Communications, Learning & Reporting Specialist (Consultancy) – Remote

TITLE: Communications, Learning & Reporting Specialist (Consultancy)

LOCATION: Myanmar, Thailand or Home-Based within the Asia Region

Number of Position: 1

Grade: Long-term Consultancy Agreement Agreement

CONTRACT LENGTH: One- Year Contract (Full-time Consultancy, Renewable)

Role Purpose:

As a multi-donor funded programme, the consortium partners with selected ethnic and monastic education providers to strengthen their capacity to deliver and sustain good quality learning opportunities for children considered to be hard-to-reach in Myanmar. Applying a ‘systems-strengthening’ approach, the programme provides funding, coordination, technical assistance and research across different complementary education systems to promote continuous improvement of education services. The programme works with its partners, established education providers, to place an emphasis on developing the quality and inclusivity of education in Myanmar, including improved learning outcomes; and with a broader range of diverse stakeholders to address key barriers for the achievement of equitable education. In line with its current 2021-25 programme strategy, the overall aim for the programme is that hard-to-reach children access education services that meet their learning and well-being needs.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Director of Strategy, Policy and Learning (SPL)

Staff reporting to this post: None

The post holder will play a significant role in ensuring a strong learning culture is embedded in our programme and that learning is institutionalized and harvested for progress reporting and strategic communications in support of priority areas of focus in education. S/he will build upon current systems to strengthen evidence generation further and collaborate with all teams to ensure that evidence and learning are documented, disseminated, and utilised for strategic and operational implementation, planning and reporting. S/he will play a key role in communicating our work, its successes and impact, through the development of reports and implementation of a strategic communications workstream that produces ready-to-use communications products. S/he will provide training, coaching and mentorship in line with team requirements.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

Learning and Knowledge Management

• Ensure a strong learning culture is built through the design and implementation of a Learning and Knowledge Management strategy that sets out priorities, approaches and actionable workplans.
• Set up ways of working, including instituting tools and templates to help the healthy functioning of a learning and knowledge management mechanism.
• Provide a learning and knowledge management lens in reviewing and strengthening quarterly/annual plans and ensure lessons from implementation data are identified, documented, shared and utilised.
• Ensure comprehensive analysis of evidence products (e.g., project evaluation and research findings, activity and program reports) and develop summaries of findings, learning and recommendations for program staff, co-ordinate high-quality briefings for associated stakeholders etc.
• Develop and implement calendars of learning events, including internal and external Reflection, Learning and Planning events, Review and Reflection exercises etc.

Strategic Communications

• Strengthen evidence-based decision making across the programme through the promotion of robust use of evidence and research as part of the implementation of a strategic communications workstream.
• In collaboration with the communications team, the Strategy, Research and Learning Unit (SRLU) and respective partners, develop and implement a strategy for the dissemination of research findings and evidence.
• Develop a repository of high-quality communications and learning products that are responsive to the priorities and interests of specific audiences across the stakeholder base. These will be a set of user-friendly and appealing products (case-studies, one-pagers, success stories, fact sheets, policy position papers, short publications, conference presentations etc), designed in a manner that complements learning approaches, key areas of priority and advocacy and influencing work.

Reporting & Planning

• Lead the production of regular annual and semi-annual reports, including writing context and progress narrative sections based on information shared by internal and external stakeholders throughout the year and harvested across teams at key junctures to ensure high-quality reports are delivered that document the programme’s implementation progress and achievements.
• Support the production of a high-quality Annual Operating Plan narrative, and ensuring strategic learning feeds in, in a coherent, strategic and innovative manner throughout.

Technical Support, Training & Mentorship

• Provide technical training on strategic communications for respective staff, as required.
• Provide technical support to partner staff for systems strengthening, as requested.

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Contribute to specific and contextual guidance to ensure that the safeguarding of children is incorporated into our strategies and children are protected from exploitation, increased vulnerability, or any form of harm or indignity;
• Ensure that Communications and Learning activities take Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion into consideration in line with the programme’s GEDSI Strategy & Guidelines, and aim to strengthen internal as well as partners’ capacity to generate and use GEDSI-related data and evidence for learning
• Ensure that the programme’s Partnership Principles and Management Guidelines are maintained and supported.

General

• Promote and support a strong collaborative team culture;
• Additional responsibilities as assigned and agreed with the SPL Director.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in an area such as International Development Studies, Education, Communications or Media, International Relations or another relevant field or equivalent qualifications through work experience.
• More than 5 years’ experience in a relevant technical role (education, communications and media, research and learning, MEAL, advocacy) with demonstrated successes
• Excellent proficiency in spoken and written English.
• Experience in education programming with a sound understanding of issues in education in development, across conflict- or crisis-affected contexts
• Experience in knowledge management and organisational learning in order to help drive improvements in evidence understanding and uptake
• Excellent English written and verbal communication skills to motivate influence and negotiate both internally and externally with the ability to produce and disseminate outputs for a variety of audiences
• Strong analytical skills and experience in influencing roles using policy, advocacy, communications, and mobilisation tools.
• Experience of building, leading and developing colleagues and staff. Cultural sensitivity, with highly developed interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent training, facilitation, and team building skills. Innovative and creative approach to problem solving.
• Experience in writing policy papers, research or evaluation reports
• Strong remote-working abilities.

Desirable

• Experience promoting evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities
• Experience in leading the creation and implementation of a strategy, demonstrating the ability to identify the necessary steps towards an ambitious goal.
• Experience working with research and evidence relevant to an education focused agenda
• Demonstrated commitment to driving an enabling environment for gender equality, disability and inclusion
• Experience working with major donors/ development partners in communications or education roles
• Experience working in Myanmar
• Ability to speak Myanmar language and/or another ethnic Myanmar language