Early Childhood Development Education Advisor (ECDE) Full-Time

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

1. Role purpose

The Early Childhood Advisor will ensure quality delivery and achievement of project objectives and results that support gender transformation, child protection and disaster risk reduction, in line with Plan International’s Global Strategy. The role requires close collaboration with other teams. The person will also support the Education Project in planning, implementation, capacity building internally and externally with stakeholders. The person will work closely with the response team to ensure accountability mechanisms are in place and functioning effectively.

2. Dimensions of the role

• The post holder is accountable for adequate delivery/implementation within the timeline of assigned activities to meet with donor compliance and the needs of the community and children, particularly girls and children with disabilities;
• The post holder will ensure effective and quality reporting and accountability to affected populations as well as coordination of the education project as part of Plan International’s Cyclone Idai response impacting on girls and boys;
• The post holder will cascade capacity to Technical Project Officers, Stakeholders and field staff, as well as guarantee a number elaborate progress weekly reports;
• The postholder will report to the Education Project Manager.

Plan International promotes equal opportunity employment and pays special consideration to female candidates.

3. Accountabilities

1. Project Development and Assessment

• Provide updates on the ECDE situation in areas affected by the emergency, highlighting education and protection related issues;
• Participate in field assessments, as required;

2. Implementation, Monitoring and Accountability

• The ECDE Advisor plans and oversees all services related to the project activities, ensuring the strengthening of capacities of field staff, communities, committees, local organisations and local governments to promote and sustainably deliver high quality holistic community-led ECDE;
• Acts as a key link between Plan and agencies that work with ECDE from which children and their families can benefit;
• Establishes regular contact and maintain credibility and good public relations with provincial and district representatives, actively engage the private sector, schools, other local NGOs, partners and other community support organizations;
• Guides group discussion sessions among project representatives/beneficiary groups (including government officers, children and their families), to define challenges, expectations and decide on goals to achieve, while ensuring the active involvement of children and their families;
• Monitors project implementation through regular visits, meetings with community and other stakeholders and makes informed decisions as necessary;
• Manages the carrying out of baseline studies and the implementation of Project Review Findings and establish strategic priorities for program changes based on the findings;
• Ensure the collection, storing & management and analysis of good data to inform decision making;
• Coordinates all actions with community volunteers, and integrate ECDE project objectives/activities with ECDE volunteers and provides training as necessary;
• Guide and Cascade ECDE capacities for staff and communities through trainings, and identify gaps in performance and coaches towards good performance;
• Prepares all monthly plans and reports required by Plan Mozambique and the donor and by other project stakeholders and beneficiaries as appropriate;
• Support and coordinate with other projects, ie: Youth Championship and CPiE and provide coaching and training to CFSs, and mainstreaming the ECDE project into Plans regular programming;
• Document experiences and lessons learned through participatory approaches and coordinate with plan Mozambique Communication Manager in the dissemination of such learning;
• Demonstrate commitment to Plans child protection policy, implement the policy full, and report any actual or potential risk situations to the PUM immediately.

3. Representation and Partnership

• Where required, support appropriate representation in education coordination mechanisms at district level, including any relevant cluster meetings, prepare and share notes from meetings and undertake follow-up of agreed action points;
• Ensure good communication, coordination and collaboration across project teams and with government and local partners.

4. Reporting and Evaluation

• Provide regular updates to the Education in Emergencies Project Manager on activity progress, priorities and constraints, including activities implemented by partners – verbally and in writing on agreed frequency (including 5Ws reporting);
• Prepare inputs for status and progress reports and analysis, as required by management;
• Support with the organisation of project reviews and quality project evaluations, as required

5. Learning and Capacity Building

• Support with the organisation of relevant trainings/workshops for education staff, partners, key stakeholders and teaching staff (beneficiaries), which support inclusive and gender transformative education (including PSS, DRR, Inclusive Education, child-centred learning/instructional approaches, continuous learning assessment, etc);
• Support with the organisation of professional development activities, together with partner agencies where appropriate;
• Work with the Education in Emergencies Project Manager and partners to develop case studies and success stories to facilitate internal and external learning;
• Ensure all project related documents are properly filed for institutional learning.

Undertake any other assignment as and when directed by immediate supervisor and support across teams as required.

4. Key relationships

1. Internal

• Education in Emergencies Project Manager, Education in Emergencies Officers, sectoral and operations colleagues;
• MERL team.

2. External

• District education cluster and associated working groups;
• Government institutions (provincial ministry of education and district education officials);
• Peer agencies and local partners.

5. Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

1. Essential

• University degree in education, social sciences or related field with good knowledge of the Mozambique education system;
• 5 year work related experience on Early Childhood Development, disaster risk management, and general youth economic interventions;
• Minimum 2 years of in-field experience in project implementation, community mobilisation, humanitarian affairs, and related fields
• Knowledge of INEE Minimum Standards, Do No Harm principles and the Core Humanitarian Standards;
• Well planned and organized, and demonstrates initiative in problem-solving and decision making;
• Good time management skills; able to prioritise tasks and to meet deadlines;
• Able to support and build capacity of partners and to work with disaster affected communities in a sensitive, participatory and inclusive manner;
• Well-developed written and oral communication skills and ability to communicate clearly and sensitively. This includes effective negotiation and representation skills and the ability to work comfortably with a wide range of stakeholders with different interests;
• Able to mobilise communities, confidence in talking to people both in groups and on a one-to-one basis and excellent listening skills;
• Has an understanding of child safeguarding and equality for girls, and demonstrates awareness and sensitivity to gender and diversity;
• A positive and friendly personality who collaborates well with others, works with trustworthiness and integrity and has a clear commitment to Plan’s core values and humanitarian principles;
• Willingness and availability to travel, including to remote locations and often at short-notice
• Good knowledge of the context in Buzi and Sofala province in general;
• Good command of Portuguese, both verbal and written, as well as local languages spoken in Buzi (Ndau and Sena).

2. Desirable

• Good command of English;
• Experience of humanitarian programming;
• Experience conducting education needs assessments;
• Submit a sketch of Activity Plan for setting up an Early Childhood Education Development Center as a prerequisite for candidacy.

Women encouraged to Apply

Position reports to: Education in Emergencies Project Manager
Annual remuneration – Competitive

Location: Buzi

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Child Protection Policy.

As an international child-centered community development organization, Plan International is fully committed to promoting the realization of children’s rights including their right to protection from violence and abuse. That means we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organization, do everything we can to keep children safe. We must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

Plan International operates an equal opportunities policy and actively encourages diversity, welcoming applications from all areas of the international community.