Regional Education Advisor in West and Central Africa At Oxfam Denmark

Education Out Loud is seeking a Regional Education Advisor in West and Central Africa

Do you have experience and relevant qualifications in one or more of the following fields: learning and organisational capacity development education programme management, civil society engagement, education policy, evidence-based advocacy, and grant management? Are you motivated by putting your skills into action and making an impact in an international NGO?

Recruitment Background

Education Out Loud (EOL – www.educationoutloud.org) supports civil society organisations in shaping education policy to ensure the right to free inclusive education to all, especially for the most marginalized communities. We promote inclusive, gender responsive and equitable national education policies and systems through enhanced civil society capacities and participation in social accountability and policy advocacy processes.

Managed by Oxfam Denmark and financed by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), EOL is the biggest fund in the world for education advocacy with grants awarded to app. 80 organisations in more than 60 countries. Created in 2019, the EOL programme was recently extended to mid-2027 bringing the total funding of EOL to USD 133 million.

The EOL programme consists of five entities: A Global Management Unit (GMU) based at Oxfam Denmark’s offices in Copenhagen, Denmark, and four Regional Management Units (RMUs) located with Oxfam offices in Ghana (to be moved to Senegal), Mexico, Nepal, and Uganda. Altogether, our grant agent set-up for EOL comprises 28 full time positions, 6 of these are in the Regional Management Unit for West- and Central Africa.

What we are looking for

We are looking for a candidate with experience and professional qualifications from one or more of the following fields: civil society development, education systems, education policy, campaigning and advocacy, and programme/grant management. EOL is an extensive, complex, and ambitious programme with a wide outreach to a diverse range of stakeholders. Our new colleague should consider it a meaningful challenge to be responsive to individual grantees while at the same time maintaining consistent and systematic approaches to ensure fair and transparent assessments and decision-making processes. Our new colleague is willing and able to travel across the region in up to 12-14 weeks per year.

Job purpose

The Regional Education Adviser is an integral part of the Regional Management Unit being moved to Dakar, Senegal. The incumbent provides technical support to the 25 EOL grantees allocated to the Regional Management Unit from across the region in the development and implementation of thematic and strategic advocacy and social accountability projects on education funded by the EOL mechanism. The post holder will provide strategic orientation and oversight on the design and implementation of the learning framework with grantees within the RMU as well as lead relationships and contracts with regional and global learning partners in support of civil society capacity strengthening.

The Regional Education Advisor will among others:

• Lead and advise on technical support in strengthening civil society in education
• Lead on operationalisation of the EOL learning framework in the region;
• Be part of and contribute actively to the Education Advisors’ Virtual Team across EOL and the specific tasks in the team;
• Identify areas of learning for the EOL education portfolio through active engagement with grantees on learning plans;
• Maintain the Regional Learning Partner pool as relevant and active in relation to learning areas and identified priorities in EOL Regional Learning Plan;
• Lead on learning from experience e.g. through facilitating the establishment and functioning of learning collaboratives or peer learning across grantees in the region
• Ensure the promotion of gender equality in all parts of the learning framework implementation;
• Together with the Regional MEL Advisor, contribute to identifying methods for distilling lessons learnt on civil society participation in education policy in line with EOL Results framework and identifying areas for cross-cutting research or collation of information;
• Contribute to building the evidence from our work and disseminating this among key audiences through EOL’s communication channels.

Skills, experience, and knowledge

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following skills.

Essential

• Advanced degree or significant experience in a relevant field (international development, education policy, etc.) with 5-10 years of post-graduate experience.
• Bilingual: fluent language skills in English and French, written and spoken.
• Comprehensive knowledge and experience in project cycle management.
• Documented experience from acting in an advisory capacity on education programming.
• Good understanding of Education policy issues and knowledge of the key actors in this field in the region. Experience from working in the context of several countries in the region required.
• Documented experience from working with civil society strengthening and inclusive participation of young people, women and marginalised groups.
• Familiarity with the SDGs/2030 agenda, familiarity with the work and agenda of international and education stakeholders.
• Knowledge of capacity building, learning and development activities and how to create a learning and sharing environment with a strong knowledge management basis.
• Proven collaboration, communication, and networking.
• Strong organisational and personal management skills, with ability to prioritise work issues to meet deadlines with minimal supervision and adjust to constantly changing situations while maintaining focus on delivery and follow through.

Desirable

• Other languages advantageous, especially Portuguese
• Experience working with adaptive management approaches.