve synergy and holistic approach to child support.

Reporting and documentation

• Generate timely, consistent, and accurate monthly and quarterly Progress reports.
• Actively participate in generation of semi-annual reports donor reports demonstrating clear contributing towards overall goals and intended outcomes.
• Participate in and share progress during weekly regional meetings.
• Document key success stories and areas of innovation for sharing on quarterly basis.

Resource acquisition

• In collaboration with the Project Manager, Area Manager, Education Technical Specialists and District LG officials, conduct needs assessment to identify gaps in education sector.
• Where called upon, participate in concept and proposal writing efforts.
• Continuously, during implementation, identify gaps and document areas of innovation so as to develop creative and innovative programs.

Partnership

• Continuously identifying and map potential implementing partners in their operational area and recommend potential partners for assessment where and when required.
• Support and monitor day to day partner implementation, identify capacity gaps and recommend for capacity building where possible.
• Documenting best practices and unique experiences for sharing and learning and field visits.
• Follow up with partner reports and accountabilities.
• Identify partner’s capacity gaps in different areas and share the information with the Line Manager.
• Jointly implement strategic/ key activities with partners
• Monitor and follow up the project partners on the activities implemented to ensure that they are in line with the project design and planned project activities reflected in the SAA.
• Taking partners through the Save the Children strategy for 2016 – 2020 to ensure that their plans are contributing to our strategic objectives and key results.

Empowerment and Project Impact

• Innovatively support children to participate, own and benefit from the project interventions
• Mobilize and facilitate active participation of parents and their communities to participate in planning, monitoring and implementation of community development initiatives and supporting child education.
• Build the capacity of children, their parents, and the community to collectively engage local leaders on identified issues especially child protection.
• Liaise and follow-up on commitments made by leaders on improvement of the child wellbeing especially the three breakthroughs of survive, educate, and protect.
• To be a strong supporter and advocate for children in this role you will need to have:

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• First degree in education (BA EDUC) or an equivalent
• Three years of direct implementation of Education programs with an International NGO
• Candidate must have good understanding of education programming approaches for enhancing literacy and numeracy at lover primary.
• Motorcycle riding capability and previous teaching experience at basic primary education would be an added advantage.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in application of participatory tools and methodologies in development programming.
• Experience of working with local partners and District Local Government in Basic Education and ECCD is an added advantage.
• Ability to intervene with crisis management or troubleshooting as necessary.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• Excellent time management and planning capacity
• Availability and willingness to work extra hours during times of humanitarian responses. Previous experience of project management
• Demonstrated monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Ability to work both in an advisory and a hands-on implementation capacity.
• Excellent communication skills

Desirable

• Strong analytical skills and strategic planning abilities.
• Ability to establish and maintain conducive collegial relations and perform effectively as a member of a team.
• Willingness to travel and work in hard-to-reach areas, occasionally under strenuous conditions.
• Computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are a must.
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

NB: Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ and assign the best qualified talent, persons with disabilities and female candidates are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply:

All candidates who wish to join Save the Children should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 4th June 2024

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