Child Protection Strategic Advisor – Syria Education Programme II (SEP-II)

The FCDO funded Syria Education Programme II (SEP-II) will deliver on the UK’s commitment to girls’ education and aims to enhance equitability of education for girls and boys by strengthening the quality and inclusivity of formal primary education in Northwest Syria. SEP-II will aim to directly impact 150,000 girls and boys per year in formal primary education through evidence-based and data-driven education programming and will positively impact the entire primary school-aged population. The project will focus on four key outcomes: (1) Enhancing school level capacity to deliver inclusive, gender responsive and quality learning, (2) Developing effective systems to support inclusion, mental health and child protection, (3) Strengthening local education systems so that they are accountable, effective, and responsive, and (4) Generating more predictable financing for sector implementation, including teacher salaries.

The Child Protection Strategic Advisor (CP SA) will be responsible for leading Outcome 2: Effective systems to support inclusion, mental health, and child protection. The CP SA will supervise a team of technical, field staff based in Gaziantep and NW Syria, and will support project partners to undertake activities that are aligned to the project’s outcomes and evidence framework, theories of change, and core indicators. The CP SA will analyze data to inform course correction, conduct technical trainings and ongoing technical coaching and design, review and share program-specific tools.

Scope of role:

Key areas of accountability:

• Hold programmatic and staff management oversight of Outcome 2: Effective systems to support inclusion, mental health, and child protection.

• Work with other members of the SEP-II Leadership and Output Teams to support the Education Directorates and local education systems/partners in developing effective systems to support inclusion, mental health and child protection in Northwest Syria.

• Work closely with the Leadership Team to support work based on evidence of good practice combined with the specific requirements of Northwest Syria, and ensure these are communicated clearly and effectively in discussions with the Education Directorates.

• Support the SEP-II Team Leader with building and sustaining high-level relationships with officials in the Education Directorates.

• Work with senior officials in the relevant departments in the Education Directorates, providing leadership, focus and technical advice, particularly in the areas of inclusion, mental health and child protection.

• Provide coaching and mentoring for supervised staff and partners, to ensure the work of the technical advisors builds capacity and drives delivery.

• Provide technical leadership to the Teaching & Learning (T&L) Output Team while encouraging innovative intervention design including but not limited to child protection case management, psycho-social support activities, safeguarding in schools and mental health of children.

• Provide quality assurance of all technical outputs in the areas of child protection. This will involve working closely with the Leadership Team (especially the GESI Lead) to not only ensure the outputs are drafted and presented well, but also are sound in terms of the advice and solutions they propose.

• Work with other Output Teams to ensure that project activities are well-integrated (particularly from the MEL, systems strengthening, and research and advocacy perspectives).

• Support the Team Leader on technical discussions and briefings with FCDO.

• Proactively identify programme risks and potential mitigation strategies to the Leadership Team, and FCDO.

• Contribute to the development of the monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and provide quality assurance of T&L Team inputs and work plan deliverables.

• Provide targeted program design, technical support, materials adaptation and revisions, field testing, assessment and monitoring/evaluation support and oversight to the SEP II Child Protection project components;

• Ensure girls’ needs are prioritized throughout the project, through training to staff and the implementation of best practices approaches (i.e. GBV principles, caring for child survivors’ principles);

• Support Outcome 2 staff to undertake SEP II activities, ensuring that they are aligned with the project strategies which includes contextualizing education outcomes, the theories of change and include interventions chosen based on best available evidence;

• Provide support to ensure proposed activities are responsive to client needs and preferences based on sound context and gender analysis;

• Help analyze data to inform periodic review and course correction to ensure that SEP-II is based on evidence and is evidence-generating.

• Conduct technical training and ongoing technical coaching for country program staff, including on outcomes, theories of change, evidence and indicators.

• Review and share program-specific tools / resources / curricula working with the rest of IRC’s Child Protection team to contextualize and adapt global and country-specific materials.

• Support recruitment and onboarding of SEP-II Outcome 2 staff.

• Drive the culture and practices of high accountability, ambition, and quality across the T&L team.

• In collaboration with local authorities and directorates, support in identifying child protection gaps and needs within the system, and identify ways to improve accordingly.

Requirements:

• Master’s/post-graduate degree in social science, social work, international development, child rights or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• A minimum of 6 to 8 years of implementing and/or managing large Child Protection programs and teams is required, within a humanitarian or international development setting.

• At least 1-2 years acting in an advisory capacity on Child Protection programming.

• Experience in technical tools and materials development, monitoring and evaluation, and research in relation to Child Protection.

• Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines.

• Demonstrated expertise in Child Program design, monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

• Experience in continuous quality improvement and/or Improvement Science in Child Protection contexts

• Candidates must be fully professionally proficient in English and Arabic.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.