Job title: Regional Education Specialist
Work station: Bamako, Mali
Supervisor: The Director of MDG Centre-West Africa
Description of the MDG Centre West Africa
The MDG Centre was established in July 2004 by The Earth Institute at Columbia University and the UN Millennium Project with a broad purpose of assisting countries to develop operational strategies for achieving the MDGs, and to support their implementation at both local and national levels.
In early 2006, The MDG Centre reorganized to establish two sub-regional centres covering East and Southern Africa (based in Nairobi) and West and Central Africa (based in Bamako). The MDG Centre West and Central Africa (WCA) is currently working in the following countries: Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal and its rapidly expanding to other countries in the region. For more information visit: www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/tropag/policy/mdgcentres.php
The West Africa MDG Centre focuses on two complementary scales:
(i) At the national level, provide support to national Governments to develop Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-based national strategies and plans;
(ii) At the sub national level, assist local governments to develop and implement MDG-based local development plans and strategies and assist pilot Millennium Villages Project (MVP) sites and Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) to achieve MDGs at local level. .
Regional Education Specialist: Under the guidance of the Director of the MDG Centre for WCA, the Regional Education Specialist will work in close collaboration with governmental and non-governmental organizations in education in countries where MVP is being implemented to contribute to the achievement of the MDG Goal in Education;
More specifically, S/he will: Ensure that girls and boys receive quality education and complete primary, secondary formal and non-formal education, (including Islamic, Alternative Learning Provision, literacy Technical/Vocational Training and Life-Skills).
1. Provide technical support to West African countries educational systems especially in innovative strategies to accelerate the achievement of MDG 2 and the Education For All goal (EFA goal) with emphasis on developing synergies between the different educational systems including early child education and inclusion of marginalized children in schools
2. Be proficient in computer related education learning. Be able to organize e learning between several sites
Duties and responsibilities:
In close collaboration with the education departments (national, provincial, and district) and other stakeholders, the Education Specialist will intervene at two levels :
a. At national , he/she will be responsible for:
– supporting local and national education authorities to develop and help implement MDG based education programs, work plans and budgets while working with governmental and non governmental organizations to eliminate school fees and other bottlenecks to ensure full attendance at primary level.
– developing and supporting government and communities managed school feeding programs using locally produced nutriments , safe and high quality foods for all children (including early child education )
– developing strategies and programs aiming at improving school facilities
– Developing strategies to reduce gender educational gap between boys and girls including creating gender friendly learning environment and gender sensitive educational content and materials (correction of gender bias and gender sensitive capacities) ;
– Improve the content, relevance, quality of national curricula while avoiding gender bias and promoting gender equality
– Disseminate tools and best practices at national and sub regional level for scaling up
– developing and helping create post-primary education opportunities for boys and girls
– Mobilize resources to support national and regional activities in education
– Promote public and private partnership for the achievement of MDG 2 in order to ensure resource mobilization and good governance in the education sector in different countries
b. At local level she/he will contribute to:
Develop education related MDG strategies and plans at sites level (MVP, MCI, and other initiatives )
– Ensure that school infrastructure, including classrooms and toilets meet international standards
– Ensure quality in- service teacher training programmes for both formal and non formal education teachers
– Promote compulsory free education for all while establishing special initiatives to ensure enrolment and attendance of vulnerable children
– Establish and/or supporting non-formal education opportunities including but not limited to, short term learning programs, youth and adult literacy programmes and second chance education opportunities
– Promote the integration of Islamic Education, koranic schools and medrassas, into the education systems in sites where Islamic education is important
– develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation tools and organize follow-up missions
– Provide technical support to PTA and SMC in order to promote good governance and community effective participation in education management
– Generate tools and document best practices in each site for cross-site learning and sharing
Qualifications and skills
The Regional Education must have:
– Advanced degree in education, social sciences or related field with at least 5 years experience in governmental and non governmental institutions in Africa
– An extended experience in providing technical support to development partners and governments in areas relevant to Formal and Non Formal Education in Africa;
– A good understanding of rights-based/results-based approach to programming with experience in addressing gender issues and coordination.
– Ability to express clearly and concisely ideas and concepts ;
– Ability to effectively manage relationships with senior government officials, key stakholders and to work as part of a team;
– Knowledge of adult education and community participatory approaches;
– Work experience in an integrated community development project;
– Team spirit with personal skills in communication and dissemination of knowledge;
– Demonstrate organization and problem solving skills, flexibility, and ability to work under pressure;
– Proficiency in computer skills.
– Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and French;
– Willingness to travel between 30-50% of the time in the region,
– Grant writing skills and experience
– Skills on Monitoring and Evaluation of projects
– Ability to organize and proceed with e-learning techniques
– Ability to write and win successful proposals for funding
– Ability to write scientific , academic papers for publications
– Ability to conduct cross-countries education systems analysis
Applications : Candidates should send a cover letter, CV and writing sample by electronic mail to the attention of Nana Touré e-mail: keitanana2002@yahoo.fr with copy to Ibrahima Tounkara e-mail: i.Tounkara@cgiar.org, Tel +223 20 21 91 33 or +223 66740547 . Please include the words « Application for Regional specialist education »
Deadline to apply: May 01, 2009