Education Officer at Street Child

About the Role:

• Street Child is looking for an education project officer to support programme expansion work in the Northwest of Nigeria and to establish its presence in the Sokoto state through its education and protection work. Street Child seeks to provide quality inclusive education and protection for vulnerable children across the Northwest states by providing access to education, ensuring quality education through building capacity of teachers, providing case management services to children, and supporting caregivers with economic empowerment.
• The main responsibility of the project officer will be to support the Education Programme Manager (EPM) to assess the current state of education in the northwest, establish contacts with education actors, relevant state government MDAs, conduct partner assessment and due diligence. Setup an operational base in Sokoto. Work closely with the EPM and partnership and proposal development coordinator to design and implement a resource mobilisation plan for the Northwest.
• The project officer will work under the support and supervision of the EPM to develop workplans based on the identified gaps and will submit regular reports with evidence of the progress against the work plan and the objectives, achieving timely project outputs and outcomes.
• The position requires proven knowledge and experience of delivering integrated programming with technical skills in education and child protection in emergencies. The ideal candidate would have good communication skills, analytical thinking, innovative problem-solving skills, as well as creativity and flexibility.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and representation (40%)

• Actively participate in the Northwest coordination forum meetings/activities.
• Establish and maintain a good relationship with the relevant government agencies and line department and formalise relationships through the development of MoU.
• Establish and maintain good relationship with relevant education and protection CSO networks in the NW.
• Work closely with the Proposal and partnership manager to gather donor intelligence and support in proposal development.
• Display excellent interpersonal, listening and communication skills among colleagues, partners and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrate ability to work and deliver under pressure and tight deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Ensure that Street Child is well represented at strategic meetings within the area of operations.
• Demonstrate ability to work in flexible, sub-optimal, stressful and unstable environment.
• Ensure safeguarding practices are adhered to by Street Child and implementing partner teams, and immediately report any concerns.

Project Implementation (30%)

• In collaboration with the M&E team and with supervision from the EPM conduct an Education and protection rapid needs assessment or review current studies and data available to determine key areas of intervention.
• Support in the setup of new projects and partnerships.
• Piloting and Implementation of the EIE curriculum.
• Monitoring of all activities implemented by partner staff, ensuring they are contributing to the targets and indicators outlined in the programme documents and results framework.
• Support Project Manager to develop quarterly workplans and budget forecasts.
• Support national implementing partners to reflect quarterly activity planning and budget forecasting in line with the timeline of the project.
• Ensure that all activities implemented are in line with budget expenditure and forecasting.
• Report any issues with project implementation to Project Manager with suggestions for innovative solutions to challenges as they arise.
• Identify gaps in implementing partner capacity and support project manager and Partnership Coordinator.

Reporting (30%)

• Preparation of internal narrative progress reports on a monthly and quarterly basis, including submission of project case studies.
• Support project manager in preparation of donor narrative progress reports on a quarterly, midterm and annual basis, or additionally as requested.
• Ensure that implementing partners are submitting monthly narrative progress reports to Street Child in a timely manner, with support and guidance to improve reporting capacity.
• Support project manager with review of monthly BVA’s and forecasting to ensure spending is in line with project timeline and activities implemented are in line with the work plan.
• Conduct monthly BVA’s with the implementing partner to ensure accuracy of spending and identify any clear areas of over or underspend that may affect the project delivery timeline.
• Provide support to project manager and MEAL team to prepare for required baseline, midline and endline assessments.
• Ensure there is a functioning information pathway with submission of project data, MoV’s and activity reports to MEAL team in order for verification checks to be carried out.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in social science, Education or equivalent

Experience and Knowledge:

• Experience (at least 4 years) working in international development in programme management roles.
• Experience (at least 2 years) of working in North-west especially in Sokoto state.
• Demonstrable experience in working in education or other relevant sectors.
• Experience in managing teams.

Skills and Abilities:

• Strong analytical, reporting, strategic thinking, and planning skills.
• Strong monitoring and evaluation skills/experience.
• Demonstrable knowledge of project cycle management and results framework.
• Knowledge and ability to apply INEE standards an advantage.

Other:

• Fluency in English (written and spoken) and excellent writing skills.