Scope:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

In 2022, the IRC reached over 800,000 children and youth in 20 countries with education programs. We ensure that even the hardest to reach children in the most challenging places are able to go to school and thrive. In the midst of conflict and disaster, education is one of the first things parents and children say they need. Education is a human right. It also helps keep children safe and gives them the skills needed to be resilient, do well now, and later in life. Education offers a glimmer of hope. The IRC defines success with education outcomes from infancy to young adulthood, ensuring results for all girls and boys, regardless of age. These outcomes are: Early childhood learning and nurturing care; Primary school-aged learning; and youth learning; as well as the complementary Safety in school outcome.

The IRC seeks an Education Technical Advisor (TA). This role will have a primary geographic focus on West and Central Africa Regions to guide on program design, provide direct technical support, and build technical capacity to implement, measure and continuously improve education programs in IRC country programs in West and Central Africa (Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, DR Congo, as well as other countries upon request). To ensure quality programming towards impacting the lives of children and youth affected by conflict and crisis through IRC’s work, the Education Technical Advisor will: support country programs to design programs and projects that are aligned to the IRC’s outcomes and evidence framework / theories of change / core indicators; lead technical design processes of proposals and write technical narrative as needed; review and ensure technical quality of proposals; input into proposal go/no go decisions and pre-positioning; analyze data to inform course correction; conduct technical trainings and ongoing technical coaching, share cross-context learning with country program staff; design, review and share program-specific tools; support senior technical country program recruitment and capacity–building.

This position involves frequent travel, reflecting the regular requests and demand for additional in-person TA support for education assessment, design, start-up, and implementation. The Education TA will support projects or country teams across IRC that require additional support in education in emergencies, including through deployments. Please note that only candidates who are fluent in both English and French [KD1] will be considered.

Major Responsibilities:

Core Functions:

1. Support country program staff to design programs and projects, ensuring that they are:
   1. Aligned with the IRC’s strategy 2020 which includes contextualizing education outcomes, the theories of change and include interventions chosen based on best available evidence;
   2. Responsive to client needs and preferences based on sound context and gender analysis
2. Support selection of indicators for country programs based on available and emerging indicator testing;
3. Lead and facilitate as needed technical design of proposals; write technical narrative as needed; review technical quality of proposals, including providing input on budgets required for project delivery, technical activities, ensuring alignment to IRC’s education and cross-sectoral outcomes;
4. Input into go / no go decisions and pre-positioning on upcoming proposals;
5. Help analyze data to inform periodic review and course correction to ensure that IRC’s programs are based on evidence and are evidence-generating;
6. Conduct technical training and ongoing technical coaching for country program staff, including on outcomes, theories of change, evidence and indicators;
7. Provide specific guidance to IRC education programs in West and Central Africa in efforts to integrate best practices into standard IRC Teacher Professional Development
8. Share cross-context learning with country program staff across the region;
9. Review and share program-specific tools / resources / curricula working with IRC education specialist to contextualize and adapt global and country-specific materials;
10. Support planning and implementation of partnership activities, including research initiatives with academic partners
11. Support senior technical country program recruitment;

Additional Functions:

1. Engage with donors and do outreach in support of country programs, especially in relation to program start up;
2. Help define approach to teaming / partnering with regional and national organizations, including youth led organizations;
3. Present IRC research findings across contexts and relevant conferences;
4. Support senior country program staff onboarding;
5. Support as requested education projects that need additional support in education in emergencies. This includes liaising with the Senior Education Technical Advisor for Emergency Response to build preparedness and response plans for the continuity of education services during new acute crisis.
6. Work across sectors to develop integrated and holistic approaches to child and youth development.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Director of Education for Country Support

Position directly supervises: This position could potentially supervise on occasion consultants, specialists, and/or interns.

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Works directly with the Regional Vice Presidents and Deputy Regional Directors to ensure education programs are in line and supporting regional and country level priorities. Regular relationships with EHAU and regional technical advisors in violence prevention and response, health, economic recovery & development, and governance technical unit teams. Works directly with country program coordinators and managers as well as country program leadership. Interacts with IRC internal departments, including business development, external relations and advocacy departments.

External: Serve as IRC program representativein outside regional meetings and global meetings (as needed) and academic forums with donors, other non-governmental organizations, inter-agency groups and foundations. Engage regularly with partners, including academic partners, to ensure programmatic and research collaborations remain on track.

Job Qualifications:

Education: Master’s/post-graduate degree in education, education psychology, social work, human development or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience is required. Participate in ongoing training courses and share knowledge and skill sets within the unit.

Work Experience: A minimum of 6-8 years’ experience of implementing and/or managing large Education programs and teams is required, within a humanitarian or international development setting, as are at least 2-3 years acting in an advisory capacity on education programming. Education work experience in West or Central Africa is required. Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, and research in relation to education is highly desired. Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines is highly desired.

• Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: Demonstrated expertise in education program design, monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action. Demonstrated expertise in youth programming, literacy, and/or numeracy preferred. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Demonstrated commitment to renewing and maintaining currency with best practices.

Language Skills: Fluency in French and English is a non-negotiable requirement.

• Working Environment: This is a position requiring frequent travel, up to 40% of the time.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.