Chance for Childhood believes that no child should have to fight for a safe, happy childhood. We exist to ensure that every child in Africa can thrive from their early years through to adulthood. Together with partners, supporters, children and their communities, we protect, educate and create lasting change for every child threatened by violence, neglect and conflict.
We specialise in ensuring access to inclusive education and safe spaces so that children can play, grow, learn and thrive. We are a Ghanaian NGO that belongs to the Chance for Childhood family registered in the UK.
Job Description
- Job title: Inclusion and Social Support Specialist/Project Manager
- Reporting to: Ghana Country representative
- Salary: GHC 150,000-GHC 162,000 per annum, depending on experience
- Job type: Fixed term (4years), full-time (40 hours per week)
- Location: Tamale with extensive travel to project districts
Project Background
We are seeking an outstanding professional to lead the implementation of the social inclusion component under the Ghana transformED Partnership payment by result initiative. The GED Partnership is an ambitious partnership with the Ghana Ministry of Education and Education Outcomes Fund to deliver a payment by results programme targeted at improving access and quality in primary education for Ghanaian children in Northern Region.
The primary purpose of this appointment is to lead strong and adaptive set up and delivery of the outcomes-led Ghana TransformED consortium project with a primary target delivery area in the Northern Region. The $3.2m education outcome fund programme runs 1) a primary school improvement component for 100 schools, and 2) an accelerated learning programme component for 10,000 out of school children. It pays only on the basis of outcomes -principally literacy and numeracy improvement compared to control schools, and placement and retention of children in school.
Key responsibilities:
Programme management (60%)
- Lead the implementation of the inclusion and social support component of the GED Partnership consortium for the rural lot1 and 2 working closely with implementation partners and collaborative partners to ensure strong coordination and accountability;
- Drive the inclusion and social support sub-component of the programme outcomes through evidence-based, adaptative design and delivery of GED Partnership Programme activities working closely with the project consortium partners.
- Lead the Inclusion and Social Support team to carry out the following;
- Mapping out working zones (Communities, schools) for social support aides in collaboration with district coordinators.
- Coordinate community/stakeholder engagement sessions at the regional/district levels to stimulate enrolment and retention oof out of school children
- Maintain healthy relationship between the project and stakeholders at the district/community level to ensure their buy-in and close the feedback loop.
- Capacity building of inclusion and social support team on stakeholder engagement, safeguarding, gender mainstreaming, data collection and management among others.
- Supervise district coordinators and social support aides to provide intensive individualised in-school support to promote the placement, progress, and retention of students in government basic schools within the project jurisdiction.
- Supervise district coordinators and Social Support Aides to track students using a Standard Operating Procedure [SOP] for placement into partner schools, and supervision of attendance and achievement, including gender-sensitive protocols for placement of girls, including reducing risks of danger on routes to, from, and in school, and provision of safeguarding structures and systems to reduce risks of Gender Based Violence [GBV].
- Support district coordinator and Social Support Aides to train teachers to recognise and refer at-risk students for social support, using indicators such as attendance, conduct, comprehension, disruptiveness, time of departure, and degree of responsibility – in collaboration with Ghana Education Services [GES].
- Support district coordinator and social support aides to work with at-risk students by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the student and work with the student, their caregiver, and their teacher to ascertain affecting causes and collaborate on strategies to support their attendance and achievement
- Develop and monitor implementation of project work plans for the inclusion and social support sub-component under the GED partnership propgramme
- Coordinate the preparation of progress reports for the inclusion and social support sub-component under the GED partnership propgramme.
- Lead in periodic reporting of project progress and outcomes achieved under the inclusion and social support component during consortium meetings and also to Chance for Childhood
- Support the identification and sharing of key programme learning across Education Outcomes Fund projects, utilising this to support continued strengthening of programme impact.
Operations , HR and Organizational Development (40%)
- Support in the recruitment of 30 social support aides to be deployed to work in the project catchment communities.
- Line manage the social and inclusion sub-component team (2 district coordinators and 30 social support aides) to effectively delivery project outcomes. quality and accountability in programme implementation.
- Work alongside the consortium partners to assess organizational capacity and to identify human resource gaps and where appropriate provide training and coaching to the team.
- Supervise the management of project and company assets as well as the maintenance of an accurate asset register.
- Ensure that project records are well maintained through filing appropriately the correspondence and any important documents. In a bid to support a paperless office, all important correspondence shall be saved in image on SharePoint in the appropriate folders.
- Actively participate in team meetings, teamwork plans, adopt team spirit, take responsibility for action items assigned, and provide feedback as needed.
- Represent Chance for Childhood on the consortium and external meetings and events as requested
- Perform any other duties commensurate with the level of the post, as may be required
Required Skills or Experience
- The candidate should have at least a master’s degree in education, social science, project management or any other relevant field of study related to the post. A minimum of six years’ experience in delivering on the key responsibilities for this position is required.
- Experience working in an International NGO (INGO) or Development Agency within the education sector is required.
- Knowledge and skills in application of social inclusion and child safeguarding models are required.
- Experience of managing large scale education programmes is required;
- Strong working knowledge of technical approaches to driving learning and access to education is required.
- Strong project management skills and working knowledge of MEL approaches in education is required;
- Experience working with stakeholders/communities within the Northern, Savannah and North East regions of Ghana and spoken languages (Dagbani, Gonja) is desirable.
How To Apply | Inclusion and Social Support Specialist/Project Manager at Chance for Childhood
- Send cover letter highlighting how your skills and experience meet the person specification (2 pages maximum) and your CV (including details of two referees ).
- Applications should be titled “Inclusion and Social Support Specialist/Project Manager” and addressed to the country representative..
- All applications should be sent to apply@chanceforchildhood.org
Closing date
- All applications should be received latest GMT 23:00 hours on 20th October 2022.
- Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Safeguarding
- Chance for Childhood is committed to safeguarding everyone we encounter.
- We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any abuse, neglect, and exploitation of all people. Everyone that works with us is required to share and uphold this commitment through signing and complying with our Global Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct.
- Pre-employment checks are undertaken to ensure high standards are maintained, including a police check (or equivalent) and references.