11 months) - Education Specialist (Alternative Learning, P3, WCARO, Dakar, Senegal

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 107,719 USD and 141,049 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, an Education

Background

In West and Central Africa at least 41 million children are out of school – 29 million are in fragile countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, DRC, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. In addition, in 2019 more than 12 million children were in need of humanitarian assistance in education, and in 2020 the Pandemic crisis (COVID-19) led to the closure of schools which implied that over 128 million children are temporarily out of school and need to continuing learning through remote learning approaches including digital learning. UNICEF has developed a strategy to respond to the COVID pandemic which promotes innovative ways to deliver remote learning through a wide range of approaches including online learning, television, radio, as well as provision of printed material to those in low connectivity areas.

Under the supervision of the Education in Emergencies specialist and the overall guidance of the Regional Education Advisor, this position (TA-Alternative Learning aims to provide the technical assistance needed by 24 countries in WCAR to implement these alternative pathways, with a focus on Digital/ distance Learning strategy. The TA will also support the implementation of the Digital Learning within the COVID period and beyond. It will include supporting the RO and countries on information management needs of the COVID and other education in emergency and development responses. The incumbent will contribute to building the capacity of UNICEF country offices (COs) to provide appropriate solutions that can be applicable to scale up innovations in distance learning (digital learning, learning by TV, Radio) to support the continuity of learning for all children during and to scale them up to reach all children and adolescents , especially those in remote rural areas, those inaccessible due to conflict, and those were already out of formal schools (never been in school and early drop outs).

Additionally, the incumbent will support evidence generation and documentation of interventions that work in digital and other pathways to learning for the regional office to inform regional and global advocacy. He/she will support the WCARO education section in identifying innovative ways to monitor attendance and learning outcomes in humanitarian/pandemic and development situations, document gaps and practices, including aspects of multi-sectoral programmatic convergence. He/she will support the WCARO education section in identifying fundraising opportunity and strategic partnership to enhance the results in the region

How can you make a difference?

Purpose and Objectives:

The purpose of the TA- Education specialist in Alternative Pathways (Digital Learning, Learning by TV and Radio, including Information Knowledge Management and Documentation of good practices) is to support the country offices in the West and Central Africa Region and the education regional team for West and Central Africa, on identify, implement and strengthening distance/digital learning education and data collection, analysis, information management in both humanitarian and development context. The key result is to ensure effective and efficient remote learning that can respond to education needs for children in and out of schools in UNICEF-assisted projects and programmes.

Main Responsibilities and Tasks:

The main responsibilities of the Education specialist in Alternative Learning are as follows:

1. Technical Assistance, and support to UNICEF COs and national education institutions to translate the global and regional distance learning strategies (digital, TV, Radio) into regional tools and resources for policy development, advocacy and capacity building initiatives to enhance the capacity and knowledge for on distance/digital learning
2. Train UNICEF staff, partners, government counterparts and other end users in distance learning through digital learning, TV and Radio) and the use of human centred design methods to enable user-acceptance testing, evaluation, documentation and analysis, and in scaling up successful innovations.
3. Oversee the development and quality assurance during planning and deployment of distance learning initiatives (with a particular focus on digital learning), – with a strong focus on inclusion of the most marginalized/vulnerable children in most deprived municipalities and zone.; participate in establishing and maintaining standards, documentation and support mechanisms.
4. Ensure compliance of distance learning initiatives with the principle of no child left behind and the Principles for Digital Development (http://digitalprinciples.org/) and UNICEF technology for development best practices.
5. Assist the review of technical solutions to ensure UNICEF standards are followed; contribute to project management processes, generation and review of terms of reference and vendor selection.
6. Support the country offices and regional office to develop innovative and standardized data collection, analysis and reporting tools and systems for monitoring of access, learning and young people’s participation in digital learning and other pathways in collaboration with UN agencies and stakeholders, and creating a regional UNICEF platform of existing resources that countries can adapt, contextualize and use.
7. Develop partnerships and networks with local solution providers, innovators, NGOs, cultural and religious organizations, the private sector, local media and academia to build and provide a space to nurture and test new and innovative technologies and build local capacity. Identify opportunities for establishing linkages between resource mobilization and new partnerships and lead proposal and partnership development efforts in close collaboration with Country Offices and the Regional Office.
8. Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts including from countries via the global and regional networks available within UNICEF. Maintain an inventory of remote/distance learning initiatives and Innovations, assets, resources and networks.
9. Perform other related duties as assigned by the supervisor to ensure the success of the team.

The following key deliverables are expected:

Deliverable

Due Date

Workplan developed and integrated in 2020 and 2021 PERs

1 October 2020

Quarterly Progress Report (Digital Learning tools, resources)

31 Dec 2020

Quarterly Progress Report (Training and country scale up plans completed)

30 April 2021

Quarterly Progress Report (Quality Assurance and Documentation of COVID experiences completed)

30 July 2021

Final Progress Report (Information Management system in place)

15 August 2021

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

Education:

An advanced university degree is required in one of the following fields: education, communications, international development, IM, mapping, data mining, data analysis and presentation or another relevant technical field. A bachelor’s degree with an additional two years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of an advanced degree

Experience:

A minimum of five (05) years of professional experience in 3 or more of the following areas is required: education, programme management, integrating technology into teaching and learning initiatives; implementing educational technology solutions (through different projects and initiatives), Good working knowledge of technical platforms, eLearning authoring tools, multimedia applications, web and virtual classroom technologies, mobile apps and social media appropriate to support technology-enhanced learning, external relations, data analysis and representation.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in French and English is required. Knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese and another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate fair chance

UNICEF's Core Values, Core Competencies, and Functional Competencies required for this post are:

Core Values

• Care
• Respect
• Integrity
• Trust
• Accountability

Core competencies

• Communication (III)
• Working with people (II)
• Drive for results (II)

Functional Competencies:

• Leading and supervising (I)
• Formulating strategies/concepts (II)
• Relating and networking (II)
• Persuading and influencing (II)
• Applying technical expertise (II)
• Entrepreneurial thinking (II)

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.