Programme Coordinator – Education

About the role: This is initially a one-year contract with the potential to extend. It is a replacement role with unaccompanied terms, based in Syria with travel to Iraq and a salary Band 4: €44,133 – €49,038.

You will report to the Programme Director for Syria/Iraq and will manage a multi-donor funded Education Programme in Northern Syria, with direct management of the national Education Manager and dotted line management of the four Education officers. You will work closely with the Area Coordinators, Country Finance Controller, MEAL Coordinator, Programme Development and Grant Manager, as well as the various programme managers. You will be responsible to represent Concern at external foras with Government counterparts, UN agencies, local and international NGOs, Clusters and Sectoral Working Groups.

We would like you to start by 1 October 2022.

Your purpose: The purpose of the Education Coordinator is to provide technical and management oversight of Concern’s multi-donor funded Education portfolio. To do so, you will help establish and strengthen systems to increase the efficacy, efficiency and impact of Education response as well as support the development of Concern’s Education Strategy to support the diversification of the Education portfolio.

Concern’s Education response comprises of non-formal education activities which support the reintegration and retention of out-of-school children as well as activities supporting the formal education system, including school rehabilitation and teacher training.

You will be responsible for:

Programme management and development

• Support the Education Manager with the day-to-day supervision and line-management of project staff; technical planning; developing and maintaining grant management tools and workplans; budget oversight; ensuring strong M&E work and effective feedback loops with programme teams; and otherwise ensuring that implementation is in line with Concern Worldwide’s organisational strategy, government regulations, and donor requirements.
• Strengthen the needs based approaches to emerging educational needs to inform future Educational programming.
• Carry out regular field visits to provide support and guidance and to ensure that all programme targets are reached in accordance with agreed programme objectives, as per contracts with donors, in line with the overall programme approach and ensure integration with other programme activities.
• Ensure that all resources (technical, financial, HR) are in place to implement the different projects of the Education programme in accordance with the work plans and realistic timeframes and milestones agreed with donors.
• Design new education programme proposals and budgets, ensuring participatory project design with the involvement of staff, partners, local stakeholders and beneficiary representatives; aligning to the Concern Education strategy at Global and local levels.
• Ensure that gender, equality, school-related-gender-based-violence, inclusivity, conflict sensitivity, accountability, risk and vulnerability are factored into the design, implementation and monitoring of all education projects.
• Manage relations with stakeholders (e.g. relevant government departments, donors and partner agencies) and beneficiaries of Concern’s education programmes.
• Ensure quality control of all education projects and activities and carry out regular field visits to inspect and assess activities.

Coordination

• Participate proactively and contribute in the education technical working group and NGO cluster meetings, sharing information on Concern activities and intervention and promoting good relations and collaboration with other actors working in education.
• Strengthen links with Education departments in other NGOs through effective and on-going coordination, information sharing and results dissemination at regional level and national level.
• Coordinate with Concern staff, partners, local authorities and communities with a view to establishing and/or verifying emerging needs, gaps and priorities in the educational sector as part of a continuous programme review and improvement process.
• Develop strategies and plans that contribute to raising the profile of Concern as an expert organization in the education sector in North East Syria/Iraq.
• Consult and coordinate with Concern’s Education Advisors in Dublin, as well as with other education staff in other programmes, about emerging sectorial trends, best practices from other countries and ensuring alignment with Concern’s Education Strategy.

Monitoring and evaluation

• Strengthen the monitoring and evaluation systems for educational programmes, including plans, guidelines and indicators.
• Ensure that the monitoring framework within the programme is implemented, including baseline data, secondary data, reviews, end line surveys, donor reporting and internal/external evaluations.
• Establish systems for the team to identify and document project learning and success cases and disseminate learning on the humanitarian response.
• Prepare all the necessary reports such as progress reports, annual reports and final reports for donors. Organize donor visits, evaluations and programme reviews as necessary.
• Working with Concern’s M&E team and Accountability staff, ensure strong community response mechanisms are in place and functioning optimally for all educational activities, including Child Friendly mechanisms.
• Ensure compliance with the Core Humanitarian Standards.
• Strengthen the child friendly reporting mechanisms to ensure greater accountability to the beneficiaries of the programme.

