Education in Emergency Cluster Co-Lead at Save The Children

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

• The Working Group approach ensures clear leadership, predictability and accountability in international responses to humanitarian emergencies by clarifying the division of labour among organizations and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the different sectors of the response.
• It aims to make the international humanitarian community better organised and more accountable and professional, so that it can be a better partner for the affected people, host governments, local authorities, local civil society and resourcing partners.
• The Education in Emergency (EiE) Working Group Coordinator is a core Working Group Coordination team member. 
• The purpose of this post is to co-lead the EIE Working Group team and ensure that the Working Group performs with better coordination in education in emergency sector.
• Role Dimensions: (e.g., complexity, relationships, communication with stakeholders)
• Role requires frequent and complex interactions with UN, government and civil society partners, and liaison with the inter-cluster working group. Requires excellent judgment, analytical and conceptual thinking; and ability to work in high pressure environments, with limited supervision.

Key Areas of Accountability
Education in Emergency Working Group/Cluster Coordination:

• Assume overall responsibility for (co-)leadership of the Education in Emergencies (EiE) Working Group (Cluster), Northeast Nigeria.
• Work closely with other key members of the Education in Emergency Working Group, including school officials, National, Provincial or Local Governments, OCHA, UNICEF and all other cluster members.
• Secure commitments from humanitarian actors responding to or supporting the emergency response.
• Support and coordinate multi-sector and education specific needs assessments and utilise existing secondary data to inform sector response planning including consideration for inclusion of children with disabilities and gender for equal access to quality education.
• Develop, implement and monitor the Education in Emergencies Working Group strategy, work plan, and co-ordinate the harmonization of response activities, ensuring that activities prevent overlap and duplication in terms of location, time and sectors; and ensuring that local partners are fully supported and enabled to play active roles in the Working Group (including transitioning to local co-leadership where feasible).
• Ensure that inter-agency response strategy for Education in emergency reflects key findings from needs assessments, identifying gaps, and formulating a sector-wide interagency response plan, taking into account the cross-cutting areas from other sectors or working groups.
• Ensure that information is shared amongst working group members, and that information from other sectors and working groups is made available to cluster members in order to improve planning, integration and implementation.
• Ensure that information is shared amongst EiE Working Group members, and that information from other sectors and working groups is made available to EiE Working Group members to improve planning, integration and implementation in a consultative and transparent manner.
• Ensure clear and effective communication occurs between the sub-national and the national EiE working groups.
• Contribute to regular sitreps, and actively participate in inter-cluster co-ordination meetings.
• Ensure education is explicitly included and prioritized in all multi-sector assessments and reports, including OCHA Sitreps and 5 Ws updates.
• Ensure working group members are aware of relevant minimum standards, policies and guidelines and best practices in Education in Emergency, which will apply to the response with all agencies as members of working group.
• Track and monitor cluster members fundraising for Education specific interventions and ensure that members are aware of funding opportunities.
• Consult and identify how the education cluster should facilitate the move towards early recovery and plan an exit strategy for the sector.
• Ensure that children are engaged in all stages of the HPC and that the cluster and members have systems to institutionalise this.
• Ensure that child safeguarding is addressed by the EiE Working Group membership

Capacity Building:

• Where appropriate, ensure that capacity building of country programme staff occurs to ensure on-going sustainability and quality of the response
• Identify learning and training opportunities for education working group state leads and SCI Staff to enhance both technical and institutional capacity in preparedness and response within the EiE Working Group

General:

• Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and other relevant policies and procedures.
• Display neutrality and act as the representative of all education working group members.
• Develop and maintain a strong and positive relationship with UNICEF, EIE working group co-lead.
• Develop and maintain a strong and positive relationship with colleagues at regional and global levels.

Qualifications

• University Degree, preferably at an advanced level, in a subject area relevant to education coordination management
• Extensive work experience relevant to this post may be considered as a replacement for formal qualifications.
• Formal training in cluster coordination is also desirable.

Experience and Skills:
Essential:
Experience:

• At least 8 years progressively responsible work experience with UN, government and/or NGO, including in a humanitarian context. Extensive work experience outside the humanitarian sector which is relevant to this post may be considered as a replacement for humanitarian experience.
• Prior experience of working within a senior management role or cluster coordination within a complex country programme in an emergency response or fragile state
• Experience applying relevant interagency humanitarian frameworks and standards in education in emergencies (for example INEE Minimum Standards)
• Understanding of the Humanitarian Program Cycle including experience with Humanitarian Response Planning and/or Humanitarian Needs Overview
• Education to MSc/MA/MEng level in Education (or a related field) or equivalent field experience with EiE
• Demonstrable ability to work and represent views across different stakeholders taking part in the Education Cluster
• Experience of high-level co-ordination and chairing of meetings
• Demonstrable understanding of international humanitarian response and co-ordination mechanisms
• Understanding of opportunities to provide integrated or cross-cutting humanitarian interventions with other sectors and Clusters
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.

Skills:

• Excellent communication skills, including ability to facilitate diverse groups.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with ability to act with of patience, tact and diplomacy
• A high level of written and spoken English. Arabic is desireble.
• Demonstrable ability to work and represent views across different stakeholders taking part in the Education Cluster.

Knowledge:

• Excellent technical understanding of education in emergencies
• Knowledge of the IASC Working Group System and recent humanitarian reform developments, including the Transformative Agenda
• Understanding of the Consolidated Appeals Process and other funding mechanisms such as AHF and the HRP process
• Knowledge of information management processes within the Working Group system
• Understanding of the National and State Ministries of Education (MoEs) and State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) ways of working.

Others:

• Demonstrated commitment to Humanitarian Principles and the Principles of Partnership
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.

Desirable:

• Experience in coordination roles in the first phase of a major emergency response relevant to the education cluster.