GRADE (Level): 7
TEAM/PROGRAMME: Education    
LOCATION: Country Office, Kathmandu
CONTRACT LENGTH: Contract, one year extendable
CHILD SAFEGUARDING Level 3 - The responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people.

ROLE PURPOSE
The Basic Education Program Manager will be responsible for the development of and technical support to high quality child-focused basic education programs reaching the most vulnerable and deprived. S/he will support the Education Director to establish and maintain functional collaboration and coordination with government counterparts, external development partners, strategic partners, and donors at national level.  Likewise, s/he will provide support to maintain communication with donors and member countries for basic education programs. The position holder will be working closely with other Save the Children departments, project managers, and program managers to ensure required operational and technical support to SC’s field team and partners is available and timely. Moreover, s/he will provide targeted management support to select basic education projects, which may also include elements of adolescent and youth transitions programming as well as integrated programming. Supports Save the Children’s dual mandate of delivering high quality development programs as well as being the leader in emergency preparedness and response for children.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Program and project development: 

• With the Education Director, leads in developing new basic education projects in close consultation with other departments and partners. This includes, but is not limited to, developing detailed implementation plans, staffing plans, phased budgets, identifying new partners, etc., in addition to technical narratives and log frames. Ensures project design is linked to SC’s country strategic plan. 
• With regional and district teams, identifies partner organizations that have robust and proven technical excellence with the implementation structure and human resources required for quality project delivery.
• Leads the continuous assessment of basic education program needs and ensures that these are appropriately reflected in sectoral strategies, proposals and programs.
• With Awards and Education Director, spearheads the exploration of additional funding sources to pilot and scale up proven education interventions as per SC’s Theory of Change. 
• With Child Protection, Child Poverty, and Health sectors, explores opportunities to expand our work with adolescent and youth transitions and integrated programming. Ensures these opportunities are linked to SC’s Theory of Change and country strategic plan. 
• Ensures that the basic education program/project meets and/or exceeds SC’s Minimum Operating Standard of key programmatic interventions including Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI), resilience, and child participation principles.

Program Quality Assurance: 

• Provides direct technical support to field teams, e.g. project monitoring, field staff and partner capacity building, training, etc. 
• Makes a minimum of two monitoring visits annually to each basic education project.
• Facilitates additional technical assistance for basic education projects on an as-needed basis. 
• Supervises and provides guidance to the basic education team in the planning, implementation, and timely quality reporting of basic education projects.
• For multi-regional, multi-sectoral projects, ensures monitoring and evaluation plans are rolled out at the regional level and concerned project coordinators and implementing staff are fully familiar with them.
• Ensures that recommendations from evaluations, assessments and SC’s MEAL team are responded to in a timely manner and adjustments are made to projects and plans as necessary
• With education technical team, ensures Education Activity Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are updated and current
• Holds self responsible for staying current on latest news, innovations, and adaptations in sector

Project management, planning & budgeting: 

• Post-award, ensures that new project start up and kick-off is well coordinated at the central and regional level, including full participation of respective partner NGOs
• For new projects, works with field project implementation teams and relevant technical teams to develop project start-up and implementation plans, including technical capacity building plans.
• During project implementation, engages in periodic reviews, partner and staff capacity building, report writing, and monitoring, etc.  
• Ensures all basic education projects comply with requirements outlined in 1) donor agreement and 2) the Project Operations Guideline of Save the Children Nepal.
• Provides targeted management support to select basic education projects. This support may include tracking project progress against targets, monitoring budget expenditures, etc. 

Capacity building: 

• Works with basic education project teams and partners to identify technical strengths and weaknesses areas and develops plans to address gaps. Strong focus on coaching and mentoring. 
• With the ECCD Program Manager, responsible for the planning and implementation of the annual Education Program Learning Group (PLG) and Education Thematic Meeting 

Knowledge Management, Learning and Innovation:

• Drives Save the Children’s learning agenda, establishing systems and processes to help project and program teams learn from research, monitoring reports, information on state of the art programming domestically and globally, tec. 
• Enhances opportunities for partners to participate in the knowledge management cycle (capture, store, synthesize/analyze, share and apply).
• Facilitates information sharing re best practices and program development among partners and SC staff 
• Ensures all basic education projects collect information on the progress towards project outcomes/results, collect information or observations for the variations in these outcomes/results, and draw conclusions/lessons, and take actions to address these conclusions/lessons.
• Ensures all basic education projects develop and engage in a reflective Key Learning Questions (KLQs) process 
• Ensures all basic education projects conduct at least one Operational Research (OR) activity annually to improve program quality 
• Informs project and technical teams of new innovations in the basic education sector, both domestically and abroad. Facilitates dialogue on program innovation at the project and sectoral level.
• Loops program learning back to relevant departments, e.g. MEAL, other sectoral departments, etc. 

Strategy development and annual reporting:

• Supports Education Director to develop basic education strategy, country annual plan, and country annual review plan. 
• Coordinates with other subsectors to actualize the Education Sector Strategy 
• Leads in annual planning of basic education sub-sector and collaborates with the team for comprehensive sectoral annual planning.

Documentation, Evaluation, Reporting:

• Develops TORs for project evaluation and supports consultant hiring process to HR Department.
• Facilitates SC regional staff and partners to document case studies/stories and best practices together with Information and Communication department.
• Identifies and share learning and best practices with staff, donors, SC members and relevant government line ministries.
• Provides critical feedback and technical inputs on periodic project reports and country annual report.
• Reviews project reports to ensure technical excellence and strategic achievement, as well as to provide feedback to project teams
• Responsible for timely and quality write up and submission of quarterly, semi-annual and annual program progress reports as required with inputs of M & E and Project team
• In close coordination with the Field Program Managers, ensures effective monitoring, evaluation and documentation of Basic education project/program activities in all regions

Representation, Networking and advocacy:

• Ensures strong linkages and coordination amongst line Ministries, strategic partners, external development partners, and donors as required 
• Elaborates SC’s position on basic education subsector and advocates for policy changes and implementation in close collaboration with Education Director and advocacy counterparts.
• Supports Education Director in developing and maintaining in-depth understanding of basic education sub-sector, including national policies/policy development, key players in government, INGOs and national civil society.
• Actively engages with relevant networks and coalitions at the national level and ensures representation at the regional/district level networks as necessary. 

Lastly, performs other roles as assigned by Education Director. 

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOUR (SCI Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships with their team, colleagues, members, external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE
Essential: 

• Master Degree or equivalent in Education or related Social Science 
• At least 7 years’ (5 years' for GSI group) experience in related field, particularly in basic education project design and implementation 
• Prior experience in working with NGOs/civil societies and government counterparts
• Proven sound strategic thinking and planning skills, including ability to think creatively and be innovative, set priorities, managing work plans and evaluating program progress. 
• Good report writing skills
• Good interpersonal skills including verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent spoken and written English and Nepali skills 

Desirable: