The Better Care Network (BCN) facilitates active information exchange and collaboration on the issue of children without adequate family care and advocates for technically sound policy and programmatic action on global, regional, and national levels under the direction of its Steering Committee Members, an interagency partnership team composed of Save the Children, UNICEF, USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund and the Office of HIV and AIDS, CARE USA and Firelight Foundation. The BCN is initiating a three-year regional inter-agency initiative to improve the capacities of governments and their civil society partners in Eastern Africa to develop and implement care reform that strengthen families and improve alternative care services in the region.
To support this regional inter-agency initiative, the BCN and Save the Children are seeking a regional technical and knowledge management specialist with significant knowledge of the technical aspects of reforming child care systems and in-depth familiarity with the region to play a proactive role in identifying and addressing relevant issues to advance child care reform and provide technical support to key regional and country-level actors.
The Specialist is expected to play a catalytic role in supporting positive change in close collaboration and consultation with all regional and national stakeholders.Facilitate a review of existing regional mechanisms to inform the operational arrangement of the regional technical hub and ensure it is complementary to the actions of other actors in the region and provides added value to existing initiatives.Conduct initial consultations with key stakeholders to identify the three countries1 for action where the national situation analysis and in-country consultations will take place. In addition, resource countries will be identified where promising practices and policies can support peer-learning.Facilitate national situation analyses and in-depth country consultations within the three countries for action, as well as remote consultations with key stakeholders at the regional level.Identify and offer technical support to key actors for care reform in the three countries selected.Identify potential points of intervention for system change and priority needs for technical and organizational support and assistance in each country and regionally as well as appropriate approaches to respond to these needs. This will also include the development and implementation of regional and national plans and their related monitoring and evaluation plan.Facilitate the provision of priority activities to strengthen national and regional capacity and coordination, including, but not limited to, a combination of:Provide remote and in-person technical support;document and share positive examples of child care reform,facilitate exchange visits between countries;link countries with national, regional and global experts;organize strategically focused technical workshops and meetings on family strengthening and alternative care issues;develop and maintain a regionally focused website and newsletter;commission research in collaboration with stakeholders and academics in the countries to increase local evidence and understanding of current formal and informal care practices and raise awareness on the importance of family-based care;Support relevant national advocacy efforts.Master’s degree in social work, social science, social policy or related field or a Bachelor’s degree with substantial training, knowledge, skills and experience obtained through other routes;A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in the provision of services, policy development or advocacy regarding the care of vulnerable children, including experience in the above in at least one developing country context;Extensive experience in working in the region on better care issues for children with regional experience with advocacy, policy development or research;Extensive knowledge of the literature on better care issues relating to children;Experience developing and refining technical documents in this field;Experience working with UN bodies, governments and/or NGOs;Excellent writing and verbal skills in English and in summarizing complex documents. Additional language(s) would be an asset;Experience with child related technical networks;Proven ability to handle challenging work load;Cross-cultural experience, understand ¡ng and sensitivity;Excellent interpersonal and written and oral communication skills;Commitment to Save the Children values.To apply, send a copy of your CV with a cover letter to EA.recruitment@savethechildren.org
Application closes 17th July 2013 at 5:00pm.
We work with children, communities and governments all over the world and we believe in the right person for the job regardless of where you come from and how you identify yourself. We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to ensuring that only those who are suitable to work with children are considered for these posts. All successful applicants will therefore be required to complete a Police Check and must sign onto our Child Protection Policy and organizational Code of Conduct.
