Summary
The Senior Specialist, Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD) position is part of the ECCD team within the Department of Education and Child Protection (DECP), centrally focusing on supporting our work in Sub-Saharan Africa. You will provide technical support to country offices to design, implement, monitor and improve the quality of ECCD programs in collaboration with program staff, and will lead new business development and proposal writing to expand and strengthen our ECCD portfolio, particularly on USAID grants. In this role, you will contribute to quality assurance and program development by providing remote and in-person technical assistance, building capacity among program staff, and expanding the implementation and continual revision of Save the Children’s ECCD interventions. You will work with a global team to support the dissemination of technical packages, development of partnerships and implementation of the organizational strategy for early childhood development and generally support and grow the ECCD portfolio. THIS POSITION MAY BE BASED IN AFRICA, BUT WILL BE SUBJECT TO LOCAL COMPENSATION POLICIES AND LAWS.
What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)
Technical Support to Country Offices to Implement Quality Programs (45%)
- Work with country offices to design, implement, monitor, evaluate and document ECCD programs for children from birth to eight years in development and humanitarian settings.
- Ensure that ECCD programs effectively address dimensions of adversity and inequity affecting young children and their families.
- Support the implementation of private and public funded ECCD programs in Africa with technical rigor.
- Mentor country teams on how to use evidence to drive program improvement.
- Support country offices to improve the quality and scale of programming using quality improvement tools and scaling strategies.
- Guide country offices and partners on how to adapt and implement Common Approaches and establish connections with other common approaches within the movement.
- Raise the level of integration and quality of nurturing care by collaborating with other disciplines or sectors, such as gender, child protection, MHPSS, nutrition and health.
- Serve as a strategic resource for country offices to strengthen key national and regional partnerships.
Knowledge Dissemination and Networking (15%)
- Work with country office teams to consistently review, document and share their programs and identify new opportunities for dissemination.
- Implement the ECCD team’s knowledge dissemination strategy to ensure that programs are visible and influential in the Africa region and Save the Children movement.
- Facilitate cross-country learning exchanges to foster a culture of innovation, collaboration and quality improvement across Save the Children countries in Africa.
- Attend or support country office colleagues to attend networking events to disseminate innovative programs, influence regional strategies and strengthen key partnerships with donors and other actors.
Thought Leadership (15%)
- Work with country office programs to ensure that their programs are at the forefront of the ECCD movement in Africa.
- Contribute to the ECCD team’s strategy by researching, testing and improving approaches to improve the quality, level of integration and scale of ECCD programs, and their ability.
- Attend professional development events to learn about new developments in ECCD to address adversity, reduce inequity and scale.
- Establish and strengthen partnerships with national and regional partners and contribute to key strategies and resources.
- Advocate and liaise with donors and governments to provide thought leadership and increase investment in ECD.
New Business Development (25%)
- Help identify and pursue new funding opportunities that align with the ECCD team’s strategic priorities.
- Support proposal development to strengthen SC’s ECCD program portfolio.
- Lead the design, writing, and review of technical proposals and ensure cost proposals reflect technical design appropriately.
- Lead proposal design and writing for large scale USAID projects.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor degree or equivalent experience, plus at least five (5) years of relevant experience
- Proven Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program experience.
- Demonstrated programming experience in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Proven successful proposal development skills, grant design, implementation and reporting for private and public donors.
- Demonstrated ability to run high quality interactive trainings in person and remotely.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate successfully with individuals and teams at all levels, both internal and external
- Experience in one or more of the following: USAID funded projects, health and nutrition programming, advocacy.
- Professional proficiency in spoken and written English, with demonstrated training and public speaking abilities, as well as ability to communicate programs and evidence to different audiences.
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% of the time
- Demonstrated commitment to fostering and maintaining an environment of diversity, inclusion, and belonging
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in any of the following sectors: gender, disabilities, emergencies, health, nutrition, emergencies, disaster risk reduction, MHPSS, climate change.
- Skills in using research and evidence to drive programs. Knowledge on IDELA preferred.
Why you should join the Save the Children Team…
Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, pet insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, 403(b), generous vacation, personal sick leave, family leave, parental/adoption leave, commuter benefits, dress for your day, and much more.
Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in YOU!
About Save the Children
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.
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