Thematic Director - Education and Early Child Care & Development/Education at Save the Children

Save the Children

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Position: Thematic Director - Education and Early Child Care & Development/Education

Job Time: Full-Time

Job Type: Contract

Place of Work: Addis Ababa - Ethiopia

Posted date: 2 years ago

Deadline: Submition date is over

POST TYPE: National

Child Safeguarding:

Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

ROLE PURPOSE:  The Education Thematic Director is responsible for leading SC Ethiopia’s Education and Early Child Care & Development/Education (ECCD/E) thematic sector covering basic education, education in emergency, and early ECCD/E. The role involves developing multi-year thematic strategies and annual plans; maintain high level technical and strategic engagement with donors, Save the Children member organization, major education actors in Ethiopia; initiate and develop highly innovative and quality programs in the sector; ensure high program impact and quality through adaptation of proven common approaches, best practice, and tools; enhance CO’s education and ECCD/E thematic excellence through production and utilization of high quality and well-articulated program evidence and research for learning, advocacy and further development of the sector.

The Thematic Director is also responsible for promoting program quality via a team of technical advisors and supporting operational teams. S/he will ensure cross-functionality, coordination, standardization of program implementation in different projects, and that quality of the program is of nationally/internationally accepted and recommended standards. He/she represents SC values and principles in interactions with staff and external audiences.  These values and principles include a commitment to the mission of Save the Children, team orientation, quality management, and leadership development, introducing systems and procedures to strengthen staff motivation and productivity. 

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Director of Program Development, Quality, and Impact

Dimensions: Save the Children works in 9 regions in Ethiopia with a current staff complement of approximately 1,700 staff and a current expenditure of approximately $90+ million each year.

Staff directly reporting to this post:  5-6 direct reports

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

Strategic Engagement and Representation

•  Provide overall leadership for the strategic development and quality implementation of the Education and ECCD/E program, including the development of strategic plans and the portfolio of projects, research, and initiatives required to achieve strategic objectives and outcomes. 
• Lead the strategic planning process for the sector and then annual operational planning based on the strategic plan, and regular internal program planning and review meetings for the health and nutrition teams, as well as related inputs to quarterly and annual reports.
• Support Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) for the documentation of program achievements
• Communicate program achievements against agreed strategic objectives and milestones, and any emerging new evidence for a wide range of internal and external audiences
• Actively communicate and coordinate with the other Thematic Directors, relevant technical specialists, and project managers to ensure synergy and integrated approaches across themes that take into account current good practices
• Develop and maintain strong external relations with key stakeholders in particular donors, Ministry of Education, and national education coordination networks and platforms
• Ensure a deep understanding of MOE’s and donors’ priorities; communicate these to the relevant CO leaders and use them for program development and implementation.
• Regularly coordinate with Save the Children member technical staff -identify technical support requirements, inclusive of field visits, as and when necessary.
• Serve as the senior representative for all relevant external representation opportunities 

Program Development

• Contribute to the development and regular updating of an SCI Ethiopia fundraising opportunities matrix.
• Identify innovative and technically sound project ideas, approaches, and methodologies that can help the Country Office effectively achieve its strategic breakthrough goals in collaboration with New Business Development (NBD) team and SCI members, identify institutional and other funding opportunities.
• Work proactively by engaging with CO’s business development team, SC members, and donors in identifying funding opportunities through presenting and marketing technically viable ideas
• Support pre-positioning for identified opportunities including understanding MoE and donor priorities, and identifying partners
• Present compelling education and ECCD/E business cases through analytical assessment of donor and Ethiopia’s priorities in the sector
• Develop and maintain contacts with current and potential donors, potential partners, and key technical agencies, in coordination with the NBD and relevant leaders of the CO. Attend relevant donor meetings and visits. 
• Ensure that high-quality technical inputs are provided while designing new education and ECCD/E project proposals through full application of SCI’s Common Approaches, programming principles, theory of changes.
• Ensure that technical proposals are relevant through proactively and systematically gathered needs and information from beneficiaries and stakeholders in the field
• In collaboration with MEAL ensure current technical knowledge, research, and current/previous programming lessons learned and good practices are widely shared and used in proposals

