French-speaking Information and Knowledge Manager with experience in Education in Emergencies

Contract

This is a Professional contract (NRC) contract. More about Professional contract (NRC) contracts.

NORCAP is seeking an Information and Knowledge Manager with a strong technical background and experience from Education to support the Regional Education in Emergencies Working Group (R-EiE WG) and its Strategic Advisory Group (SAG). The Information and Knowledge Manager will have the important and impactful task of supporting R-EIE WG members, countries and country offices in the West and Central Africa Region on strengthening data collection, analysis, information management and innovation in education in emergency or at-risk contexts, as well as programme monitoring. Duty station and duration: Dakar, Senegal until end of 2022 with possibilities for extension.

Background

In West and Central Africa at least 36 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 2021 more than 13 million children needed humanitarian assistance in education, of which 9 million are displaced, internally or as refugees. Conflict in the central Sahel has already begun to spill over into neighboring ‘Coastal’ countries such as Togo and Mauritania. Others (Benin, Ghana, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire) are at risk. Of course, almost all children in all countries have been impacted by COVID, directly through school closures, and indirectly, impacting their family income, work status, health and protection.

The Regional Education in Emergencies Working Group (R-EiE WG) was created in 2018 to contribute to more coherent, aligned, targeted and effective approaches to address EiE needs throughout these regional crises. UNICEF and Save the Children’s respective regional offices co-chair this group, mirroring Global Education Cluster arrangements. The group includes EiE specialists, cluster and LEG coordinators and government focal points from countries, and the regional representatives of key international players, many of whom are also members of its strategic advisory group (SAG): UNHCR, ECHO, Plan International, NRC and NORCAP, in addition to UNICEF and Save the Children.

Considering the scale, range, country coverage, highly dynamic nature and complexity of the risks and conflicts the region faces, the R-EiE WG had a dedicated Information and Knowledge Manager until 2019, to ensure the production and regular update of a regional dashboard, to support current understanding of ongoing emergency situations, advocacy efforts, response planning, and monitoring of results. The vacancy of this role has severely impaired the group’s ability to provide prioritized, relevant and timely support to its members, as well as to support SAG organisations’ education programmes.

Key objectives and deliverables

Key results include

• Create an effective and efficient innovative system for data, evidence and knowledge collection, analysis and use, to: (i) provide up-to-date perspectives on emergency situations, including risks and conflict, and their evolution; (ii) provide the evidence-basis for the design of EiE projects, programmes and humanitarian action; (iii) develop a regional monitoring framework and enable the monitoring of the education situation, response and results at country level; and (iv) assess countries’ resilience levels and gaps (at the institutional, programmatic, community and school levels).
• Support R-EiE WG SAG partners in identifying innovative ways to monitor humanitarian action in education (including through the Education Clusters/EiE Working Groups), document gaps and best practices, including aspects of multi-sectorial programmatic convergence.
• Produce periodic reports on the regional situation and results for crisis-affected children, based on the data and evidence collected, to inform and support regional and global EiE advocacy and fundraising efforts. These will link humanitarian and development related information and knowledge, highlighting the nexus, where applicable.
• Provide thematic and monitoring support to the SAG member organisation’s education programmes in the region.
• Contribute to building country-level capacity, including education clusters and EiE Working Groups and country offices operating in several crises, to ensure appropriate evidence-based diagnosis, planning, response implementation monitoring and reporting (HNO/HRP).

Key deliverables

• Online dashboard/platform to monitor the status of EiE and appraise the level of resilience, at country and regional levels, regularly updated.
• Periodic reports of country or sub-regional emergencies.
• Periodic update of HRP cluster results.
• Clear guidance notes on the use of tools developed.
• Annual revision and updates on planned country results.
• Good data practice capacity-building materials (PPTs, guide, webinars).Strategic and analytical review(s) of SAG members’ EiE programmes