Project Summary
Soma Umenye is a five-year USAID-funded activity that aims to improve reading outcomes in Kinyarwanda for at least 1 million children in public and government-aided schools in Rwanda. Covering all 30 districts of Rwanda and working in close collaboration with the Rwanda Education Boad (REB) and the Rwandan Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), Soma Umenye will contribute to Rwanda’s Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) and the Government of Rwanda’s national development priority of ensuring that Rwandan primary-grade students acquire the fundamental competency of literacy so that they can succeed in future schooling and, later, in the modern workplace.
Project Goals
Soma Umenye aims to achieve the following two goals.
- To improve reading outcomes in Kinyarwanda for at least 1 million children (unique direct beneficiaries) in public and government-aided schools in Rwanda by the end of P3; and
- To ensure that at least 70 percent of P1-P3 students are able to read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension.
To achieve the above goals, it requires close collaboration with all education stakeholders under the technical leadership of MINEDUC and REB.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
The Communications Director will lead the project’s robust communications and media campaigns, and will serve as the external-facing member of Soma Umenye’s communications team, regularly liaising with Rwandan news and media outlets. Additional detail on specific tasks can be found in the below section. Specifically, the Communications Director will:
- Operate multiple media and communications platforms, coordinating the project’s approach with several media outlets and obtaining support from all necessary partners and stakeholders.
- Work closely with the monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) staff to gather evidence of success, document success stories, and create linkages with local press and electronic media to broaden the media outreach for the project.
- If needed, work with Soma Umenye partners and stakeholders to design, implement, and manage reading campaigns.
- Work closely with USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications (DOC) specialists to ensure the project’s alignment with USAID/Rwanda’s communication efforts (and branding and marking guidelines).
- Train local professional staff, including subcontractor staff, in public outreach and strategic communications methodologies and processes, and USAID branding guidelines.
- As needed, advise technical team in effective use of video technology and SMS (text messaging) to demonstrate and reinforce teaching techniques that engage young readers.
- Draft and maintain appropriate communication templates, and ensure that the project and all technical staff abide by USAID branding and marking requirements.
- Supervise the production of press releases, one-pagers, fact sheets, and other write-ups (ensuring USAID approval as appropriate).
- Coordinate input from government and implementing partners and subcontractors for the development and realization of communications activities.
- Work closely with the chief of party to assist in the development of reports and deliverables.
- Establish guidelines for project reporting, media outreach (e.g., rules of engagement for project staff/subcontractors, authorized spokespersons, key messages, and most effective media channels); work with the chief of party to develop and obtain USAID approval for products and messages.
- Help plan and oversee project events such as workshops and conferences when required (ensuring appropriate USAID approvals are secured); liaising with other project staff as needed.
- Follow and document all media coverage related to the project.
- Other duties as assigned by the chief of party.
Job Qualifications
- 8-10 years of public awareness and communications experience including planning and implementing strategic communications, public outreach, and/or social behavior change campaigns.
- Experience with USAID branding and marking guidelines is required.
- Knowledge of local press and electronic media, and strong relationships with media agencies and journalists.
- Graphic design experience is required.
- Experience working with international development sector organizations and/or donor agencies is preferred.
- Successful experience designing and implementing public outreach campaigns.
- Excellent writing and editing skills in English and Kinyarwanda is required.
- Master’s degree in communications or similar relevant field is preferred. A combination of a bachelor’s degree and the required number of years’ work experience may substitute for a Master’s degree.
- Demonstrated experience successfully writing communications-related reports of more than three pages in English is required.
- Familiarity with the Rwandan education sector is preferred.
- Excellent interpersonal and communications skills.
- Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity.
Location of Assignment
The location of assignment is Kigali, Rwanda with intermittent travel throughout the country.
go to method of application »
Project Summary
Soma Umenye is a five-year USAID-funded activity that aims to improve reading outcomes in Kinyarwanda for at least 1 million children in public and government-aided schools in Rwanda. Covering all 30 districts of Rwanda and working in close collaboration with the Rwanda Education Board (REB) and the Rwandan Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), Soma Umenye will contribute to Rwanda’s Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) and the Government of Rwanda’s national development priority of ensuring that Rwandan primary-grade students acquire the fundamental competency of literacy so that they can succeed in future schooling and, later, in the modern workplace.
Project Goals:
Soma Umenye aims to achieve the following two goals.