Program Quality and Effectiveness

• Ensure the development and application of education and ECCD/E quality assurance standards/benchmarks, tools, etc. across the programs and research initiatives of the CO
• Ensure quality of projects are attained at the delivery level by working closely with staff involved in implementation through provision of continuous capacity improvement measures and rolling out of relevant quality benchmark tools/processes
• Ensure all education and ECCD/E programs use evidence-based solutions adapted to their context, including SCI common approaches, programming principles, global strategies, and humanitarian minimum standards
• Work closely with Program Operations teams to support quality implementation including the incorporation of recommendations for technical improvements. 
• Conduct regular field visits to provide support to quality assurance initiatives in the field
• Work closely with MEAL in developing robust evidence-based learning to support program implementation, development, and advocacy; and ensuring that lessons learned and good practices are properly documented, effectively disseminated, and, where appropriate, incorporated into wider advocacy initiatives.
• Work closely with the MEAL team to ensure quality benchmarking is in place for program implementation and all evaluations are conducted at a high level of quality.
• Work with MEAL to ensure dissemination of learning and knowledge to Education/ECCD/E, PDQ, and relevant Program Operations and partner staff through the active use of Communities of Practices     
• Develop and implement effective strategies to integrate resources and lessons of large stand-alone projects in the thematic area; support cross-fertilization of good practices.
• Understand cross-cutting issues of resilience, gender, child participation, and others to ensure their incorporation into program design and implementation.
• Support Program Operations and Awards in submitting quality donor reports by providing timely and thorough technical review of such reports including recommendations on how these reports could be improved.

 Policy Analysis, Policy Engagement and Advocacy for Policy Change

• Oversee the development and implementation of Save the Children’s education and ECCD/E advocacy work. Provide technical guidance to advocacy efforts (objectives, messages, targets, approaches) and manage the achievement of each specific objective.
• Develop relevant policy briefs and position papers related to the sector Program. Lead in networking and articulating SC’s position, policy, and strategy in national forums and meetings. 
• Ensure that the voices of children guide advocacy and policy change objectives and related activities.
• Keep abreast of national policies and global trends/good practices in the area of education and ECCD/E, analyze and share with relevant PDQ, education, and ECCD/E, and Program Operations staff- ideally through the Community of Practice.
• Represent Save the Children in relevant working groups, task forces, seminars, and related fora in the thematic area; and among donors, UN agencies, international NGOs, and national and sub-national government counterparts.

Staff and Budget Management

• Lead and manage the Education and ECCD/E teams.
• Provide ‘dashed-line technical leadership for all Education and ECCD/E Program technical staff in Ethiopia.
• Ensure the ‘right-sizing of the Education and ECCD/E team structurally.
• Coaches, mentors and provides structured training as necessary to team members.
• Develop and manage budgets for staff of the Education and ECCD/E team, advocacy, consultancies, and research, as required.
• Conduct regular, comprehensive performance management.  This includes work plans and performance reviews and support of staff learning and development.

Identify succession plans and team members with high capacity for future promotion

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

• Accountability: • Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modeling 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 others to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated thinks strategically

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members, 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

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE 

• Postgraduate level education fields
• A minimum of 12 years education and ECCD/E technical management and leadership experience with sound and hands-on field experience with both emergency and development contexts.
• Strong, proven, and successful education and ECCD/E technical and policy level engagement with donors, academia, and CSOs at national and international levels
• Experience in providing technical oversight to a portfolio of diverse projects, including humanitarian and development, and research and advocacy projects.
• Successful track record successfully leading the design and development of large scale education and ECCD/E programs funded by donors
• Proven experience and competencies in adopting successful common approaches, models, and approaches to maximize the effectiveness, quality, and impact of education and ECCD/E programs  
• Proven representation, influencing, and advocacy skills and experience.
• Strong analytical and writing skills with demonstrated ability to write business cases, technical proposals, briefing papers (ability to present complex information succinctly and compellingly), and reports.
• Proven ability to manage a networked team of professionals, with good communication and interpersonal skills and an ability to motivate staff.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation, and coaching
• Experience in humanitarian programs and preparedness.
• Experience working with government partners, with partner agencies, including local partners, and in consortia and relevant to resilience programming.
• An understanding of child rights programming and commitment to Save the Children values.
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mindsets
• Proven ability to manage a complex and demanding workload
• Excellent spoken and written English
• Good computer skills (particularly Excel, Word, and database