Operations Officer, GPE

Are you a very passionate advocate for education? Do you want to make a difference in the lives of children? The Global Partnership for Education Secretariat (GPE) would like to hear from you.

Who We Are 

• GPE is a shared commitment to end the world’s learning crisis. It is the only global partnership and fund dedicated entirely to helping children in lower-income countries get a quality education, so they can unlock their potential and contribute to building a better world.
• We bring together governments, teachers, civil society, donors, United Nations agencies, development banks, businesses and private foundations to transform education systems so that every girl and boy can have hope, opportunity and agency.

What We Do 

• GPE helps low- and lower-middle-income countries to build stronger education systems so that all children can get the education they need to thrive. We currently support nearly 90 countries where the needs are greatest and focus on reaching the children who are the most vulnerable, including girls, children with disabilities and those affected by extreme poverty or conflict.
• Our unique approach works. Since 2002, 160 million more children in GPE partner countries have set foot in classrooms for the first time, more than half of them girls. GPE is also the largest provider of education grants in the global COVID-19 response, providing partner countries with vital resources to ensure that learning can safely continue.

How We Work 

• Now, GPE is working to help governments transform their education systems to get the most vulnerable children in school, improve teaching and learning, and build equitable, inclusive and resilient education systems fit for the 21st century. Between 2020-2025, GPE will support transformative change in up to 90 countries and territories, which are home to 1 billion children.
• Transforming education is about creating lasting changes and achieving impact at scale. GPE sets out to deliver this transformative change by convening partners, mobilizing funds and catalyzing reforms to help partner countries accelerate access, learning outcomes and gender equality.

Raise Your Hand 

• In July 2021, the Global Education Summit put GPE firmly on the path to be fully-funded by 2025, by raising a record US $4 billion from donors for GPE’s Raise Your Hand campaign. At the Summit, Heads of State and Government from partner countries made historic commitments to education financing and GPE also mobilized an unprecedented number of pledges from businesses, private foundations and development banks.
• A fully funded GPE would support transformed education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, enable up to 175 million children to learn and help get 88 million more girls and boys in school by 2025. In the longer term, this investment could add $164 billion to economies in GPE partner countries, lift 18 million people out of poverty, and protect 2 million girls from early marriage.

Governance And Organizational Arrangements 

• The GPE Board of Directors includes ministerial-level board members and alternates representing 20 constituencies that reflect the Partnership’s breadth. The Board Chair is HE President Jakaya Kikwete and the Board Vice Chair is Dr Susan Liautaud. The Board of Directors, with its three standing committees, provides policy and strategic oversight and approves or delegates funding decisions.
• The GPE Secretariat, with 160 employees and hosted by the World Bank, is responsible for translating the policies and strategies set by the Board into practical support for partner countries, coordinating with diverse stakeholders and galvanizing global support for SDG4. The Secretariat’s headquarters are in the World Bank’s offices in Washington, D.C. and the European office is in Paris with a satellite office in Brussels.

ABOUT THE TEAM

• The Secretariat Operations team provides a wide range of support to the GPE Secretariat: human resources, staffing, workforce planning, administrative, work and budget planning, organization design and development, IT systems and knowledge management, and others.  Its mission is to help the organization operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.
• The successful candidate will be a part of the Secretariat Services team (SecServe) which is a part of the SecOps Team.
• SecServe, which was launched on October 3, 2022, comprises of three sub-teams. These together function as a centralized service center for the whole of GPE Secretariat and handles a multitude of administrative and operational functions for the eight GPE Secretariat teams. SecServe is working
• towards achieving excellence in service by creating efficient technological processes including customer relationship management systems, automated workflows, dashboards, and report generation tools.
• This position will report into a Team Lead, GPE.

ABOUT THE JOB

This position will be based in Chennai. 

Description

• The main responsibility of this position/role will be to act as Team Lead for a team of Chennai based Secretariat staff. We are looking for a dynamic and versatile individual with excellent people management skills. Additionally, the said person would work on workplan and budgeting and development of metrics and any other tasks that may arise.

Duties And Accountabilities

Specific tasks include the following: 

CHENNAI TEAM LEAD 

• Act as bridge between other GPE offices to Chennai team.
• Position Chennai team service delivery within GPE Secretariat by acting as advocate for the team with all members of the Secretariat.
• Keep Team Lead, Secretariat Services and GPE COO informed of any issues arising within team, and share updates as necessary.
• Lead and mentor staff within Chennai office, attending to their wellbeing and ensuring staff are happy and any concerns are address adequately.
• Liaise with WBG teams in Chennai in relation to office space, Chennai office policies, transport coordination, ITS and anything else necessary to ensure smooth running of the team in Chennai.
• Arrange social events for team to ensure team cohesion and interaction.

WORKPLAN AND BUDGETING

• Independently lead the Annual Work Planning and Budget cycle for the GPE Secretariat. Work with stakeholders and managers throughout the Secretariat to create workplans and objectives. Work very closely with Finance teams in GPE to allocate budget against all team  objectives and analyze and challenge budget requests.
• Provide analytical support to the annual work planning and budget exercise.
• Develop KPI’s for the work plan and budgeting process if requested by the team and ensure that each team is reporting against their quarterly targets.
• Prepare papers to Executive Committee in relation to KPI’s and KPI status.
• Work directly with staff and managers who need hands-on support rather than just written guidance.
• Gather and present data in relation to Annual and Quarterly reporting, designing templates  and dashboards for reporting purposes.
• Guiding the data collection and stewardship of performance indicator and other data and reporting on status of data collection.
• Support in design of workflow and process strategies to improve business performance.
• Keep the Team Lead, Central Support team, updated on all developments and seek  guidance and support when needed

OTHER MISC. TASKS

• Gathering and processing data to identify process performance areas.
• Support on detailed business analysis and process reengineering projects.
• Educate business users responsible for handling and operating business processes.
• Address service requests from staff and management that are assigned by the Team Lead.
• Liaise with World Bank on behalf of the team to stay abreast of new policies and get clarity on interpreting existing policies to ensure compliance and resolve policy related queries that may arise on a day-to day basis.
• Ensure updates of a policy are communicated to the relevant stakeholders in a timely manner
• Act as a subject matter expert on relevant policies/process and procedures for the GPE Secretariat fielding and resolving queries related to the theme in a timely manner.
• Ad hoc activities will be assigned as needed/required. Additionally, all tasks are subject to change based on situations/requirements.

Selection Criteria

Education

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance & Operations, Policy & Governance or a relevant related field or equivalent experience.

Experience

• At least 8 years of experience working within an Operations team across relevant fields of business improvement, policy creation and business administration
• Experience managing a team of at least 5 FTE’s
• Experience leading end to end financial reporting projects to completion
• Experience preparing and presenting data to senior audiences and Management Teams

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=29213&site=1