Job Title:   School Support Associate - Community Mobilization

Department:Grants Program - USAID funded Pakistan Reading Project

Locations: Mardan and Upper Dir (The selected candidate will be initially posted in Mardan for a period of 4-5 months and will be shifted to Upper Dir for the remaining 6-7 months. The selected candidate will be required to arrange his/her accommodation and no TA/DA will be admissible.)

Contract Duration: One Year

Travel Requirements: This project has extensive field travel and the candidate should be willing to travel across district/province/region and to remote areas (at least 65% time in the field)

Program Background Summary:

The USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project (PRP), implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and its partners (Creative Associates International, World Learning, and Institute of Rural Management), is a seven-year project with the objective to support the provincial and regional departments of education (DoE) throughout Pakistan to improve reading skills of children in grades one and two. The project aims to achieve this goal through three distinct but interrelated components that work in synergy to affect the quality of early grade education: improved classroom learning environment for reading, improved policies and systems for reading, and community based support for reading in Pakistan.

Job Overview/Summary

School Support Associate - Community Mobilization will be responsible to maintain close coordination with Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs) or other parental bodies of grantee schools; conduct community sessions, build capacity of PTCs; ensure timely implementation of grant activities by PTCs; conduct monitoring visits; develop progress reports; and assure quality of program implementation.   

The role includes but not limited to the following:

Major Responsibilities:

-          Plan and conduct orientation and capacity building sessions of PTCs on grants related reporting requirements and monitoring tools.

-          Ensure the grantee PTCs are implementing activities in-line with the executed grant agreements, including program progress and adherence to objectives, submission of timely modification and extension requests, procurement regulations and requests for waivers/derogations, etc.

-          Conduct monitoring visits of grantee PTCs, identify gaps, develop visit reports and share with central grants team.

-          Maintain close coordination with PTCs members and schools administration.

-          Provide timely support to grantee PTCs regarding implementation of grant activities, where needed.  

-          Ensure the PTCs grants are timely closed out.

-          Ensure all grant files are organized and well managed for planning and preparation of donor reports and project monitoring.

-          Conduct grant opening meetings, grant review meetings, and grant close out meetings.

-          Maintain close coordination with SSAs and keep updated information on all implementing grants.

-          Develop all internal and external reporting, ensuring high-quality, well-written and timely reports meeting donor and IRC requirements.

-          Conduct community sessions and meetings to educate the community on the importance of reading and on their role in the development of their children.

-          Establish contacts with the community, share project objectives & activities, and invite them to participate in the activities and events in the school.

-          Facilitate documentation of institutional knowledge and past program activities.

-          Any other task as specified by the supervisor.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Respective District Program Managers (DPMs) Other Contacts:

Internal: Regional/Provincial Technical Teams, School Support Associates (SSAs)

External: Education Department officials, Schools Administration, Parents Teachers Committees (PTCs)

Job Requirements:

·         At least a Master’s degree in Social Science or any other relevant subject with 2-3 years of experience in community mobilization or a similar job.

·         Preference will be given to the following

ü  Experience of working with international donor funded projects.

ü  Experience of working with PTCs and or communities

ü  Social mobilization experience with education projects or schools

ü  Demonstrated monitoring, evaluation and implementation experience.

ü  Proficiency in MS- office (Computer skills)

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·         Willing to work with children, parents, teachers and communities;

·         Good interpersonal and coordination/communication skills, both verbal and written in Urdu and English.

·         Good information sharing and report writing skills.

·         Willingness to work in and travel (at least 65%) to remote areas and in a diverse environment.

·         Flexible, motivated, team player and fast to learn

·         Fluent in Urdu and dominant local language (s)