UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full time (100%) UNOPS position attached to UNHCR's headquarters-based Education Section.
Education is an integral part of protection for persons of concerns to UNHCR, fifty percent of whom are children and youth. The Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS), in close collaboration with the Regional Bureaux, is working on an integrated and holistic approach to support locations in implementing the policies and guidelines on education, especially in terms of solutions where education plays a large role in an individual’s ability to plan for their own future, and to contribute to society as a whole.
Unfortunately, refugee children do not have the same educational opportunities as their peers, with refugee children being five times more likely to be out of school. At primary school level, only 63% of refugee children attend school, compared to a global average of 91%, and the statistics worsen dramatically in secondary and tertiary education. The protection risks associated with refugee children not being in school are well known.
The headquarters-based Education Section (operating out of Copenhagen) also manages specific programmes in coordination with country operations focused on thematic issues; one such programme in the Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA) which is about to enter its second phase of implementation.
The Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA) identifies promising interventions (innovations) that address the education needs of children living in protracted crises and supports these innovators to build their evaluation capacity and provides technical and capacity building in order to assist them to scale up innovations. The HEA will generate evidence of "what works" with respect to the implementation and expansion of education innovations in emergency and protracted crises by providing rigorous evidence of interventions’ effectiveness and potential to scale; strengthening the capacity of organisations to document processes and undertake rigorous evaluations; and documenting lessons learnt on taking innovations to scale in refugee settings.
The HEA will work with a number of organisations (referred to as the innovation teams) to support them to develop systems and processes to take promising refugee education innovation to scale. The HEA is expected to contribute to the body of knowledge regarding successful scaling of innovative projects and approaches to education for conflict-affected populations. It is therefore important that the findings of evaluations, the lessons learnt in taking innovative projects to scale and the documenting the process of capacity development be communicated effectively both within UNHCR and to external audiences.
The second phase of the Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA) is funded through Education Cannot Wait's Acceleration Facility and will be implemented over a 24 month period starting February 2020.
Under the supervision of the HQ-based Senior Education Officer (Emergencies) and in collaboration with the Chief of the Education Section, the HEA Project Coordinator will have the following duties and responsibilities:
Coordination for activities carried out under the Humanitarian Education Accelerator, including management of the selection of participating organisations, communication with participating organisations and with UNHCR country offices and regional Bureaux and ensuring that key project milestones are met.
Preparation of donor reports and providing regular updates to the Education Section on project implementation
In close collaboration with relevant staff in the Education Section, support the preparation of partnership agreements and ensure that partner selection processes conform to UNHCR's procedures. Take part in monitoring visits to partner organisations.
Provide secretariat suport to the HEA Steering Committee
Collaborate with project team members in the development of content for workshops
Develop linkages between the work of the HEA and that of the Education Section
The staff member will be expected to travel to project implementation sites in order to participate in workshops and project monitoring activities.
The HEA Project Coordinator will produce the following deliverables over the course of the project:
Launch and manage the call for applications for participating organisations
Communciate partner selection to applicants and establish channels for regular discussion and interaction with partner organisations
Maintain regular communication with UNHCR country offices, regional Bureaux and the Education Section on project roll-out. Establish working relationships with Programme Officers in each country of implementation to ensure effective partner monitoring and compliance with UNHCR procedures related to the management of partnership agreements
Arrange meetings (in-person or online) for Steering Committee and regular project management meetings (one per quarter)
Draft periodic donor reports and coordinate inputs from techncial specialists
Arrange workshops for partner organisations and contribute to planning of the content of these workshops
1. Education
Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in project management, business administration, international development, international relations, or relevant studies
2. Work Experience
• Minimum 5 years relevant professional experience of which at least 3 years’ experience should be working with humanitarian or development organisations preferably with field experience;
• Demonstrated experience in working in international development, humanitarian issues, and children’s rights.
• Experience in working on research and evaluation projects (desirable).
3. Key Competencies
• Strong background project management and coordination;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office tools;
• Excellent written and spoken English is required. Given support to francophone countries, proficient written and spoken French would be an asset.
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills, and experience working effectively with geographically dispersed teams;
• Proven ability to manage demands from multiple stakeholders while adhering to program deadlines and priorities;
• Good stakeholder management and ability to work effectively with multiple partners and cross-functional teams
• Strong independent decision-making, organizational, planning, and problem-solving skills
The successful candidate will be based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The staff member will be expected to travel to project implementation sites in order to participate in workshops and project monitoring activities.
This vacancy is archived.