Technical Advisor, Education - International Rescue Committee - New York, NY

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 delivers education programs in 22 conflict-affected or post-conflict countries around the world. The IRC’s educational interventions strive to help children and youth gain valuable skills and knowledge that will increase their opportunities and life chances, and contribute to their well-being and livelihood. The IRC supports formal and non-formal learning activities that lead to tangible learning outcomes and promotes the protection and psychosocial well-being of conflict-affected children and youth.

Job Overview/Summary

The Technical Advisor, Education will be responsible for ensuring that IRC education projects implemented in the ACME region, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan, have the technical support needed to meet the desired projects’ outcomes which include: increased access to safe learning environments, improved reading instruction and reading assessment, improved math instruction and assessment, as well as improved instructional and classroom practices that promote children’s social and emotional well-being. The Technical Advisor will be based in the USA with travel to the region, particularly Kabul, Afghanistan and Pakistan and work under the Education Technical Unit based at HQ (New York City). The Technical Advisor will also work closely with in country Senior Staff to monitor and ensure the overall quality of the technical approach and its implementation across projects. A significant proportion of the Technical Advisor’s time will be focused on the Pakistan Reading Project. This is IRC’s largest reading project and is a five-year, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project to support Pakistani-led efforts to introduce and institutionalize improvements in reading instruction and reading assessment in grades one two throughout Pakistan for 1.3 million children.

Finally, the Technical Advisor, Education will be responsible for leading IRC’s global work in reading by further defining our global approach to improving the reading of children living in conflict or crisis affected contexts; development of teaching and learning materials that can be adapted or provide guidance to IRC’s country programs developing reading programs; and defining and leading the research agenda for how IRC can best support children that are affected by violence, displacement, and extreme poverty to learn to read.

Major Responsibilities:

• Work with senior staff in country to identify the technical assistance needs to improve the overall quality of their education projects including troubleshooting complex problems with implementation
  


• Support education staff in country to design programs that are in line with IRC’s Education Outcome Framework and country level Strategic Action Plan.
  


• Ensure that country level education projects benefits from lessons learned, promising practices, and resources developed globally in similar education programs as well as ensuring that IRC captures and applies globally what is learned and developed within country level projects.
  


• Contribute to the development of a country level learning agenda to improve children’s enrollment, attendance social and emotional well-being, and learning.
  


• Support senior technical staff and DDPs to put into place monitoring and quality oversight systems at field and HQ levels to ensure projects are meeting project technical deliverables and the projects’ desired outcomes and that short-term and long-term technical activities are on track.
  


• Work with senior project staff to help project staff analyze and reflect on monitoring and evaluation data to continually inform and refine the overall project design.
  


• Assist the country director or deputy director of programs to identify and recruit project staff as needed and to identify human resources to fill short term gaps
  


• Support senior country staff with identification of and communication with key donors and collaborate to secure funding for education programs. Assist country programs to respond to funding opportunities from public and private donors.
  


• A minimum of 30% travel required
  

Additional Global Level Responsibilities:

• Further develop IRC’s global approach to improving the reading skills of children and youth living in crisis and conflict affected contexts
  


• Further develop IRC’s global Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom (LRHC) teaching and learning materials
  


• Supervise and support the Education Specialist in reading to develop country specific LRHC teaching and learning materials
  


• Develop IRC’s learning agenda for generating evidence on how to improve the reading skills of children who have been exposed to violence, displacement and other types of extreme adversity.
  


• Work closely with the Education Technical Advisors responsible for other technical areas, particularly social and emotional learning and early childhood education to ensure we provide a comprehensive learning package that promotes both children’s and youth’s well-being as well as learning.
  

Job Requirements:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Education or related field. PhD in reading preferred.
  


• At least five years of experience managing and/or advising on education programs in conflict or post-conflict contexts, including programs focused on improving children’s and youth’s reading skills.
  


• Strong knowledge of how to teach reading in areas of primary reading education and teacher training
  


• Experience in the development of curriculum and teacher training materials particularly in areas related to reading instruction.
  


• Strong knowledge and experience with education research and evaluations preferred
  


• Experience in and strong knowledge of Pakistan and/or Afghanistan preferred
  


• Experience with large USAID cooperative agreements.
  


• Excellent communication skills, cultural sensitivity, flexibility, ability to improvise, team player.
  


• Fluency in spoken and written French or Arabic preferred
  

Working Environment :

• Standard office work environment
  


• Required travel: 30% (minimum)