ECD Partnership, Scaling and Advocacy Senior Manager - Baghdad

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, the IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC Iraq program was established in 2003 and is currently providing humanitarian assistance in the sectors of child protection, women’s protection and empowerment, protection and rule of law, early childhood development, cash, livelihoods, and governance. The IRC Iraq’s main office is based in Erbil, with field offices in Baghdad, Ninewa, Salah al-Din, Kirkuk, and Anbar.

In Iraq, high-quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs have the potential to provide the foundation for children future academic success, health, prosperity, and wellbeing. A large body of scientific evidence emphasizes the need for increased investment in early childhood, particularly for children experiencing conflict, crisis, and displacement; these children are extremely vulnerable to the long-lasting effects that prolonged stress has on the developing brain.

In December 2017, Sesame Workshop and the IRC were awarded the MacArthur Foundation’s inaugural 100&Change grant to make real progress toward solving a critical problem of our time. With the extraordinary investment of $100 million, our partnership will transform the language, early reading, math, and social-emotional skills of a generation of children ages 0-8 affected by the Syrian war. Focusing on children in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria over the next five years, the plan combines the depth of in-person services, reaching 1.5 million children, with the breadth of mass media, reaching 9.4 million children. For more information, please visit: http://refugee.sesameinternational.org/.

Job Overview/Summary:

Beyond the important goal of meeting immediate urgent needs of young children, Ahlan Simsim aims to change the systems that govern provision of ECD services ensuring what services they provide and how they provide them reach children with high quality programming, include refugees and the most vulnerable. IRC tackles this ambition through:

Scaling – expanding, deepening, and sustaining impact. Scaling can occur in several ways—from deliberate replication to organic diffusion to integration into national systems—that expand and deepen impact leading to lasting improvements in people’s lives

Partnership – principled collaborative relationships towards shared objectives,

Advocacy – influence at the national, regional and global levels to shift the collective understanding of the importance of ECD in humanitarian contexts, to be prioritized alongside traditional focuses on safety, health, etc. and ensure global and national policies are in place to support sustained commitment to and prioritization of ECD.

The Senior Scaling, Partnerships and Advocacy manager will manage and facilitate all work processes as they relate to the three core components:

- *Programs Quality and scaling*****: Manage and oversee the Ahlan Simsim scaling design, planning, and implementation - ***Relationship management*****:** Ensure proper relationship building and management with key stakeholders and partners: - ***Documentation and learning*****:** Generate evidence-based learnings based for scaling - ***Advocacy and policy change*****: Lead and coordinate advocacy efforts as they relate to scaling** - ***Partners Support, development, and Representation***

Major Responsibilities:

Manage and oversee the Ahlan Simsim scaling design, planning, and implementation:

- Lead and facilitate the evidence-based scaling efforts on a country level from planning through adaptation to scale. - Cultivate a shift in mindset towards system thinking and scaling within the team and with partners. - Work with the ECD coordinator, ECD team, and Regional Partnership & Scaling Advisor to develop scaling plans and budgets. - Coordinate with the technical, M&E and research focal points in the team to ensure that iterative scaling cycles are integrated into all aspects of the work. - Coordinate with the partnerships IRC staff to ensure scaling is rooted in the IRC partnerships management system. - Ensure close coordination with the technical team on a country and regional level to facilitate the development of adaptable and scalable AS models/packages. - Ensure the rollout and implementation of all tools that aim to track, assess, and document scaling by coordinating with IRC team and partners for realizing a learning and adaptation strategy. - Lead on regular operational plan meetings to ensure alignment and progress on scaling activities. - Plan for and materialize an iterative scaling process whereby change and adaptations are driven by real-time data collected throughout the lifecycle of the AS program. - Conduct background research on previous and ongoing efforts related to ECD service delivery in Iraq, including desk review of project documentation, national strategies, conducting key stakeholder interviews, and attending related meetings and events. - Support work in coordination with the governance unit on political economy analysis (PEA) for Iraq context and other background research. - Develop proposals, presentations, and briefs on an ad hoc basis. - Conduct a quality review of all documents related to scaling including the outputs shared by the team and scaling partners. - Ensure scaling plans and implementation are consistent with PEERs processes and procedures.

Ensure proper relationship building and management with key stakeholders and partners:

- Facilitate Social Network Analysis workshops on a country and regional(in-country) level. - Cultivate and manage all relationships with key local stakeholders in close coordination with the ECD coordinator. - Ensure proper flow of information between the IRC and partners. - Ensure partners’ feedback is taken forward in all aspects of the project whether in technical, scaling, partnerships, RMEAL etc. - Identify ECD champions within different partner organizations and work closely with them on all the aspects of scaling. - Hold collaborative design meetings to ensure that scaling activities and workplans are addressing the partner’s ECD-related needs. - Coordinate with the RMEAL team to develop a continuous capacity building plan for the scaling partners to ensure the adaptation of their existing monitoring systems.

