Regional Coordinator, North East - Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

Role Purpose

Plan International in partnership with Instiglio and the Jacobs Foundation will implement the Education Outcome Fund Programme (EOF) under the Ghana Accountability and Learning Outcomes Programme (GALOP). The programme aims to improve the quality of education in low-performing basic education schools and strengthen education sector equity and accountability in Ghana.

The Programme will run for a period of 4 years and will be implemented across 3 regions in Ghana (North East, Savana and Bono East) and 11 districts. The Project will support a total of 240 communities/schools.

The Regional Coordinator will work with the Project Manager and District and Project Coordinators on all community-level activities, including monitoring, stakeholder engagement, and working with parents to ensure pupils’ regular participation in Programme activities.

Dimensions of the Role

The Regional Coordinator reports to the Project Manager. S/he is a member of the programme unit.  This is a mid-level position supporting to ensure achievements of intended activities at the regional, district and community levels. S/he will technically support the preparation of budgets for stakeholder engagement events, regional and district monitoring activities and Child Protection and Safeguarding compliance.

The person should have a grasp of the entire project activities and initiatives and be able to provide the necessary support for successful project implementation.  He/she will work with local government and district stakeholders.  The community engagement and child protection lead will provide support to the project management team and team leads to ensure that project activities meet GESI standards.

The Regional Coordinator will lead the community engagement workstream across 4 districts and be responsible for the overall management of the remote field-based teams of District Coordinators and Project Coordinators. They will be directly responsible for all community engagement activities for both in-school and out-of-school components of the programme.

The Regional Coordinator will work with stakeholders at the regional and district level to support the implementation of the Project’s activities to support learning outcomes for the out-of-school and in-school students. The Regional Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating quality programming and results, financial management and compliance, stakeholder and partner relations, and donor deliverables at the regional level. The post-holder will be based in North East, Bono East/ Savanna Region and travel to project communities where the project operates.

Accountabilities

Community Engagement  

• Coordinate 2 District Coordinators and 6 Project Coordinators to strengthen School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Associations to engage selected schools to establish a more inclusive, resourceful and informed support network for parents
• Develop strategic relationships with local stakeholders (including Regional and District Directorates of Education, Local Assemblies, schools’ leadership and parents) in project districts to secure support and cooperation
• Contribute to producing the community engagement training content including adult learning strategy and other materials as required, including reports and briefing documents, and other publications
• Plan and implement intensive community outreach activities to impart pro-girl and pro-education attitudes within communities
• Support parents, pupils and communities to maximize the expected educational benefits and long-term behavioural changes
• Lead community mobilization and sensitization in the districts to ensure community readiness and continual commitment to Programme activities
• Exhibit competence in Community Engagement and coach and supervise District Coordinators to ensure quality delivery and performance

Monitoring and Reporting

• Provide feedback and strategic advice on community engagement to the Project Manager
• Leverage the use of technology to gain efficiencies and enhance two-way communication between Project team and beneficiaries
• Support tracking the progression of pupils as they transitioned to the next level of education
• Conduct routine follow-up visits to meet with parents and guardians whose wards have not attended school regularly
• Undertake routine monitoring and collect school registers for attendance data entry 
• Support the identification of local role models
• Conduct routine checks on school security
• Input and collect data within time
• Monitoring lesson delivery

Staff Relation and Recruitment

• Responsible for appraisal and Performance Management procedures for District Coordinators and provide targeted support to District Coordinators and Assistants
• Coach and supervise District Coordinators to ensure quality delivery and performance
• Support Programme Manager in the identification of talents and recruitment process to fill gaps in the workstream
• Ensure close collaboration with other Programme Team members for efficient project delivery

Responsibilities

Ability to work independently with minimal supervision. Ability to solve problems and plan changes based on M&E data. Ability to prescribe and implement innovative solutions to challenges found in a complex learning education project with marginalized students and out of school children.

Ability to support the teaching capacity of a wide range of stakeholders face to face and remotely. Ability to anticipate risks and mitigate them. Ability to manage remote staff. Ability to understand the challenges that marginalized beneficiaries encounter in educational settings and capacity to propose solutions to overcome them. Ability to analyse issues for decision making to strengthen and support project delivery and refer to higher manager for approval

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility.

This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.