Education Specialist at UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 24 May 2023)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, learning

UNICEF Rwanda is based in Kigali. It is committed to realizing the rights of all children to help them build a strong foundation and have the best chance of fulfilling their potential.  UNICEF Rwanda is currently running a Country Programme 2018-2024 and its goal is to improve the health, nutritional status, protection, education, and wellbeing of children, focusing on those who are poor, vulnerable or at risk.

Rwanda has achieved universal access and gender parity in primary education, with over 98 per cent net enrolment rate for both girls and boys. The Government of Rwanda sees education as a key driver for realizing ‘Vision 2050’, the national aspiration to become a high-income, knowledge-based economy. However, the education system continues to face significant challenges. Most notably, high dropout and repetition rates resulting in slow progress in transition to secondary education. Teacher competencies and capacity to deliver quality education remain low, leading to low learning outcomes for children.

UNICEF and partners have over the years supported the Ministry of Education to address these challenges within the framework of the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP  2018 –2024). UNICEF’s key areas of support include technical assistance on sector planning and coordination, teacher professional development on effective and inclusive pedagogies, and implementation of strategies aimed at improving learning outcomes for children and addressing inequalities. UNICEF Rwanda has also played a critical role in enhancing sector coordination to ensure programmes supported by partners are fully aligned with government priorities, complementary and fill identified gaps including through innovation to address persistent challenges.

To learn more about UNICEF work in Rwanda, please visit the country website https://unicef.sharepoint.com/sites/RWA/ or watch this video about UNICEF work in Rwanda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7B91m5Yzoc

How can you make a difference?

You will support the development and preparation of the Education programmes as well as managing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and reporting the progress of education programmes/projects.

You will provide technical guidance and management support throughout the programming processes to facilitate the administration and achievement of results on education programmes/projects to improve learning outcomes, equity and inclusion, especially for children who are marginalized, disadvantaged and excluded in society.

You will contribute to the achievement of results according to plans, available resources, results based-management approaches and methodology (RBM), as well as UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, standards of performance, and accountability framework.

Please see the area under your responsibility:

1. Support to programme development and planning
2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results, including serving as GPE grant manager and OIC, Section Chief.
3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation
4. Networking and partnership building
5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: education, economics, psychology, sociology, or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of five years of professional experience in programme planning, management, and/or research in education is required.
• Managing global partnership for education experience
• National strategies and strategic plans development experience
• Very good analytical and writing skills
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Developing country work experience is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. French is an asset

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF core competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

Technical competencies must be demonstrated in the following areas:

• Some understanding of the overall global development context, including issues such as: poverty, conflict and the impact of these factors on education and vice-versa; and inter-sectoral approaches to address such issues in collaboration with other sectors (including Social Policy, Child Protection, Nutrition, WASH, Health, and Communications within UNICEF).
• Some knowledge of global developments in education and international engagement strategies, including the application of the equity lens and human rights perspectives to programming.
• Some ability to support policy dialogue: translation of analytical findings and evidence into development programme and policy discussions around equity and learning with partners, including government, development partners, CSOs and academia in relevant areas.
• Some education sector planning knowledge/ability, including the range of modalities for delivering education, linkages between different sub-sectors (e.g. ECD, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Inclusive Education), cost-effectiveness and efficiency issues, key institutional structures, components and processes, as well as governance issues.
• Some education and policy sector analysis capacity, including understanding of the core education data sets and indicators; tools for analysis of equity; determinants of student access and learning; budget, costing, and financial management in education systems; political economy; and education policy and strategic planning.
• Some programme management in education, including programme design, costing, monitoring and evaluation and reporting.
• Some ability to support engagement with partners e.g. Sector Wide Approaches, Global Partnership for Education, Education in Emergency Clusters, Education Provider Forums, Delivering as One, Inter-sectoral partnerships such as in ECD, as well as networking with other key partners.
• Some understanding of gender and inequity issues in relation to education and development and the application of gender / equity analysis to policy and planning in education.
• For CO and RO based posts and where relevant, some understanding of policies and strategies to address issues related to resilience: risk analysis and risk management, education in conflict situations, natural disasters, and recovery.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

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