Generate evidence-based learnings based for scaling:

- “Tell the story” of how the Ahlan Simsim program scaled in Iraq, including capturing key decisions, opportunities, and challenges faced by relevant actors and documenting the piloting of the scalable models developed for each scaling pathway. - Document and share learnings with country and regional teams to facilitate cross-national and cross-country data-driven learnings. - Facilitate and document key scaling-related events and meetings as decided in coordination with the ECD Coordinator. - Proactively share lessons learned within the Iraq program as well as with regional stakeholders to assist decision-makers in identifying, adapting, and scaling other evidence-based ECD solutions. - Participate in Scaling community of practice within the IRC and with the wider scaling community. - Participate in regional scaling and partnership check-ins to facilitate cross-learnings.. - Work in close coordination with the ECD coordinator to ensure learnings from scaling are embedded within the country strategy. - Coordinate with the RMEAL team on a country level and regional level to ensure alignment on the AS learning agenda.

Lead and coordinate advocacy efforts as they relate to scaling:

- Develop policy goals in close coordination with key partners and IRC staff. - Coordinate the development of the advocacy plan with the support of the advocacy advisor. - Identify Decision makers and influencers for each policy goal in close coordination with Advocacy advisors on a country and regional level. - Facilitate and oversee the implementation of the advocacy plans. - Maintain proper data collection for advocacy indicators. - Ensure advocacy activities are conducted in close coordination with the partners. - Work closely with the regional partner to support advocacy efforts and coordination of coalitions. - Support regional advocacy efforts by participating in different coordination groups, workshops, and conferences.

Partners Support & Development, and Representation

- Support the assessment of capacity building needs based on observation and assessment of each partner’s knowledge and capacity in ECD, in coordination with the ECD Technical and Capacity Building Manager. - Coordinate with the ECD Technical and Capacity Building Manager in strengthening the technical capacities of partners, including conducting trainings, coaching, and mentoring. - Support partners in activity design for any collaborations in emergency response in Iraq. - Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable partners/staff to successfully perform in their positions. - Support regular information sharing regarding challenges and needs at the field level. - Represent IRC in internal and external forums as needed, including clusters, and coordinate activities with them.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: ECD Deputy Coordinator Position directly supervises: No one

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: ECD coordinator and Managers, Ahlan Simsim Regional Partnership and Scaling Managers, Ahlan Simsim Regional team, other IRC programs and support departments

External: Partner NGOs, relevant clusters, and relevant Ministries

Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, international development, or other relevant related field; - Minimum 5 years of professional experience in implementation of ECD or ECD-related programming in Humanitarian or Development contexts; - Minimum 3 year in a managerial level. - Solid demonstrated experience with planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation; - Strong written and oral communication skills including ability to gain trust and build relationships. - Strong representation and liaison with external parties; - Previous experience in capacity strengthening and mentoring of partners/staff, and must be capable of applying skills and knowledge in a range of capacities, including direct implementation, training, and transfer of technical knowledge and management skills to others; - Demonstrated track record in working with teams, showing high performance in a multi-cultural environment, demonstrating flexibility, and ability to handle pressure; - Personal qualities: Team player, flexible, network-builder, able to handle pressure well - Excellent Computer skills: MS Word, Excel. - Fluency in Arabic and English written and spoken.

Preferred:

- Master’s degree in early childhood development, education, or social sciences. - Prior Iraq experience working in emergency and development settings or insecure environments

Working Environment:

The position will be based in Baghdad, Iraq with frequent travel to field sites.

Standards of Professional Conduct:

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Gender Equality

IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including maternity leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Attention Returning National Candidates:

IRC strives to attract, motivate and retain qualified national staff in our programs. We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a national of the country in which this position is based and are currently located outside of your home country and possess over two years of international work experience, IRC has introduced an attractive remuneration package. The package includes competitive compensation, return flight to post, shipping allowance, temporary housing and a relocation allowance. Certain restrictions may apply.

Notice to all Job Seekers

IRC implements an equal employment opportunity policy and our recruitment process is based on merit.

Applicants and/or successful interview candidates (both internal and external) are not required to pay any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.

If anyone asks you for any financial or non-financial favors to help you secure a job at IRC, kindly report to [email protected].

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