EOF Ghana Job Vacancy For Senior Advisor

About the Education Outcomes Fund for Africa & the Middle East

The Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and the Middle East (EOF) is an initiative of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) and the Education Commission. The EOF aims to pool $1 billion to support governments to pay for results in education and youth employment over the next decade. Together with government, EOF will harness the capacity and capabilities of a range of actors that can strengthen the national education system and help deliver quality education for all.

The Ghana Out of School Children (OOSC) Funding Program will be one of the EOF’s first funding windows and will aim to support over 100,000 out of school children into mainstream education over 4- 6 years, with an ambition to launch in autumn 2019. Despite impressive progress in expanding access to Basic Education, as of 2014, 450,000 6 to 14 year-olds in Ghana were not enrolled in school, with out-ofschool rates particularly high in deprived, rural areas of northern Ghana.

About the Senior Advisor Role

The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) for Africa & the Middle East is seeking highly qualified candidates for the position of Senior Advisor, Ghana.

The EOF is working in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Ghana to design an Outcomes Funding Window to support out-of-school children in disadvantaged districts to transition into mainstream primary education. Under outcomes-based contracts, donors and governments pay not for inputs and activities, but for pre-agreed outcomes once they are successfully delivered. Where required, impact investors provide the upfront capital for non-government delivery partners to achieve contractual outcomes, with donors and government paying if agreed targets are met.

The EOF program is expected to be delivered through a number of non-state providers with a focus on supporting out of school children to develop basic numeracy and literacy skills and to transition successfully into and remain in mainstream education. Social impact will be measured through the academic progress of children enrolled in the programme, and the rate of transition to, as well as retention in, mainstream school.

Working as part of an integrated EOF / Government of Ghana team, the Senior Advisor will drive the detailed design and launch of EOF’s anticipated $30m OOSC Funding Program. They will play a key role in maintaining momentum among key stakeholders; leading engagement with the Education Ministry, Ghana Education Service, donor agencies, delivery partners and local investors; and supporting the EOF evaluation and analytical teams to access and interpret data.

The Senior Advisor will initially be appointed for 6-month period (with potential for extension subject to program need and mutual agreement). The position will be based in Accra within the Ministry of Education, with travel to other parts of Ghana – including, but not limited to, the Northern Districts – as required.

Core functions

The Senior Advisor will support the Funding Program design process in the following ways:

Stakeholder management

Work in close collaboration with the relevant teams at the EOF, Ministry of Education and GES to progress program design, preparation & launch.

• Act as the key link between the London-based EOF team and partners in-country, including
senior representatives of:

o Ministry of Education and GES
o Service providers interested in bidding to deliver outcomes
o Civil society interest groups
o Donor agencies and local investors
o EOF Ghana Advisory Committee

• Lead provider engagement, including:

o Engaging existing and potential providers in the market, in order to (i) familiarise
potential providers with the proposed program and procurement process and (ii)
establish their capacity and willingness to deliver to an outcomes-funded contract
o Organising provider engagement workshops and one-to-one sessions as required
o Brokering partnerships between outcomes-based investors and delivery partners where
appropriate

• Act as an ambassador for the project with local communities, district education services, the
academic establishment, civil society actors and other external stakeholders as required –including coordinating external communications and PR in-country with the Ministry of
Education

Support with Outcomes Funding Program Design

Work with key stakeholders in-country to support the EOF / GoG team to design the OOSC Outcomes Funding Program.

• Liaise with service providers and Government to obtain data required to inform selection of
target population, choice of outcomes for payments and price of outcomes

• Support the evaluation advisors to:

o Assess current provider-level and national data, and determine the need for additional data verification, collection, management and/or monitoring systems o Develop clear performance and outcome measurement approaches for the interventions

• Support the capacity building of government and service providers around outcomes based contracting design, procurement and contract management processes
• Support the provider selection process, including:

o Liaise with government on the planning and execution of the procurement process
o Develop a market outreach approach and engage providers
o Support with collation & review of EOI responses

• Support due diligence and capacity building for potential service providers
• Support definition of required programme participation criteria for providers, including:

o Policies around safeguarding, bribery and corruption
o Ethics & behaviour
o Financial strength & management capability

• Undertake an operational, intervention, evaluation and political risk assessment for the programme
• Coordinate support from external, in-house and local legal counsel to identify key requirements and limitations for fiduciary entities / funding and legal structures required

Project management

• The Senior Advisor will report to the EOF Program Director and a Ministry of Education Senior
Planning Officer, and will be required to proactively, regularly and fully inform EOF, Social
Finance and their partners of progress, issues and potential problems

Duration and start date

• A 6-month contract with potential to extend. Mar – Oct 2019 (subject to a one-month
probationary period)
• Immediate start preferred
The successful candidate will be offered a competitive package, commensurate with experience,
including reasonable travel expenses within Ghana.

Qualification Required & Experience

We are looking for a highly motivated, self-starting individual with the following attributes:

• At least 8 years of relevant professional experience, including high-level stakeholder management, strategic and operational program design, and program procurement
• Highly analytical with good project management, communication (external and internal) and stakeholder management skills
• Prior experience of working within the education sector in Ghana
• Demonstrated ability to engage with senior government, NGO and private sector stakeholders in Ghana
• Excellent knowledge of, and preferably relationships with, key stakeholders within the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and GES
• Previous experience of working with international organisations and donor agencies
• Bachelor’s degree required. Masters degree preferred.
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Excellent computer skills in Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and Internet use, including database use, is required

Location: Accra