Senior Project Officer

Program Brief

Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the world’s leading agencies working in post-conflict and development contexts, supporting communities in over 40 fragile, failed and developing states. In this capacity, we work to restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted, struggling to endure, and wishing to advance on a path of development.The IRC began working in Bangladesh in October 2017 in response to the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, working initially through partnerships with national and international agencies to deliver lifesaving assistance. In March 2018 IRC secured registration in Bangladesh and since then has significantly expanded its programming, focusing on humanitarian protection with a specific focus on women and girls and health. In the next year, IRC will look to expand programming further to meet the needs of both refugee and host communities to allow them to survive, recover, and gain control of their future with education.

IRC’s response strategy will primarily target Rohingya as well as vulnerable host populations. IRC will grow over time its geographic coverage within Cox’s Bazar and to other parts of the country, thus expanding its’ networks and partnerships around emergency preparedness and response work, reaching beyond the Rohingya refugees and Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh.

Purpose of the Role

IRC in Bangladesh is going to implement a three-year project funded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) in coordination with education sector starting from 2022. The project mainly focuses on both the Rohingya and host community with a specific focus on access, quality education, inclusion, MHPSS, Children with Disability and gender equality. The age group that will be supported under this project is 3 – 18 years old for the Rohingya community and 4 – 6 years old for the host community.

This role will be responsible for supporting field-level partner staff with day-to-day activities with a focus on implementation level capacity building and helping Sr. Manager with procurement, budget management and partner management. He/she will support the technical manager with identifying partner project staff needs on capacity building, tools development, support with training and facilitation. The personnel will be also responsible for project-related documentation process (i.e., module, case study, success story). As a team member of the Education program, he/she will also closely work with Program and Operations team to foster quality program implementation on the ground.

Highlights of Key Responsibilities

• Support partner field staff with day-to-day activities with a focus on implementation level capacity building.
• Ensure age-appropriate all necessary teaching-learning materials for children through the partner.
• Support developing activity-based training modules for learning facilitators and partner/project personnel.
• Support facilitating capacity-building initiatives for learning facilitators and partner/project personnel.
• Ensure in-service coaching/mentoring support to learning facilitators and partner/project personnel.
• Develop guidelines on facilitators learning cycle (FLC) as per education sector standards.
• Assess partner/project personnel/facilitators’ skills and take necessary initiatives for improvement.
• Assess children’s progress on learning outcomes and recommend necessary initiatives for improvement.
• Identify good practices from community people on teaching learning materials development and replication of those good practices.
• Coordination between program and operation team to ensure implementation of planned activities.
• Regular visits to project areas (Camps and host) for developing project activities and quality implementation.
• Ensure project-related quality documentation (i.e., case study, success story).
• Functional working relationship with Education and other teams and extend support where necessary and rationale.
• Any other relevant tasks assigned from IRC management.

Major Challenges/Difficulties of this role

• Should be willing to travel to project areas (Camps & Host) on a regular basis.
• Understanding and sensitivity to the local context.
• Ability to work under pressure.

Minimum Qualifications:

Experience (Including sector/industry)

• At least 2 years with NGO/INGOs.
• Working experience with the Education program will be an additional value.

Language Proficiency

• Speaking fluency in English and Bangla.
• Strong writing skill both in English and Bangla.
• Understanding of local dialect will be an additional value.

Knowledge, Skills & Competences

• Experience in working with refugees and vulnerable groups of people.
• Understanding and sensitivity to the needs of people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
• Ability to meet deadlines and able to work under pressure.
• Responsiveness to queries and referrals as and when needed and ability to manage a varying workload.
• Cultural awareness and ability to build relationships quickly with a wide variety of people.
• Computer skills for MS office.

Specific Educational Qualification

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree from any discipline or equivalent.
• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Social Welfare, Sociology, Development Studies, and English will be preferable.

Professional degree/Certification

• N/A