Education Specialist

About ADRA:

ADRA is the global humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church – part of the 20 million-strong Adventist community, with hundreds of thousands of churches globally and the world’s largest integrated healthcare and education network. ADRA delivers relief and development assistance to individuals in more than 118 countries – regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, gender, or religious association. By partnering with local communities, organizations, and governments, ADRA is able to deliver culturally relevant programs and build local capacity for sustainable change.

ADRA Myanmar is an ‘implementing office’ within the ADRA network and a registered and recognized NGO in Myanmar. Established in 1984, ADRA Myanmar is one of the oldest country offices in ADRA providing development and relief assistance opportunities throughout the country. ADRA Myanmar operates under 4 key sectors that cater to Education, Livelihoods, Health, and Emergency.

1. JOB SUMMARY:

The Education Specialist is responsible for quality design of education programming that strengthens ADRA in the sector, builds capacity of project teams, enables coordination and alignment amongst stakeholders and contributes towards ongoing advocacy work. This strategic work will be consistent with organizational strategy and sensitive to the contextual changes and trends in Myanmar, rapidly changing political and economic conditions.

The Education Specialist is responsible for providing leadership in program implementation and delivery of desired results in accordance with the contractual agreements, donor rules and regulations, and ADRA Myanmar policies. This position will lead the project management teams ensuring responsiveness to the donor, partners and other stakeholders, provide high-level oversight ensuring the projects resources are allocated and used effectively and in a manner that makes maximum contribution to projects objectives. The recruit will engage in work planning, resource allocation, granting, monitoring and evaluation, research, performance management, communication and new proposals development.

1. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Program Management and Development:

• Main focal person for ADRA’s Education Programs
• Advise and support ADRA Myanmar Education Coordinators.
• Develop and maintain effective and efficient mechanisms of communication between donors, implementing local partners and ADRA supporting offices according with existing contractual agreements, memorandum of understandings and/or partnership agreements.
• Participate in and provide support to the education focused project’s Steering Committee, identify the needed changes in the strategy and design of the projects for the improvement on technical and managerial aspects
• Engage with and develop new partnerships with donors, partners and stakeholders.
• Lead pro-active program development in close collaboration with the Programs Director– scoping, research and leading the development of concepts and proposals.
• Lead on key program development functions, including but not limited to donor outreach, program design, proposal writing, partnership building, pre-bid assessments.
• Support the Program Director in exploration, evaluation and presentation of new project funding opportunities and establishment of new partnerships.
• Support the Programs Director in tracking new potential project opportunities from known and new donors.
• Provide guidance and inputs in designing Education related research work.

Programming and Quality Management: Ensuring program relevance, quality and values.

• Supervise and support successful and timely project implementation according to the approved project documents in coordination with project team.
• Lead and supervise the processes for program documentation and reporting, cooperating with MEAL.
• Organize best practice and lessons learned results to be published to the ADRA network, donors, and local government.
• Provide guidance to the implementing partners and their teams
• Establish scopes of work for consultants, subcontractors, and short-term technical assistance; identifying capacity gaps in programmatic areas which will require additional technical expertise, capacity improvement and personnel.
• Participate in the development and quality control of proposals in coordination with Programs and Finance Directors. Lead on technical budget and BoQ.
• Support field assessments.
• Ensure the implementation and updating of ADRA policies, procedures and donor guidelines and compliance with program objectives.

External Relations: Building relationships with key stakeholders.

• Become an active member in various Clusters and other meetings to represent ADRA.
• Coordinate with all stakeholders and maintain good relationship with implementing partners/ government authorities and community representatives.
• Identifying opportunities for cooperation and harmonization, and in particular for coordination on national advocacy initiatives.
• Create, develop and maintain a good donor network.
• Participate, contribute, and represent ADRA in regional, national level Education sector coordination and working groups etc.

Human Resources: Project team members are qualified, access to adequate resources, and deliver expected individual and project results.

• Mentor and assist project team members throughout the project cycle to use effective systems in selection and validation of beneficiaries, development of detailed implementation plans, fulfilling MEAL requirements, logistics management, coordination and problem solving.
• Support, participate and coordinate with Human Resource Department on technical staff and consultant recruitment process and ensure the recruitment on timely manner.
• Create and maintain positive working environment/conditions and build unity, team-work and mutual respect.
• Supervise Project Coordinators/Managers and provide support and guidance on their respective roles.

Financial Management and Logistics:

• Support financial planning and reporting related to education and emergency activities.
• Support and review budget burn rate, revisions, and projections on the budgets in consultation with the finance team.
• Assist with initial procurement planning and make sure international standards for material acquisition in accordance with rules and regulations of ADRA Myanmar and best practices are followed.
• Support and coordinate with program team on finance compliance and guidelines required by donors.

2. CORE COMPETENCIES

• Presenting and Communicating information – presentations and undertakes public speaking with skill and confidence; responds quickly to the needs of an audience and to their reactions and feedback; projects credibility.
• Creating and Innovating – Produces new ideas, approaches, or insights; creates innovative products or designs; produces a range of solutions to problems.
• Relating and Networking – Establishes good relationships with individuals both internally and externally; relates well to people at all levels; builds wide and effective networks of contacts; uses humor appropriately to bring warmth to relationships with others.
• Learning and Researching – Rapidly learns new tasks and commit information to memory quickly demonstrates an immediate understanding of newly presented information; gathers comprehensive information to support decision making; encourages an organizational learning approach (i.e. learns from successes and failures and seeks staff and individuals’ feedback).

Job Requirements

1. Bachelor’s degree, and preferably post-graduate university degree, in subject related to role (Education, Social Sciences). Substantial experience can be considered in lieu of academic qualifications.
2. Knowledge and understanding of Myanmar humanitarian context and Myanmar Education systems is a must. Demonstrated skills, experience, and knowledge of the Education sector, preferably with a focus on EIE/ ECW and ethnic education.
3. Understanding of country’s development issues, trends, challenges, opportunities and implications to community development
4. Familiarity with the humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach would be a definite advantage
5. Must be able to develop and manage detailed plans, implementation work plan, logical framework and budgets in accordance with contractual requirements.
6. Demonstrated management and coordination skills and experience in dealing with local partner organisations and provide technical guidance.
7. At least 4 years of experience on diverse Education programming in the Myanmar context or similar region/ conflict setting, etc.
8. Extensive experience in assessing and building capacity, monitoring and cooperating with local NGOs/ partners
9. Experience on TVET, Market mapping and linkages is essential.
10. Command of written & spoken Burmese & English.
11. Strong organizational and administrative skills, including the ability to manage priorities, work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
12. Excellent interpersonal, communication and representation skills to engage with stakeholders with confidence; as well as a demonstrated ability to work and represent views across different stakeholders taking part in the Education Cluster.
13. An in-depth understanding of national and international development issues related to the thematic programme, including cross-cutting issues (conflict sensitivity, gender, disability particularly important)
14. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholders, especially at the field level.