Programme Officer (Early Childhood Development)

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About the Organization

The Aga Khan Foundation is a leading global development organisation working to tackle the root causes of poverty. For more than 50 years, we have helped create strong community institutions that support sustainable, locally driven initiatives to improve the lives of millions of people. By combining local knowledge with global best practices, we strive to bring about transformative and long-lasting improvements to quality of life.

Job Description

The Aga Khan Foundation (India) is seeking to recruit a Programme Officer (Early Childhood Development - ECD) to lead, provide strategic direction and implement the Foundation’s ECD n programme in Bihar. The Programme Officer (ECD) will play a crucial technical and management support role to all stakeholders. He/ She will be responsible for directly implementing, planning and monitoring the ECD programme in the three priority districts as well as ensuring the quality and effectiveness of the programme with support from the State Programme Manager (Bihar) and the AKF Delhi office. The position will lead the ECD programme teams and will work closely with other sector Programme Officers for implementation support as well as coordinate with other relevant stakeholders at the local and state level.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead, guide and mentor the ECD programme teams towards defined objectives in close consultation with the State Programme Manager and with inputs and technical support from the AKF Delhi office.
• Liaise and provide technical support to the ECD teams in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur ensuring alignment in practices and reporting timelines with regular field visits.
• Contribute to the development of annual work plans and budgets for the programme and ensure their effective implementation through regular field monitoring visits.
• Lead the development and delivery of high-quality training and teaching materials for caregivers and frontline ECD workers with support from the AKF Delhi office.
• Facilitate dissemination of the PAALAN1000 application and the caregiver messages developed under other AKF programmes
• Facilitate and support convergence with other AKF programmes under implementation in the same geographies (eg agriculture and food security, education, working with elected woman PRI institutions, WASH)
• Lead the implementation of the innovative Child Friendly panchayats initiative in the selected two gram panchayats in district Muzaffarpur, working closely with identified technical resource persons. Ensure documentation of processes to facilitate subsequent dissemination and scaling-up.
• Support the implementation of the Human Centred Design process in the two selected panchayats enabling the identification and implementation of innovative practices by caregivers to scale-up ECD best practices.
• Develop and maintain streamlined models of communication and data reporting.
• Enable the teams in all three districts (Patna, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur) to effectively plan and deliver programme activities in compliance with short-term and long-term targets.
• Ensure programme efficacy, identify and mobilize external technical assistance in close consultation with the State Programme Manager (Bihar) and the AKF Delhi office, and respond to community, programme and donor- requirements.
• Build the capacity of the field team and other stakeholders based on programme needs and requirements and provide regular guidance and technical inputs to strengthen programme quality and reach.
• Maintain relationships with government departments such as ICDS among others to sustain strategic partnerships contributing to the achievement of programme objectives.
• Based on emerging requirements, review and strengthen existing monitoring systems in close consultation with the State Programme Manager and with technical support from the AKF Delhi office.
• Ensure timely preparation and submission of MIS data, narrative and financial project progress reports and budgets to the AKF (India) senior management and donor. Ensure that management and stakeholders are updated regularly on project progress

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

• Post-graduate qualifications in education/ECD or social work/social science and/or any allied fields.
• A minimum of seven years of experience working in a similar role, with a specific focus on technical capacity building and training, including the design of training programmes for frontline field functionaries.
• Experience of working with public education, health and nutrition systems is required. Experience of implementing early childhood development programmes is desirable.
• Knowledge of national and state-level government policies and programmes related to early childhood development
• Excellent interpersonal, MS office and communication skills (both verbal and written) in Hindi and English.
• Self-driven and highly motivated, with a commitment to improving the quality of life of marginalised communities, and a willingness to work within a team.
• Willingness to travel extensively in the programme area, working closely with field teams and functionaries.
• Commitment to improving early childhood development services for marginalised communities and creating an impactful programme for replication and scaling-up.

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