United Nations Children's Fund
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Job Description
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Description
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Under the supervision of the Education Manager, as part of the Systems and Support Unit (SSU) within the Education Section in Kabul, the Education Specialist supports programme planning, coordination, monitoring and reporting between the UNICEF Kabul-based team both from education and supplies sections, and the counterpart teams at UNICEF Zonal Offices (ZOs) and Implementing Partners (IPs), roping in the education specialist (roving) or various Engineers who are being onboarded in various zonal offices of UNICEF, as necessary.
In the Education Section, school construction and rehabilitation are funded under different grants (including those from the Government of Japan, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, and JICA), and managed by the Education manager and Head of the Unit. Implementation of activities, monitoring of interventions and the bulk of expenditures for those programmes are decentralized to the UNICEF Zonal Offices.
The Education Specialist will ensure more efficient communication and coordination horizontally across the different units of the Kabul office to support programme planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting, but also vertically between the Kabul office and the Zonal Offices. This role includes, pro-actively working with construction unit (within Supplies section) and SSU unit (within Education section) and implementing partners both NGOs and firms to coordinate project initiation, implementation, and closure in accordance with UNICEF and donors’ requirements. The incumbent also provides coordination support for site inspection, quality assurance, and other technical activities led by the engineering firms and/or construction unit. It also requires coordination across different specialized units within UNICEF such as the gender unit as well as environmental and social safeguards specialists for example. Finally, it requires competences in grant financial management, to support Zonal Office colleagues and implementing partners.
Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks
Summary of key functions/accountabilities:
Programme planning, engagement and coordination with authorities:
In the Education Section, school construction and rehabilitation are funded under different grants (including those from the Government of Japan, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, and JICA), and managed by the Education manager and Head of the Unit. Implementation of activities, monitoring of interventions and the bulk of expenditures for those programmes are decentralized to the UNICEF Zonal Offices.
The Education Specialist will ensure more efficient communication and coordination horizontally across the different units of the Kabul office to support programme planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting, but also vertically between the Kabul office and the Zonal Offices. This role includes, pro-actively working with construction unit (within Supplies section) and SSU unit (within Education section) and implementing partners both NGOs and firms to coordinate project initiation, implementation, and closure in accordance with UNICEF and donors’ requirements. The incumbent also provides coordination support for site inspection, quality assurance, and other technical activities led by the engineering firms and/or construction unit. It also requires coordination across different specialized units within UNICEF such as the gender unit as well as environmental and social safeguards specialists for example. Finally, it requires competences in grant financial management, to support Zonal Office colleagues and implementing partners.
Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks
Summary of key functions/accountabilities:
Programme planning, engagement and coordination with authorities:
- Collaborate closely with Zonal Offices and Implementing Partners to plan and execute school construction and rehabilitation projects.
- Establish clear timelines for monitoring and data compilation at the regional level, ensuring accurate reporting at the national level.
- In collaboration with the SSU team: support in capacity building of Zonal Office colleagues and Implementing Partners in using school construction and rehabilitation tools, databases, dashboards, templates etc. to facilitate more real-time tracking of implementation progress, expenditures, supplies etc.
Programme Management, Budgeting and Reporting:
- Liaising and communicating with Zonal Offices on financial management and tracking of expenditure (such as soft and hard commitments, for example) for improved grant management, monitoring and reporting.
- In collaboration with focal points from the relevant units within the education and supplies section (especially the construction unit), support the management and operational aspects of school construction and rehabilitation projects.
- Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with zonal offices and implementing partners and prepare reports for the Chief of section.
Operational support for programme implementation, including humanitarian preparedness, and communications with ZOs and IPs for internal and external reporting:
- In collaboration with the M&E/IM specialist, develop close collaboration between education and supplies/construction grant managers, zonal office focal points and IPs through involvement in operational support for programme implementation especially related to school construction and rehabilitation, as well as monitoring to collect timely data and information for internal reporting (to the UNICEF office) and external reporting (to donors).
- Support the M&E/IM Specialist in the operationalization of systems, tools and dashboards to be used across education and supplies units, zonal offices and IPs to standardize data formats and reporting on school construction and rehabilitation and associated tasks.
- In collaboration with KM Officer, support the preparation of (donor) reports by ensuring the accurate and timely submission of high-quality data and qualitative information from zonal offices and implementing partners in a standardized, planned and organized manner.
Networking and partnership building especially with IPs:
- In collaboration with relevant education and supplies units and focal points, engage with national implementing partners (IPs), national engineering firms, and relevant government departments (e.g., Department of Infrastructure and Facilities) to address school construction and rehabilitation project challenges and bottlenecks and build on existing partnerships and networks.
Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building:
- Support the SSU IM/M&E Specialist to socialize all innovative systems and solutions developed internally for better monitoring of programs, expenditure tracking etc. within all zonal offices and within IPs as needed.
- In collaboration with relevant focal points within the education and supplies section and other sections of the office as required (such as WASH and gender on gender appropriate construction design and implementation, SPEAR on environmental and social safeguards, etc.), engage with relevant committees which comprise the World Bank, other UN agencies and NGOs to operationalize UNICEF’s support.
- Support the capacity building of school construction and rehabilitation IPs to monitor their programs and report on progress according to standards and formats developed by the SSU.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Education, International Relations, Information Technology, public administration, financial management or any other relevant studies.
- A minimum of five years of professional experience in program planning, coordination or management in the education sector
- A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree
- Experience with Financial and Results Based Management of large grants with complex donor requirements, including using dedicated tools/systems/dashboards can be an asset.
- Experience working in complex context with multiple partners across different geographical areas is an asset.
- Experience with organizing work and data flows from multiple sources for donor reporting is an asset.
- Experience supporting the management of complex grants from WB and/or EU, as well as Global Funds such as GPE, ECW, Global Fund for Health is an asset.
- Fluency in English is required, and local languages (Dari & Pashto) is an asset.
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