Financial management

• As the overall budget holder for education grants, support the Education manager with financial management, project expenditure, forecasting and cash-flow planning, ensuring all implementation teams have updated spending plans.
• Ensure that all project expenditure is undertaken in line with Concern’s finance policies and procedures are donor compliant and that all resources are optimally utilised.
• Oversee grants compliance to ensure the best use of resources and work closely with finance teams to ensure timely submission of financial and narrative reports to donors.

Team management and staff development

• Work with and develop the team to ensure all activities are planned, prioritized, carried out and monitored in efficient and effective ways using appropriate tools, with due consideration to gender, access and inclusivity issues.
• Monitor and review performance of staff line managed through Concern’s Performance Development Reviews system (PDR’s) and hold staff accountable for meeting the success criteria.
• Strength the technical capacity of the Education team by identifying capacity building needs in education and other programme teams and assist HR in the development of a training plan; deliver trainings that fall under your area of expertise and organise/identify other trainings opportunities (workshops; e-learning etc) related to education in emergencies.
• Ensure full compliance of all staff under your direction with Concern’s security plans and protocols, and with Concern’s Code of Conduct and associated policies.
• Participate in the recruitment of in-country Education staff and any consultants, as required. This includes but not limited to supporting the preparation of job descriptions and participating in interviews. Periodically review and recommend revisions to staffing structure and job-descriptions in coordination with other sector Coordinators and the Programme Director.

Accountability

• Promote and ensure compliance with the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) commitments and quality criteria
• Ensure that all staff are familiar with the principles underpinning accountability, safeguarding and Concern’s Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) and ensure that information about Concern’s commitments on accountability and safeguarding are disseminated among programme participants and communities
• Ensure that the CRM is functional, effectively implemented and accessible in all programmes’ locations, enabling safe reporting of both programmatic and sensitive complaints, including safeguarding concerns
• Ensure that complaints are welcomed, managed and responded to in a timely, fair and appropriate manner; ensure that sensitive complaints, including safeguarding concerns, are handled with utmost confidentiality and that the safety of the complainants and those affected is prioritised at all stages.
• Strengthen the child friendly approach to the CRM system in place within Education programmes.

Other tasks

• Undertake any other reasonable duty and tasks that may from time to time be requested by your line manager, including supporting Concern’s emergency response programming.
• Regularly brief the PD and SMT on programmes and the situational context on a regular basis, changes in the operating space and emerging unaddressed needs.

Your skills and experience will include:

Essential:

• Qualifications in education or a related field
• Over 2 years experience in management of education programmes in emergencies/conflict settings, including one or more of the sub-sectors of formal and non-formal education and learning, accelerated learning programmes, Psycho-Social support, in conflict settings and with IDPs
• Demonstrable experience in gender, inclusion and conflict-sensitive programming
• Sensitivity to cultural differences, and the ability to work in a wide variety of cultural contexts
• Excellent teamwork skills and the ability to build good relations both internally and externally
• Strong communication skills and experience in report and proposal writing
• Proven financial management skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Commitment to Concern’s ethos and values
• Flexible, adaptable and patient
• Sound IT skills, including Word and Excel

We would also like:

• Arabic language skills
• Experience working in the Middle East, or similar context
• Familiarity with logistics, HR, Finance, and administrative processes
• Ability to organize and prioritize workload, using initiative when appropriate
• Good team player, flexible and capable of working with a multinational country team, politically and culturally sensitive
• Ability to cope with stress; work under pressure often to strict deadlines
• Flexibility, adaptability, sense of humour, and patience
• Ability to motivate and develop skills of others
• Facilitation and interpersonal skills
• Analytical and problem solving skills

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

HIV testing and travel restrictions based on HIV status apply in Syria and Iraq. This means that in order to obtain a visa or work permit, the governments of Syria and Iraq impose HIV-related travel restrictions usually involve a mandatory declaration of HIV status and/or testing.