Family and Community Participation Advisor – USAID Kenya Primary Literacy Program

EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTER (EDC)

Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity, with a focus on vulnerable and under-served populations. Since 1958, we have been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs in more than 80 countries around the world.

EDC promotes equity and access to high quality education and health services and products that contribute to thriving communities where people from diverse backgrounds learn, live, and work together. We support an inclusive workplace culture that embraces many perspectives and broadens our understanding of the communities we serve, enhancing and enriching our work.

EDC is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Project Description

The USAID Kenya Primary Literacy Program (USAID KPLP) is a five-year initiative that supports the Kenyan Ministry of Education to deliver interventions at scale as well as pilot and expand innovations that address the language and literacy needs of primary grade learners while building more inclusive, accountable, and resilient education institutions and systems.

USAID KPLP has three broad objectives:

1. Improving education services and student learning outcomes, including for vulnerable populations;

2. Strengthening education institutions and systems to become more accountable, self-sustaining, and resilient; and

3. Empowering local youth organizations to strengthen and sustain community and family support for student learning and wellbeing.

Position Description

As part of KPLP, the Family and Community Participation Advisor will lead technical work under Result 3 ‘Community and family support for student learning and wellbeing strengthened and sustained.’ This includes designing and implementing technical assistance with grantee youth organizations conducting effective after-school remediation programs for primary school learners and engaging families in support to student learning and well-being.

The Family and Community Participation Advisor will possess expertise in working with youth organizations in support of children’s reading improvement and well-being, as well as in strategies to support family and caregiver engagement in reading and in identifying and addressing barriers to community and family level reading support. The successful candidate will possess outstanding technical skills as well as the ability to collaborate in a highly effective manner with technical and operational counterparts within the project team, with grantee organizations and community members, with MOE and government counterpart agencies, and other education sector stakeholders.

The Family and Community Participation Advisor will report to the Deputy Chief of Party. This is a full-time position based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Family and Community Participation Advisor responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Provide technical assistance to regional office personnel and KPLP youth grantees in the development and implementation of effective, CBC-aligned after-school programs supporting learning remediation and student well-being.
• Provide technical guidance to KPLP youth grantee organizations in effective engagement of family and caregivers for student well-being and reading support.
• Provide training and capacity building to KPLP team members and counterparts in effective engagement of youth, families, and caregivers for student wellbeing and learning.
• Support the development of child safeguarding procedures and provide training in and oversight of their implementation.
• Collaborate with technical team members in developing and implementing instruments for data collection and monitoring fidelity of implementation.
• Work with the KPLP administration and finance team and counterparts to establish planning and budgeting procedures for supported activities.
• Institute and monitor procedures to ensure prompt collection and submission of implementation data.
• Participate in the development and implementation of the collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA) agenda, including in facilitating lessons learned and information sharing activities related to community and family engagement.
• Prepare data and information for project quarterly and annual reports, and other data as required.

The candidate for the position of Family and Community Participation Advisor shall have at a minimum the following qualifications:

Education:

Master’s degree in education, early grade reading, literacy and language instruction, community-based development, social work, or related field.

Skills and Experience:

• 8 to 9 years of progressively responsible and directly relevant experience.
• Experience in strengthening family engagement in reading and in providing related technical assistance.
• Experience in providing technical support and orientation to youth-led organizations.
• Experience in assessing youth organization capacity building needs and in designing and supporting implementation of capacity building plans.
• Demonstrated experience in support of strengthening the relationship between schools and families and caregivers.
• Experience with providing technical oversight and quality assurance to youth engagement in supporting children’s learning and wellbeing.
• Expertise in development and implementation of policies and procedures to ensure safeguarding of learners.
• Demonstrated ability to collaboratively design and deliver training content related to parental and community engagement for reading support and primary grade language and literacy learning.
• Experience in coordinating with central and district-level education authorities.
• Knowledge of gender-responsive and inclusive education practices.
• Strong organizational and leadership skills.
• Capacity to work in difficult conditions and function well under pressure and hard deadlines.
• Ability to multitask.
• Experience in collaboratively designing and delivering capacity building with community and education sector counterparts and stakeholders.

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English and Kiswahili is required.

Other:

Applicants must be Kenyan nationals or hold current work authorization.