SENIOR EDUCATION OFFICER

Finn Church Aid is a right-based organisation with 70 years of experience and operations in 12 countries. FCA is Finland’s largest NGO working in development cooperation and second largest provider of disaster relief. We work in development, humanitarian assistance and advocacy, guided by international human rights standards and principles. We contribute to positive change by supporting people in the most vulnerable situations within fragile and disaster-affected areas. We consider three thematic areas as central to sustainable change: the right to peace (R2P), livelihood (R2L) and quality education (R2QE).

In Kenya, FCA has been working since 2014 in all three thematic areas, supporting local communities and governments to resolve and prevent conflicts in five counties of northern Kenya; providing access to primary education in Turkana, Garissa and Marsabit, Kenya’s poorest counties; and improving access to quality education for children, youth and their families with holistic support mechanisms. FCA also provides emergency cash assistance to drought-affected families in Garissa.

Reporting to: Program Coordinator

Duty Station: Kakuma/Kalobeyei

Position Status: Locally Hired Position

Primary purpose of the position:

To provide technical support in implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Learning Through Education And Access To Skills for Employment (LEAP) project activities. The Senior Education Officer will take overall responsibility for implementation of the daily activities of the project related to teacher professional development, creating safe and gender-transformative school environments, provision of life skills education, provision of psychosocial support, cash transfers and community engagement aimed driving behaviour change.

Duties and responsibilities

• Implement project activities to ensure results are evidence based, culturally appropriate, cost-effective, and have high impact while also ensuring compliance of standards and donor regulations.
• Prepare regular and periodic project reports (monthly, quarterly, semiannually and annual reports) with evidence/results based information.
• Work with the project team and the MEAL team to prepare and/or revise project monitoring tools to track indicators and monitor achievement of objectives and impact of the program.
• In collaboration with the education projects team, assist prepare plans for capacity building and training of school managements on various trainings needs related to girls empowerment.
• Conduct regular monitoring of LEAP project activities by documenting all project results with photos and short video clips for sharing progress and success stories with donors.
• Ensure that project activities are implemented in accordance with the approved work plans and with the involvement of partners and concerned stakeholders at all levels.
• Support in mapping, screening and enrollment of beneficiaries to the project.
• Assist in development and dissemination of life skills content, trainings on health, human rights and peace building, leadership, and community resources in a way so girls gain self-confidence and a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
• Assist the project team in the development and implementation of a modality of strengthening and improving management of schools committees and pupils through community mobilization and improvement of training materials and programs.
• Actively promoting awareness of the importance of girls’ education at every opportunity by liaising with all local stakeholders.
• Conduct regular data collection using existing tools in order to track project performance on indicators and measure overall impact and for donor reporting purposes and make recommendations on the improvement of these tools.
• Ensure that good practices and lessons are documented and shared with the MEAL team and the education team for replication and wider dissemination.
• Travel to all project sites to conduct regular monitoring of projects quality together with other project team members.
• In collaboration with the MEAL Team, focus on project data collection to generate practical information that can be used for ongoing program decision-making while also capturing results at the impact level.
• Coordinate with other departments to ensure operational systems are in place to support field activities including logistics (transport, warehousing and asset management), procurement, security and administration.
• Monitoring girls’ enrolment, retention and achievement rates by collecting relevant, gender-segregated data; identifying specific constraints to girls’ attendance at school.

Required Qualifications and Competencies:

• Minimum of Bachelor’s degree in education or its equivalent.
• Minimum of three (3) years’ work experience in education sector especially in refugee setting/ASAL regions.
• Knowledge of education in emergencies, education sector policy, child rights and protection issues.
• Experiences of facilitating community-based training, capacity building school managements, and awareness campaigns.
• Excellent communication skills and a willingness to be respectful, kind. sensitive and empathise with all children and their carers.
• Good report writing skills.
• Willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating when faced with difficult and frustrating working conditions.
• Commitment to Finn Church Aid Child Protection Policy.

Desirable qualifications

• Previous experience in working with INGOs delivering education and girl child education services.
• Demonstrated teamwork skills.
• High level of motivation and enthusiasm for education.
• Strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• Understanding of the dynamics of the refugees is essential.
• Experience of working with communities and other agencies that support girls education.