Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. We work in around 120 countries. Our vision is to live in a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Senior Education Technical Advisor will use an in-depth contextual understanding, technical expertise, and relationship building skills to define and deliver SC strategic ambition for education in Ethiopia. The jobholder will assist the Director in education policy/strategy development; initiation and development of innovative and high quality programs; development and roll out of guidelines and tools meant to enhance quality of education programs. The role supports national advocacy and influencing efforts, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development. It supports the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programs, teams and partners. He/she will lead on sector based researches and assessments in collaboration with MEAL team. The role will work closely with operations colleagues and with partners in Ethiopia CO, building their capacity, ownership and agency of local organizations. This role includes a focus on external representation on priority issues including: early childhood care and development: foundational learning and uninterrupted learning (education in emergencies) to ensure all children have access to education leading to learning and wellbeing outcomes. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Education Thematic Director

Staff reporting to this post: no direct reports but expected to provide coaching and mentoring support to operational and other technical colleagues and local partners

Budget Responsibilities: None

Role Dimensions: The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including Save the Children members, the Country Office Programme Development & Quality team, advocacy colleagues, Regional Advisors, technical counterparts in other organisations, MOE, national education cluster, donors, academia etc. The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups and communities of practice.

Context: Humanitarian and development

Primary Sub-technical area: Technically lead new business development and program quality as well as strategy development, covering pre-primary and primary education.

Secondary/ sub-technical area: Staff capacity development, with significant contribution to learning.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

A. Technical Leadership:

• Assist the Director in Play a leading role in initiating, development and roll out of education policy, strategies, guidelines and tools within the framework of CO’s strategy direction
  Lead on evidence and learning activities in the sector including the education community of practice.
  Build capacity of national staff and partners in key technical approaches related to education including on use of digital data collection and analysis

B. Ensuring Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

• Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality education programmes for children, building on global best practice.
• Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation.
• Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation
• Promote an Education Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework that supports working in collaboration and partnership with governments and regional bodies, local partners and working towards impact, scale and sustainability
• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results.
• Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of education programmes at the country level.
• Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) teams to carry out gender and power analysis, and conduct quality monitoring against international standards through participatory methodologies that promote gender equality and social justice (including child-friendly and gender sensitive/transformative methodologies).
• Extract and produce high quality education technical briefs, success stories and related materials pertaining to CO’s education programs periodically and ensure the dissemination of the same internally and externally by working together with Head of Evidence and Learning
• Initiate and lead efforts meant to test, develop and scale up new approaches that can help address the educational challenges of children in SCI CO’s operation areas with the support of Head of Evidence and Learning
  contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of disaggregated data, evidence and analysis (including gender and power analysis) and understands its link to quality and accountable programming;
• Contribute to strengthening the use of equality-focused programme principles and good practice across themes and sectors.
• Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement.
• Support Humanitarian colleagues (as needed) to develop emergency strategy, preparedness plans, and conduct sectoral assessments (including gender analysis and disability situation analysis, using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver emergency response and recovery programmes.
• Ensure synergies between humanitarian education thematic area teams, data and programme design.
• Monitor trends in order to ensure early action; and lead technical design and implementation and technical coordination of humanitarian responses
• Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed.

C. Networking & External Engagement:

• In alignment with SCI-Ethiopia CO strategy, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice in education.
• Ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others through technical coordination forums and networks such as national and regional education clusters, East and South Africa SCI TE forum and ensure that Save the Children demonstrate and maintain its global education Co-lead role in Ethiopia.
• Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues.
• Ensure that the diverse voices of children, girls and boys are equitably heard and represented in our education work.
• Represent the education sector in national and local government, donors, and partner platforms as required.
• Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across Save the Children, including technical working groups and centers of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds their team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities –
• giving them the freedom to deliver in accordance with the context, 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 their team to
• do the same Widely shares Save the Children’s vision, and engages and motivates others future orientated, thinks strategically and on a national and global scale.

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;
• demonstrates highest levels of integrity
• post holder must commit to work in an international agency that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion and fights racism, gender inequality and discrimination in all forms; and to model positive behaviors that demonstrate a

Job Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS

• BA/Bed degree in education
• training in project or program, strategy design and ensuring quality and child right based programing is an asset

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• At least 12 years’ experience of leading the design and implementation of major humanitarian and development programmes in education
• Proven experience in education policy and strategy analysis work
• Through understanding of the education sector in Ethiopia
• Familiar with education systems (humanitarian/cluster systems as needed) for ex. the INEE Minimum Standards, the key issues related to Sustainable
• Development Goal 4 – to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
• Track record in successful business development/fundraising in relation to major bilateral and multilateral donors
• Demonstrated program design, monitoring and evaluation skills, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale.
• Experience of strategy development and planning
• Experience of context, capacity and policy analysis, and influencing and advocacy at regional/international level in order to hold duty bearers to account to realize children’s rights.
• Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilize resources
• Able to use digital software for data collection and analysis such as KOBO TOOL BOX and SPSS.
• Experienced in generating and use of data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children
• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one cross-cutting area: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming; child rights; disability; migration and displacement.
• Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
  Significant experience in facilitating training in education technical areas, project design and development, and in coaching and mentoring
• Fluent in English and high level of English writing skills.

KEY COMPETENCIES

Technical competencies:

• • Ensures all children’s access to quality education
• • Ensures all children’s wellbeing
• • Supports all children’s learning and development Generic Competencies

Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities

Advancing Equality & Inclusion:  Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalized children

Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery

Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peers

Additional job responsibilities : The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.