Early Childhood Development /Education Officer - Sinjar

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC Iraq program was established in 2003 and is currently operating programs in 14 governorates in the Kurdistan Region and south central Iraq with an annual budget of over $30 million. Working in coordination with the humanitarian community, the IRC's assistance programs for Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq, includes both camp-based and urban-based refugee and IDP assistance. The IRC Iraq supports IDPs, returnees, host communities and Syrian refugees across 14 governorates in Iraq with activities focused on education, protection and rule of law, women’s protection and empowerment, child protection and livelihoods activities. The IRC Iraq’s country office is based in Erbil, with field offices in Mosul, Kirkuk, Ramadi, Duhok and Baghdad and program offices in Sulaymaniyah, Salah al-Din and Karbala governorates. 

In Iraq, high-quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs have the potential to provide the foundation for children future academic success, health, prosperity, and wellbeing. A large body of scientific evidence emphasizes the need for increased investment in early childhood, particularly for children experiencing conflict, crisis and displacement; these children are extremely vulnerable to the long-lasting effects that prolonged stress has on the developing brain.

In December 2017, Sesame Workshop and the IRC were awarded the MacArthur Foundation’s inaugural 100&Change grant to make real progress toward solving a critical problem of our time. With the extraordinary investment of $100 million, our partnership will transform the language, early reading, math, and social-emotional skills of a generation of children ages 0-8 affected by the Syrian war. Focusing on children in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria over the next five years, the plan combines the depth of in-person services, reaching 1.5 million children, with the breadth of mass media, reaching 9.4 million children. For more information, please visit: http://refugee.sesameinternational.org/.

Job Overview/Summary:

The ECD/Education Officer will be responsible for overseeing the ECD team (ECD mobilizers and ECD Facilitators) based in Ninawa. The ECD Officer will report directly to the ECD Manager, and will oversee all ECD activities in Ninawa. The ECD Officer will be based in Ninawa with travel to the field locations in Sinjar and Mosul to oversee the implementation of the ECD program activities, services, and research components. The ECD Officer will develop, oversee, and maintain key relationships with relevant stakeholders. The ECD Officer will represents IRC ECD program in Ninawa as needed.

Major Responsibilities:

• Oversee the field-based ECD team to ensure program quality and transparency;
• Supervise the organization and delivery of all ECD activities and services;
• Design and develop new methodology to support community level outreach and work;
• Whenever required, be the representative of IRC ECD for project activities, donor visits, local governance, etc.;
• Analyze technical gaps and project impact at the community level for project activities;
• Act as key focal point for data quality and data screening with ECD Management and M&E team;
• Ensure quality data collection and verification of data collected;
• Conduct regular field visits to ensure successful program implementation;
• Write regular field reports including progress against targets, all implementation details and challenges;
• Organize and attend regular meetings with relevant stakeholders to ensure a coordinated and streamlined approach across target areas;
• Collaborate with relevant IRC Ninawa field program teams to optimize the ECD program implementation;
• Collaborate with field teams in other regions to share lessons learned and harmonize work approaches and best practices across governorates and teams;
• Timely identification and discussion of project issues with ECD Manager.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: ECD Manager

Position directly supervises: ECD Facilitators and Mobilizers

Indirect Reporting: ECD Coordinator 

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Research team, other ECD Officers, Education team, M&E team, IRC Mosul field teams

External: local governance representatives and relevant Ministries, local NGOs and INGOs, UN agencies, local ECD stakeholders

Preferred:

• Proficiency inSpoken Kurdish
• Working experience with an NGO/INGO
• Master degree in social sciences, development, or any relevant related field

Standards of Professional Conduct:

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Gender Equality

IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including maternity leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Attention Returning National Candidates:

IRC strives to attract, motivate and retain qualified national staff in our programs. We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a national of the country in which this position is based and are currently located outside of your home country and possess over two years of international work experience, IRC has introduced an attractive remuneration package. The package includes competitive compensation, return flight to post, shipping allowance, temporary housing and a relocation allowance. Certain restrictions may apply.

   ''Given the nature of the contract , only Iraqi National will be considered as applicant''