Education Coordinator

Background/IRC Summary:  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 over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC has been working in Pakistan for over 30 years, and manages and delivers large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, protection, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor and disaster affected communities. IRC works in partnership with local government and non-governmental organizations and currently works in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.

Scope of work

Building on this work over the years, the IRC in Pakistan has developed a new program framework, strategy and vision for 2016 – 2020. The country program has committed to ensuring that school-aged children, in and out of school, have appropriate literacy, numeracy, social-emotional skills and learn in safe environments. The IRC also works towards the reduction and elimination of barriers to ensure that girls are equally skilled and safe as boys.  The Education Coordinator will be responsible to lead high quality program implementation and provide technical support, capacity building and guidance to the IRC’s education staff and partners including: Government Ministries and departments; other NGOs, community groups; and international organizations.

The position is pending the award of a major project in girls’ education. The project is in final negotiation with the donor.

Areas of Responsibility

Technical Oversight and Support

Provide technical support and guidance on all programming to a range of partners, stakeholders and the education team working in the communities, on the following broad areas:

Safe spaces & mentoring- spaces for women and girls to find support, learn, self-organize and develop their activism.

Early grade literacy and numeracy

Basic literacy and numeracy for out of school youth

Social-emotional learning

School improvement

Teacher professional development through trainings, coaching and teacher learning circles

Research

Girl’s education

School safety and elimination of violence against girls

• Lead the implementation of the Strategic Action Plan within the education sector and provide technical guidance to the teams. 
• Ensure that programming adheres to the IRC’s Outcome and Evidence Framework to achieve outcomes. This includes having evidence based theories of change and project approaches/activities, and a robust M&E framework according to IRC and donor standards. Where evidence is lacking, programming then generates evidence.
• Ensure that the education sector has an M&E system which follows the standards for data collection, management and reporting and teams use data to make decisions regarding program changes.
• Ensure that all programs are designed to mitigate risk in order to do no harm, especially for women and girls.
• Ensure the education program is evidence generating from rigorous research to inform practice.
• Proactively work with the IRC Technical Units, especially the Education Advisor, to ensure adequate technical support is provided to the teams.
• Program Management and Business Development
• Coordinate and support all education programs and components within IRC Pakistan to ensure timely, effective and quality activity set-up, budget management, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation and learning.
• Provide leadership on new program development; actively pursue new program funding opportunities in-line with the program framework and the country program’s strategic outcomes.
• Identify gaps in the Education programs and work with the team to develop innovative approaches and mechanisms to address them.
• Conduct regular field visits to assess program quality and progress toward objectives and facilitate collective problem solving with staff and other stakeholders to address challenges identified.
• Develop and maintain a monitoring & evaluation plan and framework for current and new education programming, ensuring ethical and systematic processes of data collection, analysis, decision making, and information sharing.
• Ensure programs and activities are locally led and owned by the individuals and communities who the IRC serve.
• Actively identify, build and promote partnerships with INGOs, UN agencies, local and national groups, organisations working on education issues, with the objective of facilitating strong coordination and collaboration.
• Proactively work with other IRC programs in Health and Women and Girls Protection and Empowerment to identify areas and opportunities for collaboration, design integrated proposals, and collectively implement projects that multiply positive outcomes for the people we serve.

Finance, Budget and Grant Management

• Overall responsibility for education program budgets. Monitor budget spending in line with the spending plans, budget vs actual analyses, and develop remedial plans where necessary to ensure budgets are optimally utilized.
• Work with the field teams in the development of program budgets, cash projections and spending plans and any other grants as may be required, and ensure diligence in grants utilization.
• Work with the Grants Manager to ensure all education grants are in compliance with donor guidelines and contracts/ agreements including budget flexibility and reporting requirements.
• Ensure high-quality and timeliness of IRC and donor reports on activities, indicators and achievements.

HR Management and National Staff Capacity Building

• Supervise and provide ongoing support, capacity development and mentoring to the Education Managers and other project staff in leadership roles, supporting them to do the same with the Managers they supervise, on areas including (but not limited to):
• Budgeting and grants management.
• Project and HR management.
• Leadership, delegation, decision-making, problem solving, strategic planning, and conflict management.
• Technical performance management support (setting of objectives, appraisals and professional development action plans and follow up).
• Monitoring and evaluation.
• Outcomes and Evidence Framework.
• When required, lead on the recruitment of new education program staff, consultants or other external support, in coordination with HR.
• Ensure effective team communication and support between team members based in Freetown and the three field sites, including opportunities for debriefing and ensure staff well-being and care.

Coordination & Representation

• Proactively build strong working alliances with other international and national actors/organisations working in education in Pakistan.
• Proactively develop and maintain effective working relationships with other key stakeholders, including donors, government actors, UN agencies (including UNICEF), international and local NGOs, and other relevant actors; maintaining IRC as a key contributor to addressing quality of education in Pakistan.
• Actively participate in national level coordination meetings and working groups.
• Carry out other such tasks as assigned by supervisor.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Team Leader Position directly supervises: Education staff (Community Mobilizers, Project officer, Training officers) 

Job Requirements:

a)      Education:

• Master Degree in Social Sciences or relevant field from any recognized University

b)      Work Experience:

• At least 6-8 years progressive relevant work experience in education project management, preferably with INGOs
• Demonstrated experience leading quality education projects that have met targets on time and within budget
• Demonstrated experience in leading teacher professional development programs
• Demonstrated experience in training, capacity building and team building of staff

c)      Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills,
• Demonstrated understanding of education project design, management and implementation
• Demonstrated budget tracking experience
• Demonstrated experience coordinating with government and partner organizations
• Ability to provide strategic program oversight and identify areas for program improvement
• Excellent training, capacity building and team building skills
• Experience with the IRC’s Healing Classrooms approach strongly preferred.
• Strong coordination, communication and capacity building skills.
• Flexibility to work in a diverse multicultural team with respect for Pakistani culture and norms.
• Proven ability to live and work in an unstable, stressful, and insecure environment.
• Knowledge of MS Office package (word, excel, power point)
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Strong knowledge of indicators and log-frame analysis.
• Strong, creative problem-solving skills

Language Skills: 

• Must be fluent in Urdu & English languages

Gender Equality:

IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment. Women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.