Safe Schools Intervention Specialists at IRC

Job Overview/Summary: 

The UK aid-funded Shule Bora program aims to improve the quality of pre-primary and primary schools in Tanzania. The program’s Impact Statement is: Shule Bora will deliver improved quality, inclusiveness, and safety of learning for boys and girls. There are four outcomes:

• Learning: All children* are learning in school. 
• Teaching: UKAID supports the strengthening of Tanzania’s teaching workforce.
• Inclusion: All children are in schools that are safe, offer an environment conducive to learning and that enables children to complete primary education and progress to secondary education.
• Systems building: UKAID supports the government in strengthening the value for money of education provision at school, local and national levels, The term ‘all children’ infers particular attention to the most disadvantaged: girls, the disabled and those living in deprived areas and value for money is defined as a composite of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity

The Programme will:

• Work with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) and the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) to test, adapt and implement at-scale quality, gender-transformative, disability-inclusive, and safe-to-learn education approaches in 9 regions, generating learning and evidence on how to achieve these outcomes affordably and at scale.
• Support GoT with the timely and effective implementation of the Payment for Results (PforR) mechanism through technical assistance and capacity building, with a strong focus on data verification, financial management and risk management. Support lesson learning processes from PforR so that these can be embedded into government processes and shared with development partners and other key stakeholders. Ensure that lessons and best practice from (1) are used to inform the PforR mechanism.
• Manage and coordinate programme activities, with a strong focus on (i) ensuring a high-quality programme and financial and risk management oversight, (ii) working with an independent Learning and Evidence (L&E) provider on establishing regular, rigorous, and community-driven monitoring and evaluation activities, and (iii) developing and implementing a strategy for effective communication of Shule Bora objectives, results, and lessons learned to a range of target audiences.

 The intervention specialist will support the implementation of programme interventions in PWANI Region, Tanzania. The intervention specialist will have a specialization in pupils’ safety intervention in addition to supporting school improvement and will provide additional support on pupils’ safety interventions across their zone.

 Major Responsibilities.

General Responsibilities:

• Providing support to technical leads and key advisers to programme and deliver interventions including preparation, planning, pre-testing, and piloting of activities and materials
• Drawing upon IRC’s expertise to support the government to develop and implement interventions to reflect their thematic focus
• Supporting the development of capacity-building activities of the community, school, district, and regional education managers in the areas of teacher development, school leadership, planning and management, community participation and data management and use.
• Following up on intervention activities within the region
• Collecting data and information from regional and district partners as required
• Identifying, solving and/or escalating challenges relating to programme delivery
• Providing zonal support to implementation and troubleshooting relating to inclusion activities (disability, safety, and girls) in line with the inclusion strategy
• Ensuring that all stakeholders across the region have a good understanding of Shule Bora and their role in the programme as pertains to them
• Contribute to the writing of various reports, articles, and other forms of communication
• Communicate success, lessons learnt, programme best practices and evidence of impact
• Ensure inclusion is mainstreamed and gender-sensitive and inclusive language is used in all programme communications
• Deputizing for the programme regional coordinator as required
• Joining all programme meetings as required
• Ensuring proper saving of all regional documents on SharePoint

Technical 

• Assisting the programme regional coordinator to support regional and district offices in planning, implementing, and monitoring Shule Bora interventions across all output areas
• Provide advice on what works in terms of improving safety in and around schools.
• Participate in the design, implementation, monitoring and adaptation of quality interventions relating to improving the safety of learning for all children
• Develop timely reports of programme activities and input to formal reports such as quarterly reports and annual reports
• Utilize the Managing for Learning Approach and other programme strategies as developed
• Ensure all programme activities and materials include an inclusive approach, use inclusive language and disaggregated data, and promote diversity in educational institutions
• Work closely with other intervention specialists to ensure harmonization across the programme at zonal level
• Provide input on design, approach and content of materials and quality assure where relevant
• Planning and institutional coordination 
• Ensure harmonization of approaches across programme activities
• Coordinate Shule Bora’s safe school activities with LGA, regional and zonal level as well as other organizations as required
• Generate synergies and ensure lesson learning between Shule Bora and other efforts to improve safety of learning for all children in Tanzania

Build capacity

• Support the institutionalization of safe school activities within LGAs, Regional and zonal levels
• Support capacity development activities of programme staff and government counterparts at LGA, regional and zonal levels

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: Shule Bora Regional Coordinator -Kigoma
• Position directly supervises: N/A
• Location: This position will be based in Pwani Region
• Other Internal and/or external contacts: IRC Education Coordinator, Safe School Adviser, Shule Bora, colleagues at IRC and Shule Bora, Shule Bora team to ensure harmonization across the Programme.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in education, community development, social development or related degree, master’s degree in the same field is an added advantage.
• Good understanding of the Tanzanian education system.
• Experience: A minimum of 3 to 4 years of experience in the related position

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies

• Ability to prioritize and work under pressure
• Ability to work in a collaborative team setting
• Understanding of and sensitivity to cultural differences
• Proficient in using MS packages, particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint
• Strong organizational skills, reliability, and adherence to ethical standards
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong leadership and influencing skills
• Fluency in written and spoken English, Kiswahili preferred

Experience

• Experience in planning, coordinating, implementing, and monitoring activities to improve safety in and around schools
• Experience in capacity development
• Experience in large-scale, international development projects
• Experience with stakeholder engagement from schools to government levels

Language: Fluent in written and spoken English and Kiswahili

Travel: Travel within Shule Bora regions as at and when required.

Working Environment: Security level yellow – The situation in most of the country is calm. Some parts of Kigoma region experience insecurity-highway banditry.

Partnership: The IRC is committed to working with partners as our preferred operating model and adhering to our six partnership principles: equality, complementarity, mutuality, solidarity, results orientation, and humility.

Commitment to Client Responsiveness: By committing to Client-Centered Programming, at the IRC Tanzania, we place the people we serve – our clients – at the center of our programming and services. The IRC Tanzania Staff have an important role to play in supporting the implementation of client-responsive programming through raising awareness to the community and clients about expected staff behavior, project information, the existing feedback mechanisms and how to use them including the response processes, access, and eligibility to services, and contribute to building an institutional culture that prompts staff to listen to clients and to communicate and respond to their requests, feedback, and complaints.

Professional Standards: The IRC and its workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the 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, Workplace Harassment prevention, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation. 

Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Gender Equality: IRC acknowledges and honors the fundamental value and dignity of all individuals. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all applicants based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status or disability. IRC is also committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that enable women to participate in our workforce, including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, marital status, veteran status or disability. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform crucial job functions, and receive other employment benefits and privileges.