ANNOUNCEMENT
Country Programme, Kigali Rwanda
TITLE: Senior Education Programming Specialist
the Children in Rwanda is currently running a programme titled Advancing the
Right to Rea
d whose goal is to ensure that all children leave school able to
read by working with them, their families and schools from birth through early primary,
focusing on improving learning outcomes and early grade literacy.
Advancing the Right to Read is a Save the Children Education Signature
Programme founded on the belief that reading is the foundation for every aspect
of children’s learning and the first nine years of a child’s life are critical
to mastering their skills and nurturing their love of reading, paving the way
for children’s on-going learning success. Advancing the Right to Read
seeks to support the Government of Rwanda to bring together parents,
communities and schools to achieve this goal and achieve systemic change.
OF POSITION:
Senior Education Programming Specialist will be responsible for
providing technical support and guidance to ensure effective implementation of
all projects within the Rwanda Country Office’s Advancing the Right to Read
(ARR) Education Signature Programme. The purpose of this role is to ensure all
aspects of the programme are implemented with quality and according to best
practices in literacy programming, ensuring that key considerations are
addressed, including child participation, ambitions of the programme to support
the Government of Rwanda to institutionalise aspects of the programme to
deliver at scale, and ensuring value for money.
Programming Specialist
of Work:
Kigali
to:
Education Director
directly reporting to this post: Child Participation Specialist,
Child Participation Advocacy and Knowledge Management Specialist; RCBI staff
(TBC); and indirect reports of technical staff in other units SCOPE Book
Development and Use Coordinator
start date:
1st August 2016
AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Design, Planning, and Implementation
- In
cooperation with Save the Children Technical Advisers from members and
particular expertise of other staff, provide technical support to all of
the programme’s literacy-related programme activities, including: - Advising
all ARR programme staff on best practices to inform design, planning and
implementation of the programme; - Ensuring
that implementation of programme activities are of the highest quality and
are informed by learning from across all components of the programme, as
well as draw upon experiences and findings from other SC programmes and
organisations, both in Rwanda and internationally; - Reviewing
and finalising programmatic curriculum and materials for all projects
across the programme, drawing on inputs from programme staff and technical
advisors;
- Supporting
the technical implementation of programme activities, ensuring the
alignment, complementarity and continuity of all components; - Strategically
guiding the growth to scale process; - Providing
quality assurance and support to programme staff on the drafting of
reports; - Ensuring
cohesiveness and consistent support to all components of the programme
from cross-cutting units, including the RCBI / Book Development and Use
team, especially publishing sector support; - Leading
the ARR programme Value for Money team and overseeing the programme’s VfM
work, ensuring that VfM consideration are integrated into all aspects of
design, planning and implementation of the programme.
Participation
- Working
closely with the SCUK Global Child Participation Advisor, lead on the
delivery of the Advancing the Right to Read Child Participation strategy,
including:
- Developing
and implementing plans for mainstreaming Child Participation into all
aspects of the ARR programme work; - Liaising
with ARR programme staff to ensure child participation is integrated into
programme activities and that plans are implemented according to agreed
strategy; - Preparing
reports on relevant activities and actions taken; - Supporting
the building of child participation capacity across ARR programme staff by
providing regular guidance to programme staff to enable them to
effectively carry out this work; - Working
closely with other SC Rwanda programme teams, especially the Child Rights
Governance team, to ensure alignment and mutual support.
Evaluation, Accountability and Learning
- Work
with the SCI MEAL team to monitor progress against a programme MEAL plan,
ensuring that data is collected at the field level and that learning is
shared and utilized to improve implementation, including:
- Monitoring
progress of projects against agreed targets and indicators; - Discussing
monitoring, evaluation and accountability findings during program
coordination/review meetings, reviewing MEAL reports to highlight key
project strengths and areas of improvement, and use learning from monitoring
reports for informing programme planning and implementation; - Ensuring
programme standards for information sharing and engagement with
stakeholders are integrated into all activities, reviewing accountability
to beneficiaries data and reports, and providing technical support to
implementation teams to use key learning from accountability systems for
program development, planning, improvement and implementation; - Supporting
the MEAL team to ensure project research is qualitatively conducted and
that findings are used to inform programme planning, advocacy and
implementation; - Periodically
visit the project implementation area and generate qualitative visit
reports to input into feedback mechanisms; - Documenting
lessons learned for sharing internally across the programme, as well as
externally to other Save the Children country offices.
