Afghanistan: Senior Education Specialist
Swedish Committee for Afghanistan is looking for
Senior Education Specialist
Posted at Kabul Management Office (KMO), Kabul, Afghanistan
Background
SCA has been working in Afghanistan since 1982 and is presently managing development programmes linked to Strategic Objectives concerning Health, Education, Rural Livelihoods and Community Governance with a total annual budget of roughly USD 40 million. The total number of staff is around 5,500 of whom 15 are non-Afghans. The SCA presence in Afghanistan consists of the Kabul Management Office (KMO), five Regional Management Offices and three Liaison Offices. In Sweden SCA has 20 staff working at the Stockholm Management Office (SMO) and around 4,000 members organized in local chapters all over the country.
SCA receives funds from various international and private donors, mainly from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
During the last 10 years SCA has undertaken a change process moving from a primarily humanitarian service delivery approach towards more of a developmental role, putting increasing emphasis on capacity development, rights-based programming and outcome orientation. The mission of SCA is to empower individuals, communities and local organizations, primarily in rural areas and with particular focus on women, girls, boys and vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, so that they may participate fully in society and influence their own development.
Education Programme Unit (EPU)
SCA provides access to basic education for around 69,000 children (62% girls) including more than 3,800 Kuchi children (50% girls) through supporting around 2,200 CBE classes in 13 provinces (50 districts) of central, eastern, south-eastern, northern and north-eastern zones of the country. At the same time SCA supports around 2,500 teachers in terms of monthly payments as well as developing their teaching competencies through offering in-service teaching competency trainings in subject knowledge, methodology and inclusive education.
In addition, SCA supports 36 district and provincial level teachers’ elected councils (teachers associations) in addition to the Kabul-based National Teachers Elected Council (NTEC) covering totally 2,500 (19% female) members.
The Education Programme Unit (EPU) is based in Kabul Management Office (KMO) for Programme Development and technical support to the education teams in Regional Management Offices (RMOs) under the guidance of the Director of Programmes. EPU’s mandate includes:
- Strategic oversight of the f Education Programme components including programmatic support, process monitoring and technical backstopping; implemented through Project Management Teams (PMT) in five RMOs.
- Strategic Programme Development including evaluation, studies, assessments and reviews.
- Steering, information sharing and cross-cutting integrations through facilitation and participation in various meetings and trainings.
- Capacity and institutional development of the education staff and major stakeholders of the programme.
- Networking and coordination with Ministry of Education and other actors in education sector at national and international levels.
Scope of work
The Senior Education Specialist role mainly focuses on two areas that include a) strategic and technical input to the programme development, and b) planning and reporting.
Under supervision of the Education Programme Manager (EPM), to whom s/he reports, the Senior Education Specialist has a central advisory role in designing, strengthening and developing of the Education Programme for ensuring long-term outcomes. S/he guides processes related to policy, strategy and methodology, and provides technical support for result-based planning, monitoring and reporting. The role encompasses strategic work on institution and system levels as well as capacity building of key Programme/Project staffs.
Responsibilities
Following are the areas of responsibilities for the position in order of priority:
- Strategic and technical input to programme development:
With the operational management laying down under management of RMOs, KMO Programme Units are expected to be more focused on programme development and strategic guidance to the RMOs. Keeping that in mind, the Senior Education Specialist’s role focuses on:
Under the guidance of EPM, leads development processes of policies, strategies, technical guidelines and manuals by feeding in new programme development perspectives and experience from other countries with similar contexts.
Take the lead in developing and designing of programme related concepts, studies, and evaluations, with inputs from RMOs based on pro-poor and marginalized groups perspectives reflecting the needs identified at the community level.
Ensure that the education project units at the field level are pro-actively involved in the development of concept notes and project proposals in line with strategic objectives, mission and vision of SCA.
To actively follow-up the progress made towards the recommendations proposed by evaluations, studies, and third party monitoring in accordance to the management responses/action plans.
Assist planning and reporting unit, HRGU and M&E in capacity building of KMO and RMO programme staff on Rights Based Approach (RBA), results based planning and reporting. This can include mentoring, coaching, and hands-on support.
The Senior Education Specialist functions as generalists in the programme, however, more specifically supports the programme in transitioning from conventional teacher training to more of in classroom mentorship support to teachers in line with students learning needs.
Planning and Reporting:
Leading the annual planning, reporting and proposal development processes within EPU is the primary responsibility of the EPM, the Senior Education Specialist takes active part in turning the RMOs input into quality narrative drafts and submit to the EPM for final review before submission to the next level within the organization.
The Senior Education Specialist also takes the lead in strengthening bottom up planning and reporting by building the capacity of concerned RMO staff. Support the RMO staff in strengthening participatory planning and reporting to ensure that the target groups’ women, children and people with disabilities actively take part in planning, implementation and reporting processes.
Entry Requirements
Qualifications:
University degree at master’s level, in education, holding PhD will be a preference
At least seven years of relevant work experience in senior positions in large organisations within international development including processes related to programme and project design, policy, strategy and advocacy
Essential skills and experience:
- Experience in the Community Based Education, Teachers Training and Institutional Development with strong precedence to experience in teacher training.
- Experience of mainstreaming human rights and gender equality in programmes and projects
- Experience of working with rights-based approaches and knowledge of participatory methods and tools
- Skilled in results based planning, reporting and proposals development
- Experience from working abroad in developing country, country in conflict and/or post conflict and Muslim country
- Experienced in team building and being a good team player in a cross cultural context
- Experience in capacity building of staff
- Analytical, facilitation and presentation skills
- Excellent command of spoken and written English
Desired skills and experience
- Experience of working in Afghanistan
- Familiarity in Afghan culture and local languages (Dari or Pashto)
Application information
Contract period: 2 years with an initial 6 months probationary period
Conditions: Non family posting. SCA offers a competitive salary, free housing, insurances and other benefits.
Duties to begin: August 2016
Last date for application: 15 May, 2016
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