TITLE: Regional Education in Emergencies Technical Advisor, West and Central Africa

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Development & Quality

LOCATION: Dakar, Senegal (West and Central Africa Regional Office)

GRADE: International 4

CONTRACT LENGTH: 24 months (renewal depending on funding)

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

Regional Humanitarian Technical Experts drive the quality, accountability and timeliness of humanitarian responses and contribute to emergency preparedness in the region. Regional Technical Experts will use their in-depth contextual understanding, technical expertise, and relationship building skills to provide a critical link between the Save the Children’s global and country level technical work, strengthening our technical offer at the regional level. They will play a strong role in regional capacity building efforts, mentoring and building networks across CO TEs, and foster cross-CO learning. They will support regional advocacy and influencing and drive regional strategic partnerships for learning and new business development. They will provide Quality Assurance and demand driven TA to COs, in line with regional priorities and design and input to implementation and monitoring of regional programmes. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Regional Programme Quality & Development Director.

Staff reporting to this post: Basic Education Technical Advisor (Vacant)

Budget Responsibilities: none

Role Dimensions: She/He is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external humanitarian stakeholders including Save the Children members, the SCI central Programme Quality & Impact team, regional Humanitarian Director and other regional (Humanitarian) Advisors, technical counterparts in other organisations, CAFU, advocacy, donors etc. In particular it is expected to maintain close contact with, and accountability to, the global thematic Education in Emergencies team through the relevant Humanitarian Technical Working Group.

Annual Salary Level : $50,000 – $58,000 (offer will be based on experience/internal equity and financial ability).

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

1. Strategy & Leadership:

• Overall thought leadership of Education in Emergencies work in West and Central Africa
• To monitor sectoral trends and forecasts in the region, supporting countries to plan, take early action and respond
• To maintain an overview of all Education in Emergencies programmes within the region, and facilitate collaboration between Save the Children members, regional and country offices to strengthen both the portfolio and preparedness and response quality.
• Support country offices in the design of their preparedness, response and transition strategies (program and advocacy), ensuring alignment to Save the Children’s global thematic priorities and humanitarian policy.
• Support GPE engagement in the WCA region

2. Support to Response Design, Development and Implementation:

• Foster regional strategic partnerships for new business development, e.g. strategic positioning with donors at regional level, and positioning Save the Children as a leader in a technical area.
• Lead the design of regional/multi-country programmes, facilitating collaboration between COs and ensuring high quality, coherent technical design.
• Ensure that COs have access to and use internal and external best practice and evidence in the design of new programmes, as well as lessons learned from previous responses and Real Time Reviews
• Work with SC member focal points to secure funding for new emergency programmes, through coordination with donor technical experts and developing high quality proposals.

3. Supporting Technical Programme Quality Assurance:

• Lead or support EiE needs assessments in line with sectoral standards and SC policy.
• Support to CO implementation and monitoring of regional/multi-country programmes, to ensure high quality, timely, delivery, monitoring and evaluation
• Support countries to respond sectorally, considering the Core Humanitarian Standards, Grand Bargain commitments and Education in Emergencies best practices (e.g. INEE)
• Support the operationalisation of SC and sectoral best practice and global standards working with COs to contextualise theory and guidance for humanitarian responses and preparedness
• In coordination with the WCA Head of Humanitarian and the global EiE WG, deploy to the field at short notice to help set up new emergency programmes and/or fill critical gaps within the region, including leading technical assessments, developing response strategies and plans, coordination and representation.
• Support resourcing of new emergency responses and critical gaps in the region with appropriately experienced staff
• In line with the Humanitarian TA Backstopping protocols, provide humanitarian TA backstopping support to new emergencies in the region, when appointed by the global EiE WG
• Working closely with the Head of Humanitarian and Country Humanitarian Focal Points provide technical support to emergency preparedness and contingency planning

