Programme Officer (Inclusive Education)

Sightsavers implements projects in over 30 countries in Africa and South Asia working to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote the rights of people with disabilities. We are looking for a Programme Officer (Inclusive Education) to work in our Uganda Country Office.

Contract: 6-month Fixed Term Contract (with a possibility of an extension)

Salary: Local Terms and Conditions apply

About the role

The Programme Officer, Inclusive Education, will work to enhance the quality of Sightsavers inclusive education programmes and ensure that all programmes and projects are planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated to the highest possible quality standards as laid out in the organization’s policies and procedures.

Principal Accountabilities

1. Working with Partners (25% of time)

• Identify partner organizations with whom Sightsavers can work to achieve the organization’s strategic objective of ensuring that people with disabilities have equal rights and opportunities as their sighted peers through both service delivery and advocacy work.
• Build effective partner relationships and support longer term relationships that go beyond the duration of individual projects by disseminating information and advocating for Sightsavers work.
• Support partners to identify their own technical and capacity building needs and facilitate providing these in order to support them through the project(s) cycle.
• Establish partnership agreements with partners where appropriate.
• Promote shared learning and collaboration between partners by facilitating partner networks and meetings.

Programme Management (45% of the time)

• Contribute to the development of the inclusive education programme portfolio of the country office.
• Represent Uganda country office in inclusive education networks and advocate for the organisations philosophy and policies.
• Manage all aspects of the project cycle with the partner to ensure effective planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, financial and asset management, reporting and documentation is delivered for the project..
• Support in data collection and reporting.
• Support partners and ensure that all project documentation and reports are made available in a timely and accessible way.
• Regularly travel to project’s sites in the different regions.

1. Financial & Resource Management (10% of time)

• Monitor expenditure of project financial resources in liaison with the FSSM and the PM.
• Ensure that partners manage and utilize project assets as per Sightsavers’ and or donor policy.
• Follow up with partners any actions arising from audits carried out by the finance team or external auditors.

1. Information & Communication Management (10% of time)

• Be proactive in providing good quality information on case studies and interesting news stories relating to the project(s) to support preparation of fundraising materials in Sightsavers headquarters in UK
• Ensure that the fund-raising and communication department in HH receive appropriate materials and information as required especially if projects are supported by restricted funding that may have special reporting requirements.
• Participate in all PR activities related to inclusive education and social inclusion eg World Sight Day, Person with Disabilities Day etc.
• Represent Sightsavers at various forums, meetings and advocate for Sightsavers philosophy and policies.
• Attend to visitors to and from the projects and partners.

1. Safegaurding (10% of time)

• Acting as the first point of contact for any safeguarding concerns and escalating them to the safeguarding mailbox immediately;
• Providing support and advice on safeguarding to colleagues in-country;
• Working with colleagues to ensure partners have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place;
• Facilitate safeguarding training for staff and partners on safeguarding, with the support of colleagues in-country.
• Updating the country safeguarding plan and mapping the local context, including any relevant legislation.

The principle accountabilities are not meant to be an exhaustive list of tasks. The need for flexibility is required and the job holder is expected to carry out any other related duties that are within the employee’s skills and abilities whenever reasonably instructed. Please see theJob Descriptionfor full details.

About you

Qualifications, Knowledge and experience:

• A tertiary qualification (Bachelors or above, or similar) in education, social sciences, or development studies.
• Knowledge of current issues, best practices and the local education system, particularly relating to the education of children with disabilities.
• Familiarity with national legislation and policies in the field of disability/human rights and education
• Substantial experience implementing programmes, including experience of the education sector.
• Experience of designing/managing/supporting education programmes for children with disabilities.
• Experience in policy and/or advocacy work in education, particularly education that is inclusive of children with disabilities.
• Work experience in an NGO environment.

Skills (Special Training or Competence):

• Project management skills
• Excellent communication skills (both oral and written)
• Good written English skills
• Good IT skills
• Ability to understand and work with project budgets, forecasts and reports
• Field experiences in education

Next Steps

We anticipate that remote interviews will take place from midend of November onwards and the evaluation process will include a short task to be completed.