Senior Early Childhood Education Coordinator

The Senior ECE Coordinator is an exciting opportunity to support the design, implementation and oversight of Children in Crossfire’s ECE Programmes in East Africa.

Context:

Children in Crossfire is a registered charity in Ireland that facilitates International Development and Development Education (DE)/Public Engagement (PE) activities. Our vision is a compassionate world where every child can reach his or her potential. We work in partnership with local organisations in Tanzania and Ethiopia to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged young children, with a particular focus on Early Childhood Education (ECE). In Ireland, we work through DE and PE to engage the public in issues of global justice, and through PE we also advocate for increased investment in ECE.

The Senior ECE Coordinator role is aimed at ensuring Head Office has the necessary ECE technical expertise to ensure qualilty programme design, implementation and oversight of Children in Crossfire’s ECE programmes. This role will help us achieve our ambition that all children benefit from good quality inclusive early childhood care and development and have access to and learn from a good quality early years education.

Major Responsibilities:

1. To provide technical expertise to ensure Children in Crossfire’s ECE programme is maintained and delivered to a high standard; 2. To liaise with country office teams and partner organisations, providing technical support and quality assurance in the area of ECE; 3. To ensure Children in Crossfire’s strategies in terms of ECE are informed and relevant meeting global ECE standards; 4. To work closely with the wider Children in Crossfire team providing support as required.

Specific Responsibilities:

1. To provide technical expertise to ensure Children in Crossfire’s ECE programme is maintained and delivered to a high standard:

Programme Design and development (25% – indicative only)

• Responsible for providing technical support in the design, delivery, monitoring and learning of new and existing programmes in the area of ECE, ensuring quality assurance;
• Provide Technical Assistance (TA) to the design and development of high quality concept notes and programme proposals in collaboration with Head Office and Country Offices (mainly but not exclusively focusing on ECE and Early Learning);
• Contribute to the defining and refining of Children in Crossfire’s model for Pre-Primary education, including Theory of Change, Result Frameworks, Barriers to Education and MEL Frameworks.

2. To liaise with country office teams and partner organisations, providing technical support and quality assurance in the area of ECE;

Programme Quality (30%)

• Provide Technical Assistance (TA) for the implementation of funded programmes;
• Support and manage programme Results Frameworks and indicators;
• Provide oversight and support to baseline survey and annual data collection processes;
• Provide support and act as a focal point for strengthening the technical capacity of staff in country and within our partners.

Evidence and Learning (25%)

• Develop and support robust MEL Frameworks for all country programmes with a focus on establishing learning mechanisms for refinement and improvement of implementation and impact;
• Facilitate the sharing of experience and learning of our work between country programmes and with the wider sector including publishing in journals and presentations and participating in conferences with a focus on ECE

3. To ensure Children in Crossfire’s strategies in terms of ECE are informed and relevant meeting global ECE standards:

Organisational Strategy and Policy (15%)

• Contribute to the organisational and country Strategic planning processes, including contributions to the new strategy being developed for 2022-26;
• Prepare for and participate in Annual Strategic Reviews at organisation and country level;
• Be abreast of developments within the ECE sector, bringing new research, best practice and the international context to our strategy and programming;
• Responsible for implementation of Children in Crossfire’s Safeguarding policy, practise and procedure across country programmes, ensuring they remain relevant and in line with sector wide standards and that all reporting requirements are met;
• Represent Children in Crossfire in relevant technical working groups and other education networks with a focus on ECE and early learning as appropriate.

4. To work closely with the wider Children in Crossfire team providing support as required (5%):

• Attend and participate fully in organisational team meetings as and when required;
• Be a strong team player for Children in Crossfire both internally and externally by motivating others to become actively involved to support the organisation; and liaise closely with all departments, exploring mutual links with ECE;
• Adhere to all organisational policies, and implement accordingly;
• Undertake any other duties to support the operations of the organisation as and when required.

Safeguarding Risk

This role is considered to present a medium-rating of safeguarding risk. The role will be primarily office-based, with limited field work in schools and communities or direct interaction with children and vulnerable adults.

Personal Profile

• Qualified to Master’s degree level in the area of Early Childhood Education or related subjects;
• A minimum of five years’ experience in the design, implementation and management of education programmes in an international context, preferably in early childhood development;
• Extensive knowledge of theory and practice in the field of ECE;
• Demonstrable experience and knowledge of education-related monitoring and evaluation approaches, particularly of global or regional evaluation tools relevant for ECE;
• Experience of providing technical assistance and individual mentoring to NGO programmes teams and partner organisations in education;
• Experience of implementing safeguarding across programming activities;
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills, and the ability to think and plan strategically;
• Well-developed negotiation and communication skills;
• Ability to analyse complex data in a technical area and to summarise and communicate this in ways that are accessible to a range of audiences and cultures;
• Commitment to team working and support for cross–organisational initiatives;
• Ability to travel up to 25% of time;
• Carry out your work with integrity;
• Commitment to confidentiality;
• Commitment to the aims and values of Children in Crossfire, and commitment to working as part of the team. required.