- To improve reading outcomes in Kinyarwanda for at least 1 million children (unique direct beneficiaries) in public and government-aided schools in Rwanda by the end of P3; and
- To ensure that at least 70 percent of P1-P3 students are able to read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension.
To achieve the above goals, it requires close collaboration with all education stakeholders under the technical leadership of MINEDUC and REB.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership and oversight of ME&L activities to ensure quality, timeliness, and efficiency.
- Ensure that ME&L activities are in line with the USAID Evaluation Policy, and that periodic reports (oral and written) are provided to the chief of party for submission to USAID.
- Advise on the design of research activities relevant to early-grade reading.
- Provide quality assurance of the capacity building interactions of Soma Umenye with the University of Rwanda College of Education for ME&L activities.
Set up the MEL system
- Support the development of the project’s MEL plan
- Establish and manage a monitoring and evaluation system to track progress towards meeting program/contract deliverables, results, indicators and targets.
- Review the project contract and other background documentation such as the client’s strategic objectives, results framework, MEL plan, and country strategy to understand how the project helps to achieve the client’s goals.
- Support the field team in refining the project’s results framework, identifying indicators, and participating in work planning sessions.
- Ensure the chief of party and project staff in the field and home offices understand the importance of monitoring and evaluation and the use of information for learning purposes; Ensure project staff understands their roles and responsibilities in the collection of data for the monitoring and evaluation system.
- Hold a briefing session with project staff to ensure the MEL plan meets their requirements and the rationale for each indicator is clearly understood.
Implement the project’s approved MEL plan
- Ensure that performance monitoring, policy-driven research, and evaluations are consistent with program deliverables and results and track activity progress towards achieving targets and results.
- Ensure that M&E activities under this contract are in accordance with USAID regulations, USAID Education technical requirements and meet reporting timelines as described in sections B, C, and F of the project contract.
- Ensure that the methodologies used to measure the programs deliverables, results, and impact on improved learning outcomes, gender, disability-inclusive, and other measures in approved M&E plan, are being consistently and systematically tracked and reported in accordance with USAID data reporting requirements.
- Conduct periodic training for project staff, stakeholders, and/or partners. Share information to help them monitor the progress of their work and use the data for strategic decision-making.
- Oversee the collection of baseline data and the setting of targets.
- Oversee the collection of midline and end line data.
- Oversee the data quality assurance process to ensure project data quality and integrity.
- Oversee the set up and maintenance of the ChemResults system
- Oversee the maintenance of the MEL system, periodically evaluating its effectiveness, and adjusting as necessary to provide the project with accurate and useful data.
- Continuously review indicator achievements to date against set targets, including reporting to senior management on any indicators which may exceed targets by more than 10 percent or may fall short of targets by more than 10 percent.
Contribute to the development annual work plans and review the relevance of the MEL plan against these work plans.
- Update (as necessary) the M&E system utilized by the project, taking into account staff input and USAID recommendations regarding program benchmarks and indicators.
Communicate MEL information
- Provide as-requested MEL data to the client in a timely manner.
- Regularly communicate progress against targets to project staff.
- Support project communications staff to disseminate lessons learned and best practices to internal and external stakeholders, as appropriate.
Other
- Oversee and guide the work of the ME&L Advisor, ensuring it supports the goals of the project’s approved monitoring and evaluation plan.
- Conduct other tasks as requested by supervisor or chief of party.
Job Qualifications
- A master’s degree (or foreign equivalent) required in the social sciences or a related field.
- At least 5 years’ experience working in monitoring and evaluation for donor-funded projects.
- Demonstrated expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, research, management information systems, reporting, data quality assessments, data analysis and presentation, as well as experience monitoring and evaluating education and/or development projects.
- Must be familiar with USAID Education Strategy Technical Notes regarding monitoring and evaluation of Goal 1 activities.
- Possesses excellent facilitation, oral and written communication skills, including demonstrated technical writing skills for publication.
- Demonstrated exemplary diplomatic, communication, and interpersonal skills; Demonstrated ability to work effectively and collaboratively with host-country counterparts in both the government, university, and NGO sectors is desirable.
- Experience tracking equity in learning outcomes among boys, girls, and children with special needs preferred;
- Written and spoken proficiency in English
Location of Assignment
The location of assignment is Kigali, Rwanda with intermittent travel throughout the country.
Gmail
Yahoomail