Regional Education Specialist at Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Main tasks

Strategic Planning, Education Programme Design and Development

• Liaise with relevant regional and if agreed with country-level education partners (NGOs, inter-government, private partners, ACT Alliance, donors, UN agencies) to coordinate and contextualize education activities in Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda, including regional and continental inter-agency initiatives.
• Provide technical expertise and advice to education programmes in Eastern Africa in accordance with FCA policies, guidelines and strategy, including planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluation, promoting joint initiatives and learning between FCA country programmes.
• Contribute to the education programs at country level paying special attention to most vulnerable people including people with disabilities, child protection and psychosocial support
• Ensuring child protection and psychosocial support interventions are mainstreamed to all education programmes, in accordance to international and national minimum standards, such as INEE MS and CMPS
• Undertake field visits as necessary to identify and respond to specific needs, to monitor implementation of education projects, provide support to the work planning, prioritization and capacity building, with a special focus on support for the country based education specialists/advisors.
• Collaborate with FCA senior global education advisors and other relevant colleagues at Service and Accountability Centre and in the COs to enable innovations and pilot new solutions for quality education as relevant in the region.
• Contribute to fundraising efforts (needs assessments, project design, quality control) in the region, with a bigger role in multi-country initiatives.

Learning and Knowledge Dissemination

• Support as agreed the monitoring, research and learning activities in the region and support communication of evidence to key stakeholder groups and partners and facilitate learning between the Country Programmes.
• Participate in capacity building and provide support to FCA National Education Specialists/focal points in each country on education in emergencies, programme design, research, and M&E of education-related programming.

Advocacy and Partnerships

• Identify potential opportunities in the region and build, develop and maintain key partnerships, networks and alliances for synergies to advance advocacy efforts in the field of education.
• Represent as agreed on FCA in Regional and /or global education fora such as INEE and others to identify areas of synergy and learnings for improved education intervention.

Competence, experience, skills, knowledge needed

• Master’s degree in Education or equivalent work experience
• Preferably a solid understanding of the Finnish Education system and its strengths
• Minimum of 4 years’ experience in managing education programmes or similar experience
• The ideal candidate should have in-depth knowledge of the global education sector discussions and coordination such as INEE
• A good understanding of education in emergencies
• Preferably experience of operating in fragile contexts
• Preferably good knowledge of the East African region/context
• Good facilitation, presentation and writing skills
• Good interpersonal skills and cultural sensitivity
• Knowledge of recent developments in education sector