Senior Manager, Early Childhood Development and Education Full Time

BRAC International is Hiring! Join BRAC International to create opportunities for people to realise their potential.

Position: Senior Manager, Early Childhood Development and Education

Job Location: Monrovia, Liberia or Freetown, Sierra Leone

About the Role:

The incumbent will provide technical, programmatic and strategic support to present and future ECD and Education (ECDE) interventions in West Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone and soon also Ghana) as required. A key strategic focus for BI will be delivering more integrated development programmes that address multi-dimensional issues of poverty and this implies working in close collaboration with other sectors in BI. Responsibilities also include supporting country teams in developing strong Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Monitoring and Learning systems and tools in an effort that ECDE interventions are of quality, address multiple barriers, and result in impact. They will also play a role in assisting country offices and BI in mobilizing additional resources, including supporting new business development and ensuring ECDE or integrated projects in countries under their purview are documented and learnings are disseminated, internally and externally. Furthermore, they will also actively participate in developing and supporting integrated programmes.

Key Responsibilities:

Programme and Strategy Development

• Support country teams in the design, implementation of quality ECDE interventions in West Africa and as required beyond.
• Work closely with country teams and other sector teams in designing scale-up plans for ECDE and integrated programmes;
• Participate in the project design process (both proactive and in response to calls for proposals), involving country programme teams, especially leveraging an integrated approach
• Support country management in setting strategic directions for ECDE and integrated programming.

Technical Assistance in Quality ECD and Education Project / Programme Implementation

• Support quality implementation of ECDE interventions in BI countries in West Africa and as requested beyond.
• Collaborate with country teams to develop ECDE specific or integrated SOPs, curricula, training guides, monitoring and learning tools;
• Support the recruitment and onboarding processes of new ECD/Education and other programme staff as needed.
• Conduct field visits to ensure fidelity and impact of ECDE or integrated development interventions and provide capacity strengthening support based on needs.
• Regularly support the assessment of project performance to ensure early identification of implementation challenges and timely guidance and support with appropriate solutions.

Business Development for Resource Mobilization

• Support opportunities for fundraising, and ensure high quality technical support to all ECDE specific or integrated related fundraising within the organisation.
• Write/edit technical parts of the concept note/proposal, review other sections to ensure alignment with the call for proposals, and incorporate experience, learnings, and achievements from past projects.
• Review the scope and requirements of any funding opportunity, check the alignment of the funds/calls with the respective programme strategies, and assess its fund size, scale, strategic importance, and the technical capacity of the country and programme team to design and deliver the project.
• Review of the proposal and project budget to ensure all programme activities in the design are well-resourced, as well as ensuring all costs of the programme team support (salary, travel, capacity building) are captured in the project budget.
• Participate in various meetings with potential donors and partners to present BI’s programme strategy, approach, achievements, and learnings as required.
• Lead or support the project design (as described in the programme development section), review the relevant programmatic sections of the proposal drafted by the country/GRP team and provide their technical inputs.

Grants Management

• Participate in and support country teams in West Africa (and as required beyond) during grant kick-off meetings for new projects or programmes.
• Regularly participate in grants review meetings that include ECD or Education grants and proactively contribute to issues of concerns and solutions.
• Support countries in budget reviews, monitoring reports review and developing action plans, coordination with other units as per ECDE operation modality.
• Regularly review and provide solution-oriented feedback to donor reports.

Capacity Strengthening

• Foster an environment conducive to learning and impact, by supporting the establishment of processes that promote a culture of excellence, learning and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to country-wise capacity needs assessment, and develop a capacity-building plan for ECDE, in collaboration with country offices, other sector teams, and the Learning & Effectiveness team.
• Plan, organize and facilitate effective capacity strengthening activities in program design, quality implementation, monitoring and knowledge management of ECDE involving the provision of advice, technical assistance, training workshops, seminars and meetings or setup of a community of practice.
• Promote collaboration among team members and with the wider Programme Team and with other relevant functions in the organisation.
• Organize/support the cross-country and cross-sector experience sharing, facilitate exchange visits to enhance the capacity of the programme staff.

