Technical Director - Girls Protective Education

Background
World Education, a division of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI/WE) is dedicated to improving people’s lives around the world through greater health, education and socioeconomic equity for individuals and communities, and to providing an environment where people of passion can pursue this cause.

JSI/WE is seeking a Technical Director for the anticipated USAID Protective Education for Girls in Mali program, which aims to address the multifaceted barriers faced by vulnerable learners, especially girls (ages 6-19), in Mali by focusing on improving access to quality education, enhancing teacher capacity, and providing targeted support for girls. By implementing a comprehensive approach that includes accelerated learning centers, teachers’ professional development, and community-driven support, the program seeks to achieve significant improvements in educational outcomes and ensure that primary school-aged children, particularly girls, complete their education with the necessary skills and competencies.

Job Summary
The Technical Director's primary responsibility is to provide oversight to all program interventions and collaborate with all relevant education departments and stakeholders nationally and locally. S/he will be responsible for coordinating all program interventions and providing technical oversight of the project’s technical staff. The Technical Director will assist the Chief of Party (COP) in overall project leadership and liaising with the Government of Mali, USAID, and other key stakeholders. The Technical Director is a member of the Senior Management Team of the project and reports to the COP. Responsibilities include the overall coordination of program activities aimed at improving access to and retention in schools through the implementation of accelerated learning programs, improvement of teacher well-being and instructional quality, and targeted support for girls to increase entry and retention in school.

 

• Coordinate all program interventions and provide technical oversight to the project’s technical staff to design, implement, and monitor program interventions aimed at improving educational outcomes for vulnerable school-aged children, especially girls (6-19) in mining communities of Mali;
• Ensure quality of all program interventions, including:
• establishing and/or supporting accelerated learning programs designed to support vulnerable learners, specifically girls, to catch up to their peers and reintegrate into formal education;
• improving teacher instruction quality and social emotional competencies to improve foundational learning outcomes for students; and,
• implementing targeted activities (economic strengthening, conditional cash transfers, WASH, menstrual hygiene management, etc.) to increase girls’ school enrollment and retention by addressing barriers to school.
• Actively integrate evidence-based strategies into all program technical, operational, and/or Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) work;
• Review project work plans, designing activities that target students and teachers, including age- and developmentally-appropriate activities, and activities that are responsive to and target marginalized youth;
• Coordinate effective partnerships with the Malian Ministry of National Education, subcontracted technical partner staff, and other relevant stakeholders and line ministries at the local, district, and national level;
• Strengthen the capacity of staff, partners, and stakeholders to integrate gender equity and other social inclusion considerations into intervention design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation in alignment with USAID’s Positive Youth Development Framework and Do no Harm approach;
• Support the MEL team in reviewing indicators, setting targets, planning for data collection, analysis, and reporting, and setting priorities around learning outcomes;
• Lead the development of quarterly and annual project reports and internal documentation as required;
• Disseminate lessons learned among program staff and stakeholders and make programmatic adaptations, as required.

Qualifications

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in education, gender studies, youth development, international studies, social protection, or social sciences is required. Master’s degree or equivalent preferred;
• At least 8-10 years of consecutive proven work experience in managing and providing technical leadership in large, complex projects in education, youth development, gender and social inclusion and protection and/or integrated multi-sectoral basic education programs, USAID experience preferred;
• Familiarity with the Psychosocial Support-Social Emotional Learning (PSS-SEL) Toolbox (Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies), USAID Positive Youth Development (PYD) Framework, conflict-sensitive education approaches and gender and equity strategies;
• Demonstrated experience and familiarity with the Malian primary education curriculum, accelerated learning programs and curriculums, continuous and summative assessment design, and program adaptation to achieve results;
• Experience engaging the private sector in Mali, preferably mining industry;
• Solid contextual knowledge of barriers to school in Mali, particularly for girls ages 6-19 in mining communities;
• Demonstrated experience conducting gender and/or youth analysis, including qualitative data collection;
• Proven interpersonal skills with the ability to build personal relationships with staff, donor partners, and government stakeholders at all levels in a culturally sensitive manner;
• Program/project management experience working with rural, underserved populations;
• Demonstrated experience developing community engagement strategies and approaches, and building the capacity of staff and partners to operationalize these;
• Effective oral and written communication skills to make formal and informal presentations and compose professional and analytical reports and program documents in French; Bambara and English professional proficiency preferred;
• Malian nationals strongly encouraged to apply.