Baza natječaja

Early Childhood Development Expert for the Roma Education Fund

Description

The Roma Education Fund (REF) seeks to increase the quality, access and comprehensiveness of early childhood services, prioritizing disadvantaged Roma families, with the aim of improving equity and capability. To achieve these objectives in target countries, REF develops initiatives aimed at improving public policies and programs, builds capacity of professionals and civil society, promotes equity through targeting of early childhood programs, and provides grantees working in the field with financial support and technical assistance.

The aim is to build effective systems in which local governments, professionals, civil society and national authorities in an equitable manner and effectively fulfill their respective roles to guarantee the right of each child to develop to his or her full potential. Early childhood development (EDC) expert will develop with REF team its’ early childhood work in designated countries. This will include oversight of REFs’ extensive investment in its flagship early childhood program in the region, `A Good Start`, which was launched in 2010.

The ECD expert’s primary responsibility will be to ensure the quality of ECD services in all REF sponsored or implemented programs. The expert will be responsible for developing and monitoring the quality of ECD of the funded projects; helping partners who are being funded to ensure learning outcomes for children and better caregiving skills for parents; introducing new learning materials and techniques to the existing programs serving Roma children; reviewing and/or writing publications and reports on the quality of ECD provision in countries in which REF works; In addition, REF continues to promote initiatives that extend access and quality services to Roma communities and Roma families, who do not have access to comprehensive quality early childhood services. For this position REF is seeking a full time professional with substantial expertise and relevant experience in early childhood development in international contexts.
 

Responsibilities

• Ensure quality of services for REF grant programs where early childhood development is targeted
• Develop and monitor the quality of REF programs, grantees, and associated partners to promote early childhood development ,
• Assist REF partners who are being funded to introduce new learning materials and techniques, to ensure learning outcomes for children and to improve parenting skills for primary caregivers
• Contribute to the implementation of quality ECD projects to deepen the impact and maximize the learning outcomes.
• Develop and monitor new and existing strategic initiatives to promote early childhood development in REF project countries, for partners, grantees; maintaining the cooperation with key partners: OSF, UNICEF, BvLF, ISSA, etc. Coordinate more extensive initiatives, including not only piloting of innovative programs, but also overseeing REFs’ role in structural reforms, policy reviews and policy development, in targeted countries.
• Understand remaining challenges related to early childhood development in the region
• Manage multi and single country monitoring initiatives, evaluations and pilots in order to disseminate and share lessons learned and generate evidence for change.
• Contribute to advocacy efforts within existing projects and actively seek new opportunities to engage in advocacy to improve the situation of young Roma children.
• Review and/or write publications and reports on the quality of ECD provision in countries in which REF works, particularly about quality REF funded projects. Prepare publications and provide clear summaries on key topics and suggesting strategies to ensure that children’s are receiving quality services.
• Produce briefings, policy papers and presentations for diverse audiences on all aspects of improving access to high quality, inclusive and effective early childhood services in Decade Countries.
• Develop external partnerships with relevant early childhood development actors and organizations (at both European and country levels) and donor agencies, research institutions and advocacy organizations to promote inclusive early childhood development in the region.

Experience and skills

• Commitment to addressing the needs of young children and their families.
• Advanced degree in early childhood development, education, psychology, sociology, public health, international development or a relevant field.
• Extensive practical experience in implementation of quality ECD initiatives
• Extensive knowledge of early childhood development and the international and European early education and development field, including familiarity with the activities of the main donor organizations, experts and networks and current trends in programming, evaluation and research.
• Knowledge of internal and external monitoring systems and formative and summative evaluation processes that are used to generate evidence of impact.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical assistance to governments on early childhood issues, as well as strategic and organizational support to grantees in transitional and developing countries.
• Ability to work effectively and efficiently as part of a small team
• Excellent spoken and written English and presentation skills
• Roma language skills and experience in Western Balkan countries is an advantage.

Remuneration

Commensurate with experience.
 

How to apply

Interested candidates should submit their CV , motivational letter, and their expected remuneration to ebader@romaeducationfund.org till 3rd February, 2013.