ThaiNGO

TITLE: Programme Associate (Education Programme in Myanmar)

TEAM/PROGRAMME:  Asia Sub-Regional Office (ASRO)

LOCATION: Home-based (working during Myanmar – GMT+6:30 – hours)

Number of Position: 1

CONTRACT LENGTH: Full time agreement – 1 year, renewable

Role: The ASRO education programme partners with selected education provider systems to strengthen their capacity to deliver and sustain good quality learning opportunities for hard-to-reach children in Myanmar. As a multi-donor funded programme with a $15-20million/year annual budget, the education programme operates in a fragile and complex context. With funding support from four institutional donors (USAID, DFAT, FCDO and Finland), the programme provides funding, coordination, technical assistance and research across different local partner systems to promote continuous improvement of education services and a supportive operating environment for strengthening education outcomes. The programme is currently in its third phase of implementation with a strategy period of 2021-2029 and is currently recruiting for a fluent English speaker with strong English writing skills to serve as Programme Associate, providing donor liaison, reporting support, management assistance, implementation risk monitoring, and other forms of programme assistance, as required, to the programme.

Introduction: 

The Programme Associate will report to the Deputy Chief of Party for Programme Operations, providing assistance and coordination to donors and the senior leadership team on a range of tasks. Primary responsibilities include liaising and coordinating with donors; providing programme management assistance; planning and documenting high-level meetings; supporting with donor requirements, communications and reporting; andmonitoring implementation risks and challenges. 

The Programme Associate is expected to be a contracted consultancy position that is home-based, working online remotely with the Myanmar and Thai-based team members; however, the candidate is expected to work during Myanmar (GMT +6:30) working hours (9am - 5:30pm) with travel to Bangkok as required (or located in Bangkok if the successful candidate has/obtains appropriate work authorization). Successful candidates who are Thai nationals are expected to be under an employment contract position.

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

Reports to: Deputy Chief of Party, Programme Operations

Donor Liaison and Coordination Support

• Convene donor Steering Committee meetings, soliciting inputs and preparing the agenda, preparing and sharing documents in advance, coordinating schedules and invitations, ensuring that minutes are produced in a timely manner, circulated and approved, and that action points are followed up on;
• Consolidate donors’ inputs to key programme documents (such as reports, annual plans, etc), identifying areas that require further discussion or agreement across donors in order to reach consensus and supporting the Steering Committee Chair in cross-donor liaison for decision-making;
• Coordinating provision of team inputs to donors’ internal reporting and otherrequirements, particularly related to programme management, operations, and risk monitoring;
• Facilitate gathering inputs across donors on areas of strategic importance to the programme;
• Assist in donor field visit planning;
• Support other coordination and liaison activities with donors / Steering Committee, as required.

Programme Management Assistance

• Ensure efficient and timely support to the Chief of Paty, Deputy Chief of Party, and other Directors in the Senior Leadership Team;
• Prepare concise and accurate minutes for quarterly Steering Committee meetings, Senior Leadership Team meetings, Senior Management Team meetings and other selected meetings (utilising online meeting recordings and/or attendance at meetings);
• Provide oversight in ensuring follow up actions from meetings are taken forward and maintain an action point tracker;
• Review documents, communication pieces, programme management manuals and/or donor report drafts, supporting in proof reading, editing text as necessary and ensuring formatting of all external-facing products are in alignment with the programme’s style guide;
• Maintain document version control and ensure appropriate filing of final versions of key documents in the programme’s shared drive, ensuring files are organised intuitively with a filing ‘map’ to ensure all team members can easily locate desired files;
• Prepare presentations or other briefs for management use in meetings or workshops;
• Provide support for the development and finalization of communications and reporting products or publications, as needed;
• Lead administrative management of specific activities, workshops, meetings, or events, as assigned;
• Support other tasks / assignments as assigned.

Implementation Risk Monitoring

• Liaise with programme staff and other resources to keep up to date with current risks in programme implementation;
• Coordinate regular updates, seeking input from across teams, to the Risk Management Plan and Matrix;
• Support in managing and mitigating risks as identified in the Risk Management Plan;
• Prepare risk-related reports to donors and internal stakeholders.

Travel: 

• Minimum (up to one week per month, if feasible depending on the base location of the candidate and opportunities for travel to partner areas / team meetings)

Person Specifications:

• B.A. in Development or International Studies or related discipline;
• Excellent written and spoken English language skills and ability to communicate effectively using technical international development terminology;
• Proven skills in proof reading and editing documents, reports and communication materials;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and respect;
• Well-organized, attentive to detail, skilled in setting priorities and meeting deadlines, and able to handle working under pressure and addressing multiple tasks simultaneously;
• Pro-active in anticipating work requirements and problem-solving;
• Ability to analyse information, evaluate options and to think and plan strategically;
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures;
• Coordination skills, including experience of coordinating a team of people to deliver results within a restricted timeframe;
• Ability to work independently as well as with a team;
• The capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in light of challenging circumstances;
• Willingness to work during Myanmar working hours;
• Commitment to Save the Children International values.

Desirable:

• Degree / background in the field of Education;
• Work or research experience in/with the Myanmar context;
• Experience in international development or humanitarian programming;
• Previous experience of administration and/or project management;
• Understanding of donor compliance requirements;
• Ability and willingness to travel;
• Having as one’s ‘home’ base Myanmar or Thailand.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity
• Always acts in the best interests of children

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities 

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. 

All staff has an obligation and a responsibility to: 

• Ensure they fully understand the provisions of the Child Safeguarding Policy, the Code of Conduct and Local/Country Procedures. 
• Conduct themselves in accordance with the rules of the Child Safeguarding Policy, in their personal and professional lives – which includes reporting suspicions of child abuse. 
• Ensure the way they are carrying out their work is not putting children at risk (or further risk) – this means constantly scrutinizing their work through a child safeguarding lens and talking to children about possible design/implementation “flaws”. 
• Promote the message of child safeguarding to colleagues in other organizations and government ministries, children in their own and beneficiary families, and community members in general. 
• Be vigilant about observing possible child abuse/harm in their personal and professional lives. 

All managers have the above responsibilities as well as ensuring 

• Their staff are doing the above. 
• That child safeguarding is integrated and given a “voice” in all management processes including recruitment, induction, performance management, team meetings, annual planning processes, field level monitoring, etc. 

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Interested and qualified candidates are requested to send an Application Letter, Curriculum Vitae to:

This link   www.savethechildren.net/careers/apply/details?jid=8573

Human Resources Department | Save the Children International

518/5 Maneeya Building, Bangkok , Thailand

Not later than 11:59 P.M., 18 August 2024 (Sunday) Bangkok Time

Candidates are also requested to mention in the applications if there is, blood/marriage relationships with the existing Save the Children employees.  No requirement of photo or copy of certificates and only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Remark: For those who failed to mention or incorrectly mention the apply position title, Programme/Sector name and location in their applications, we will consider those as disqualify and we will not consider for short list.

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.