Background/IRC Summary:    

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.

IRC has been present in Tanzania since 1993 and initially focused its response on meeting the needs of refugees from Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since the initial influx, IRC Tanzania has continued to tirelessly serve the needs of both refugees and host communities. In 2020, IRC Tanzania reached 250,000 people across three refugee camps and within the broader population. Our work focuses across Protection (including GBV, Women’s Empowerment, Child Protection and Protection and Rule of Law), Education and Health (including mental health and sexual reproductive health).

IRC in Tanzania is funded by a range of high profile institutional and voluntary donors, including governments, international organizations, corporations, and foundations.

The UK aid funded Shule Bora programme aims to improve the quality of pre-primary and primary schools in Tanzania. The programme’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 this enables children to complete primary education and progress to secondary education.
• Systems building: UKAID supports government in strengthening the value for money** of education provision at school, local and national level.

The term ‘all children’ infers particular attention to the most disadvantaged: girls, the disabled and those living deprived areas **Value for money is defined as a composite of economy, efficiency, effectiveness and equity

The programme will:

• Work with 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 Regional Coordinator will function as part of the Core Team. S/he will be required to work closely with the Senior Management Team and Outcome Leads. The Regional Coordinator will maintain working relationships with regional governments and District Education Officers (DEOs) and liaise between District Implementation Teams and central technical teams. They will make regular visits to districts to monitor progress with interventions, reporting back to technical teams where support is required. They will also manage  local offices which will provide logistical support to core team members visiting their region.

The Regional Coordinator will support the Regional Education Officer to implement activities under the Shule Bora programme. This will include working closely with government counterparts at regional and district levels to provide cross-cutting support. S/he will provide support in planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring, ensuring that ownership is built along the way. S/he will assist to coordinate activities and ensure that interventions are implemented as planned and that they are implemented in accordance with the Shule Bora operating principles. S/he will support system strengthening through the Managing for Learning (M4L) approach.

Major Responsibilities: 

The Regional Coordinator will:

General 

• Contribute to programme reporting: internal and to FCDO and Government 
• Represent Shule Bora at a regional level in meetings and presentations, providing feedback to the team
• Assess risk of activities, monitor risk and proactively raise any concerns with the senior management team
• Communicate success, lessons learnt, programme best practice and evidence of impact
• Manage programme staff working in the region, and oversee office management and financial systems in line with Shule Bora procedures
• Work in line with Shule Bora Programme policies and manuals at all times

Technical 

• Develop excellent understanding of the political economy and educational context of the region and provide updates to the senior management team
• Work closely with REO and District Education Officers and their staff to effectively plan, implement, monitor and adapt activities funded by the programme
• Under supervision of the REO, support coordination programme activities in the region to ensure best VFM
• Support implementation and monitoring of the Managing for Learning Approach
• Provide oversight, briefing and debriefing of consultants working in the Region and organisational support to facilitate their work
• Provide input on design, approach and content of materials where relevant

Build capacity

• Support the institutionalisation of programme activities within Regions and LGAs
• Identify development needs and build capacity of programme staff and counterparts

Qualifications

Skills

• Ability to prioritise 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 and PowerPoint
• Strong organisational skills, reliability, and adherence to ethical standards
• Excellent planning and budgeting skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong people leadership and influencing skills
• Fluency in written and spoken English, Kiswahili preferred.

Experience

• Experience in implementation of large-scale, international development projects
• Experience in planning and coordinating activities to improve learning
• Proven experience providing capacity building with local government
• Extensive experience with stakeholder engagement, including international donors and local government, and the ability to develop partnerships with local government, private sector, and the wider international community

Knowledge

• Educated to a degree level, Masters preferred in education, governance or related subject
• Good understanding of the Tanzanian education system

Women and People with disability are highly encouraged to apply.

Submission deadline for application is November 21st  2021.