Education and Safety Specialist

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading humanitarian relief and development organisations. For 80 years, the IRC has been at the forefront of every major humanitarian initiative to assist people uprooted by war, persecution, or civil conflict. IRC staff go to the toughest places, implement both immediate response and long-lasting programs, and conduct the type of applied research and advocacy the aid community needs to continually push itself to find better solutions for people. In all its country programs and in the US, IRC partners with local governments and others to achieve outcomes related to people’s health, education, safety, power and economic well-being.

Present in Sierra Leone since 1999, IRC supports the Sierra Leonean institutions – government, civil society, community-based organizations and private sector – to provide improved social services. The IRC does this through programs and partnerships designed to improve the life of women, youth and children by implementing Health, Education, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment programming.

Background and objective of the Sierra Leone Secondary Education Improvement Project (SSEIP)

The SSEIP programme is a 5 year intervention with a potential budget of £10 million. The overall aim of the programme is to improve access, safety, learning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes for 1.15 million children aged 12-17 (including 575,000 adolescent girls and 52,000 children with disability) over the life of the programme and lead to:

• A halving in the rate of adolescent girls out of school or in non-formal education

• A reduction in the rate of 15–19-year-old adolescents who have begun childbearing.

• At least 160,000 more girls, and children with disability, enrolled and progressing through school or provided with out of school learning opportunities.

• A doubling in the number of girls passing secondary school examinations.

Scope of Work

The IRC is recruiting for an Education and Safety Specialist for SSEIP. The role holder will provide continuous technical support and guidance to consortium staff and partners, and keep track of project progress toward intended outcomes. S/he will oversee the development and implementation of high quality and relevant literacy, numeracy and life skills curricula, as well as ensuring that safeguarding policies are implemented at the project level and monitored. The Education and Safety specialist will coordinate support and input from the HQ technical unit. In addition, the role holder will be the outward facing focal point for the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Child Affairs (MSWGCA) and will coordinate with MBSSE, the donor and partners on technical aspects of the project.

The Education and Safety Specialist will work under the oversight of the Senior Team Leader.

Areas of Responsibility:

• Provide the project staff with overall technical direction and guidance in line with the program expected outcomes.

• Lead the review and refinement of the numeracy, literacy and life skills curriculum and training manual as necessary .

• Lead the development of facilitator training, work plans and ensure consortium adherence to work plans to ensure consistency of intervention delivery and quality at the district level.

• Lead the development of the Life Skills mentor training and TOT work-plans, and ensure consortium adherence to work-plans to ensure consistency of intervention delivery and quality at the district level.

• Lead the development of the Safeguarding training (ToT) for the mentors and BLN facilitator and monitor implementation.

• Co-facilitate training of Consortium partners’ district-level Designated Safeguarding Officers to ensure implementation of safeguarding mechanisms, including prevention and reporting.

• Lead the development of coaching and professional development model for the project with regards to the BLN component.

• Lead the completion of the Teaching and Learning self-assessment tool and its use into routine programming.

• Manage the coordination and review process of curriculum deliverables with the Consortium partners, TU and the Ministry.

• Work with field team and partners across the various outcome areas to ensure that children are safe in school and on their way to schools/safe spaces

• Support the development and any revisions of the evaluation and monitoring plan regarding the curriculum outcomes/outputs. This includes supporting the development of the tools in close collaboration with the Consortium M&E Coordinator.

• Conduct regular monitoring of partners’ safeguarding mechanisms and handling framework.

• Review and approve partner technical reports.

• Conduct regular monitoring and technical support visits across all districts.

• Proactively build strong working alliances with partners and government partners in the relevant ministries.

• Organize periodic meetings with the Consortium partners and TU in order to discuss progress, discuss challenges and solutions, and follow up on the execution of agreed action points.

• As requested by supervisor, represent the consortium and the IRC to FCDO and other external stakeholders.

Requirements

To effectively deliver this engagement, the applicant should meet the following requirements:

• Advanced degree in education, social protection, or related field.

• At least 8 years of relevant education program experience with an international organization in a development setting.

• Strong verbal communication skills and effective in representation and liaison with external actors, including government officials.

• Experience in providing technical assistance to government and/or organizations in teacher training, curriculum development, out of school youth programming and proven track record of success.

• Excellent spoken and technical writing ability in English, including report writing.

• Excellent interpersonal skills, positive and professional attitude, ability to lead and work well in a team setting and with multiple partners.

Please note that the JD is high level and indicative only at this stage and may be subject to change once the Terms of Reference for the programme is released and as the opportunity develops. This position will be contingent on the outcome of the bid.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality 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

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