Education Programme Officer - ECW-FER, Zamfara at Save The Children

• The Education Programme Officer will provide operational and technical support under the leadership of the Education Programme Manager to implement all Education activities for the project and ensuring effective collaboration across other Thematic Officers on the project. This includes, supporting in the development of the Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP), participating in stakeholders’ engagement and coordination meetings, participating in needs assessments and trainings, and contribute to narrative reporting in line with donor requirements.The role also involves close collaboration with community leaders, religious leaders, and other key stakeholders within the community.
• Under the guidance of the Education Programme Manager, the job holder will ensure that the ECW-FER project is implemented in a coordinated, harmonized, and aligned manner, in accordance with donor requirements and commitments.

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

• Reports to: ProjectManager
• Staff directly reporting to this post: NIL

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Project Coordination & Management:

• Support the coordination and implementation of the ECW-FER Project in Kaduna and Zamfara State, Nigeria in line with the design of the project and donor requirements.
• Lead the community mapping and identification of schools, learners and adolescents in collaboration with stakeholders in line with the project design.
• Coordinate with other technical functions to ensure conducive learning environment for learners across the formal and non-formal schools.
• Support to establish, maintain, and strengthen linkages in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation on the project. As well as contribute to assessments (baseline, needs).
• Ensure accurate project documentation, including collection of monitoring data and tracking of progress on output indicators; utilize data to contribute to reports as required.
• Facilitate relationships with communities and community leaders to ensure buy-in and Do No Harm.
• Create and sustain positive working relationships with the partners, government officials and other key stakeholders.
• Support in planning and coordinating State and LGAs level engagement with partners, local government education authorities and other key stakeholders. 
• Contribute to ensuring timely and quality reports are submitted as per the reporting requirements to the Education Programme Manager.
• Working closely with Education Programme Manager to ensure quality programme design, delivery, documentation and reporting of education activities in the respective State.
• Operational Planning and implementation
• Work closely with Education Programme Manager to design, plan and monitor project detail implementation plan, procurement plan, phased budget, MEAL Plan with documentation and reporting for all Education interventions in the State.
• Recommend technical solutions to speed up the implementation and budget performance in line with the project plan and budget.
• Effectively support the education projects staff and partners in developing monthly plans, in line with best practices, for education project design and Save the Children International planning guidelines and ensure compliance with the agreed work plans and that programme objectives and targets are being achieved in line with the funding proposal.
• Work with the Education Programme Manager to ensure integration of other sectors such as education, WASH.
• Maintain high standard of transparency and accountability during programme design and support in expediting implementation while ensuring integrity and timeliness of project duration and meeting programme objectives, compliance with donors & Save the Children policies.
• Support in providing regular operations and implementation updates to the Education Manager on project progress and challenges to allow for timely interventions and corrective actions by the management.
• Ensure the timely reviews and adjustments for the project operational and implementation plan and budget as may be required from time to time. 
• Ensure that all activities are implemented with a focus on gender equality and disability inclusion.

Finance and Budget Management

• Support project monitoring, suggest necessary revisions and prepare draft reports for corrective actions. 
• Support the Education Programme Manager in ensuring that the budget variance analysis (BVA) is monitored and reported as per in time and with accurate information.

Program/Project Narrative and Financial Reporting.

• Support the review and preparation of timely and high-quality progress and end of project narrative and financial reports which are in accordance with the donor reporting schedule and formats.
• Participate in reviewing all programme financial reports ensuring that donor guidelines have been followed and high standard met. 
• Participate in progress review meetings to address key performance issues from the reports.
• Safeguarding
• Ensure safe programming in the planning, implementation, monitoring, identification of learners, training of teachers and construction/rehabilitation of classroom environment throughout the project period.
• Adhere to the Do no Harm principles across the entire steps of the project within the Programme Management Cycle.
• Internal and external engagements
• Ensuring that the program experience is represented and given recognition at stakeholder meetings, workshops, donor, networks and any other engagements. 
• Develop and maintain regular channels of communication with partners and key stakeholders at all levels (LGA, State and National).

MEAL

• Effectively support teams in MEAL aspects, which include assessments, baseline, and evaluation studies, putting in place a functional Activity Tracking Table.
• Ensure that the projects’ quality benchmarks are followed up and implemented in project interventions.
• Collecting and managing complaints and feedback in close coordination with MEAL team and Education Team.
• Ensure regular monitoring of projects results, documentation of projects case studies, lessons learnt, significant changes and best practices and coordinating learning and reflection meetings/sessions. 
• Ensure an effective programs/ projects monitoring, and evaluation systems is in place.
• Monitor programs/ projects activities to ensure quality, timeliness and adherence to both Country Office and Save the Children policies and procedures.
• Human Resources Management and Development:
• Working together with the Education Programme Manager to identify learning needs and develop specific plans to address the learning needs. 
• Participate in monthly/weekly project management meetings to enable adequate staff support.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• 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.
• Ambition:
• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same.
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team members, colleagues, and external partners and supporters.
• Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency, demonstrates highest levels of integrity.

QUALIFICATIONS   

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in education or other related fields. Experience in managing integrated programmes across different thematic areas such as school enrolment, gender and inclusion, teacher professional development, education data management, child protection, child rights or governance is an advantage.
• Females and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• At least 3 years of accrued working experience in program implementation with an International NGO and those applying partnership approaches is desirable. 
• Experience in strategic thinking and planning skills, be able to set priorities, prepare manageable plans and to evaluate progress.
• Experience of working on TaRL and with Out of School Children (OOSC) with local partners and Local Government and State Authorities in the Northwest Nigeria is an added advantage.
• Experience of working and responding to Education in an emergency context.
• Strong analytical skills and strategic planning abilities.
• Ability to establish and maintain conducive collegial relations and perform effectively as a member of a team.
• Willingness to travel and work in hard-to-reach areas, occasionally under strenuous conditions.
• Computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are a must.
• Availability and willingness to work extra hours during times of humanitarian responses.
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Ability to intervene with crisis management or troubleshooting as necessary. 
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
• Excellent time management and planning capacity.
• Fluent in English language skills (written and verbal) and local language skills (Hausa, etc.).