Partnerships, Learning and Advocacy

• Support country teams in West Africa (and as required beyond) in the development and maintenance of strong relationships with key government, donors, partners, and other stakeholders in the area of ECDE as needed.
• Support the establishment of BI as a thought leader in the ECDE space, promoting and showcasing innovation and impact.
• Contribute to advocacy agendas aligned with programme and country strategies.
• Support country and BI ECDE team to develop program-level learning-sharing and advocacy materials.
• Represent BI ECDE as required at select forums, networks, conferences and meetings.
• Support in development and execution of ECDE learning agenda and specific project learning plans, M&L frameworks and TOC development.
• Assist the Learning and Effectiveness and country M&L teams in developing tools to collect ECDE relevant output and outcomes data, review research/evaluation reports, process documentation reports, and other learning reports, and provide inputs for finalization.
• Work with the learning team in the project/programme design stage to formulate project/programme-specific learning questions and ensure adequate budgeting.
• Contribute to the development of research agenda, study designs and coordinate study areas in collaboration with implementation team and research team;
• Coordinate where/when needed external teams to conduct research/studies and ensure fulfillment of research objectives and methodologies.
• Contribute to developing and implementing appropriate monitoring frameworks for the ECDE programmes.

Safeguarding

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme’s goals of safeguarding implementation.
• Act as a key source of support, guidance, and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment.
• Practice, promote, and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place and encourage others to do so.

Academic Qualifications:

• University Degree in Early Childhood Development, Education, Social Studies, Development studies, Public health or other related fields, post graduate qualifications in the same field will be an added advantage.

Required Skills, Competencies & Knowledge:

• Sound and up to date knowledge of policies, trends, evidence-based practices/approaches with regards to Education and Early Childhood Development, especially in Africa and Asia
• Well informed about the literature pertaining to education and child development issues in low-income countries, particularly where BRAC International operates
• Knowledge of systems, sector priorities, learning resources available, stakeholders and networks with regard to the ECD sector in BI countries
• Ability to work strategically with multiple stakeholders
• Capable of working independently and as part of team(s)
• Ability to lead the development of monitoring, research and learning plans and agenda in relation to ECDE
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated success engaging with key stakeholders to improve education/ECD programming and funding
• Strong analytical skills, strategic thinking and conceptual clarity
• Proficient in proposal development and budgeting and project management
• Strong editing and reporting skills
• Solid planning and organizing skills
• Ability to prioritize and deal with competing demands to deliver results
• Ability to work under pressure and manage tight deadlines
• A high degree of personal resilience, flexibility and ability to adapt to changing circumstances
• Excellent communication skills (written, verbal, negotiation, facilitation and presentation skills)
• Excellent in problem solving and decision making
• Excellent networking skills
• Fluent in English (verbal and written communications)
• Proficient in computer operations including MS Word, MS Excel, Power Point, Email and various internet search engines and web based platforms***.***

Experience Requirements:

• At least five years of experience in working directly in Education and/or Early Childhood Development programmes, ideally in different country contexts.
• Overall, 5 to 7 years of working in project management/implementation/technical assistance/research in the development sector.
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation of ECD and/or Education approaches, including TOC design, mixed method research, data monitoring and analysis) and ability to interpret data for decision-making
• Experience in capacity strengthening approaching, including developing and facilitating training, mentorship, and coaching on ECD and/or Education approaches across country teams
• Experience in managing projects and budgets
• Strong knowledge of international standards and best practices on ECD and/or Education
• Experience of working in multicultural environment will have an added value
• Desired Experience of working in an emergency context

Employment type: Contractual

Salary: Negotiable

Tagged as: BRAC, Liberia, Sierra Leone