4. Technical Capacity Building & Mentoring

• In coordination with the Head of Humanitarian and the global EiE WG, carry out learning needs assessment across the region in technical area of expertise.
• Support the development of and/or facilitate in-country preparedness trainings, applying learning from previous responses and other regional experience, ensuring minimum thematic quality standards/benchmarks are met, including Sphere and CHS.
• Technical mentoring to CO technical colleagues to support learning and professional development
• Supporting recruitment and talent management of CO Education in Emergencies technical humanitarian staff
• Working with the EiE WG, to plan and deliver technical training programmes and events within the region, in line with priority learning needs.
• Provide specific mentoring support to regional level technical staff in order to support their development onto the Save the Children emergencies roster including providing Provide Subject Matter Advise to regional technical staff who have been accepted as Humanitarian Standby Surge as part of the GHSP
• Maintain an overview of current and potential national staff who demonstrate strong technical capability.
• Provide Subject Matter Advise to regional technical staff who have been accepted as Humanitarian Standby Surge as part of the GHSP
• Support fundraising efforts for technical humanitarian capacity building programmes in the region.

5. MEAL, Innovation & organisational learning

• Providing support for quality benchmark development and monitoring and supporting high-quality Real Time Reviews, evaluations and research at CO level
• Work collaboratively as part of the global EiE WG to ensure humanitarian technical work contributes towards organisational objectives and priorities.
• Explore innovative opportunities and trends which could be applied in our humanitarian programming in the region and support country offices to pilot, and document, new or updated tools and guidance
• Work collaboratively as part of the regional EiE Working Group ensuring that our emergency response work, preparedness and capacity building links closely with our longer-term development and chronic humanitarian programming.

6. Representation and networking

• Build collaborative regional partnerships, through representation on regional clusters, working groups and technical fora, in order to facilitate learning and promote child rights in regional advocacy priorities
• Maintain oversight of the Education sector in the region, regularly sharing relevant information with Save the Children COs and members
• Support COs to ensure SC is fulfilling it’s function as global co-lead of the Education Cluster, by co-leading Clusters at national-level and ensuring dedicated coordination and/or information management staff are in place.
• Co-lead the Regional Education in Emergencies Working Group
• Lead the GPE engagement in the WCA region and the community of practice

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS

• Masters degree in Education, International Development, Political Sciences or equivalent

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• At least 7 years’ experience of delivering high quality Education in Emergencies and preparedness programmes including first phase response experience
• Understanding of the Education in Emergencies sector in West and Central Africa
• Understanding of education system in the WCA region
• Success track record on innovative Education in Emergencies Programme Development
• Able to design, lead and backstop on EiE response cycles, including the most complex emergencies – including strategy development and planning
• Experience of contingency planning/emergency preparedness planning
• Ability to uphold SC’s role as Global Education Cluster Co-lead, and supports COs within the region to fulfil this commitment
• Ability to represent the EiE sector in high level meetings and with donors; advocate for increased EiE funding, promotes effective programming approaches, as well as lobbies for the right to education for the most marginalized groups affected by crises, at high level meetings.
• Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources.
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children
• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one cross-cutting are: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming.
• Sound understanding of and commitment to SC generic programme approaches and core standards in humanitarian response
• Demonstrated program design, monitoring and evaluation skills, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale.
• Experience of developing and supporting teams, and the ability to lead, motivate and build the capacity of staff through training, coaching and mentoring
• Results focused and ability to develop and drive innovative and pragmatic programmatic and operational solutions
• Ability to work well across different functional areas and departments
• Good knowledge of cross sectoral linkages for Education in Emergencies and willingness to engage with other sectors for shared outcomes
• Significant experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring
• Fluent in English and French, with high level of writing skills in both English and French (required)

FEMALE CANDIDATES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

How to apply

Please follow this link to apply: https://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=YS50YW1iYS44NjE3MS4xMjE4NUBzYXZldGhlY2hpbGRyZW5hby5hcGxpdHJhay5jb20