Management
- Assume
responsibility for effective management of projects / activities assigned
to the post-holder, including:
- Ensuring
that implementation of projects under the post-holder’s responsibility
remains in line with activity plans; - Managing
allocated budgets, ensuring that all expenditure is in line with agreed
plans and delivers value for money; - Ensuring
that the projects under the post-holder’s responsibility provides high
quality, timely narrative and financial reports to donors and internal
stakeholders; - Highlighting
early to the Education Director any potential constraints to
implementation of the project so that action can be taken accordingly.
Management and Professional Development
- Assume
responsibility for the line management of the Child Participation small
team of staff, and potentially other cross-cutting staff dependent upon
programme expansion; including:
- Ensure
the recruitment, training, and promotion of line-managed staff as
appropriate and ensure appropriate professional development opportunities
for them; - Manage
the performance of all supervisees through: Effective use of the
Performance Management System including the establishment of clear,
measureable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and
unbiased evaluations; coaching, mentoring and other developmental
opportunities; recognition and rewards for outstanding performance; and
documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with
appropriate performance improvements/ work plans; - Support
other managers across the ARR programme to build the capacity of team
members within each component of the programme, providing mentoring and
coaching support according to their varying areas of need.
& Cooperation
- Promote
the sharing of good practice, tools and learning in relation to the
creation of more literate environments and the work and approaches of the
Advancing the Right to Read programme, including:
- Participate
as a member of the Save the Children Rwanda team and the country
programme’s Education Senior Leadership Team, attending team meetings,
coordinating work with other team members and using shared knowledge
management systems; - Represent
the ARR programme to, and work with, the Government of Rwanda, donors,
INGOs and other civil society organisations and networks at the national level
to increase coordination and learning and to support the achievement of
advocacy and policy objectives; - Participate
in the work of Save the Children International and Members, ensuring
Rwanda’s experience is understood and is being used to influence global
policy and practice; - Participate
in regional or global meetings as appropriate.
Safeguarding
- Responsible
for creation and maintenance of a conducive managerial and operational
environment where the Child Safeguarding Policy is effectively
implemented; - Understand
and fulfil their specific and additional responsibilities in achieving
compliance of Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy standards.
This includes ensuring that staff are providing programme beneficiaries
with ongoing, age-appropriate verbal or written information in relevant
languages about Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of
Conduct; - Ensure
that child safeguarding is integrated and given a “voice” in all
management processes including recruitment, induction, performance
management, team meetings, annual planning processes, field level
monitoring, etc.
- Support
proposal-writing for further funding of the ARR programme; - Support
the Education Director in other programme tasks, as requested.
AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)
- 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
- Sets
ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes
responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to
do the same - Widely
shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates
others - Future
orientated, thinks strategically
- 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
- Develops
and encourages new and innovative solutions - Willing
to take disciplined risks
- Honest,
encourages openness and transparency
AND EXPERIENCE:
- Master’s
degree in Education, Development or other related field;
- Demonstrated
experience (5 years or more) in the design, implementation and management
of programmes in an international development/NGO context; - Experience
of successfully creating, growing and managing a team; - A
sound understanding of literacy programming in developing countries; - Experience
of using M&E / MEAL systems to generate evidence for programmes; - Strong
analytical and conceptual skills and the ability to think and plan
strategically; - Excellent
communication skills, including fluency in written and spoken English and
strong inter-personal and advisory skills, including the demonstrated
ability to guide and influence colleagues and partners; - Understanding
of and commitment to SCI mission, values and child rights-based
programming approaches; - Ability
to work successfully with minimal administrative support and strong IT
skills including Microsoft Office, content management systems and web
based communication.
- Expertise
and understanding of key issues in the field of literacy, the literate
environment and/or early grade reading; - Understanding
of the Rwandan context; - Experience
in integrating child participation in programme work. - Experience
of developing effective working relationships with senior stakeholders
from government agencies, international organisations, donors, academics,
and opinion-leaders, including successful advocacy and influencing
experience
candidates should send an application letter plus updated Curriculum Vitae in
English, including 3 names of professional referees to HR-Rwanda@savethechildren.org. The deadline for
receiving applications is 22nd June 2016.
mention SENIOR EDUCATION PROGRAMMING SPECIALISTas subject of your mail.
that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.