India: TECHNICAL ADVISOR EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION

I-GENERAL OVERVIEW OF POSITION / WORKING CONDITIONS

· Title : Technical Adviser – Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE)

· Location : Pune, Maharashtra (MH)

· Reports to : Project Partnership Manager based in Pune

· Job Type: Fixed-term contract – 1 year renewable

Asmae – Association Soeur Emmanuelle is an international solidarity French NGO specialized in child development. It is independent, non-religious, non-political, and open to everyone. Created in 1980 by Sister Emmanuelle following her experience with scavengers in Egypt’s slums, Asmae keeps on respecting its founder’s values and methods: listening and proximity, pragmatism, respect of the differences, professionalism and reciprocity.

Asmae– Association Soeur Emmanuelle’s action aims to support vulnerable children and their families through providing tailor-made and long lasting support to local stakeholders working on education and child protection.

Its vision, “A fair world which guarantees that children can live and grow with dignity within their environment, to become free women and men who contribute to society”, is broken down into four missions:

· Stimulate child development through a global approach. To do this, Asmae – Association Soeur Emmanuelle also works on family support by taking their environment into account;

· Build the capacity of local stakeholders involved in child development, boost cooperation amongst them and maximize their social impact;

· Stand up for children by raising awareness and advocating;

· Experiment, disseminate and share practices.

Nowadays Asmae – Association Soeur Emmanuelle supports education and child protection projects through 64 local organizations in Burkina-Faso, Egypt, France, India, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mali and the Philippines. Furthermore, in France, Asmae also directly manages a mother and childcare center.

II- BACKGROUND ON ASMAE IN INDIA

Asmae has been supporting programs in India since 1996. Asmae works with 6 local partners, mostly on prevention of school drop-out and underperformance, early childhood care and protection and support to adolescence. Asmae’s team in India is composed of the following members: a Country Representative, Admin/Finance Officer and two Project Partnership Managers who are respectively in charge of the monitoring and development of programs in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

III- MISSION

The Technical Advisor on ECCE is in charge of developing Asmae’s strategy and interventions in the area of ECCE in Maharashtra. S/he is responsible for capacity-building component in this area, both internally and externally (partners). S/he will represent Asmae in the relevant technical networks and meetings. This position is based in Pune and reports to the Project Partnership Manager in Pune.

IV- RESPONSIBILITIES

4.1. To provide technical advice and support to Asmae Team on all matters concerning Early Childhood Care and Education

· Contributes to the development of the new Asmae ECCE strategy, identifies issues and suggests programmatic approaches.

· Participates in studies and evaluations - from draft of terms of reference to report, through the different steps of tool development, data collection and analysis; when conducted externally, supports the identification of consultant and the consultant’s work (by coordinating, validating tools and documents to ensure their quality, etc.).

· Contributes to the identification of partners in this thematic area.

· Contributes to the design of proposals/programs on ECCE aspects.

· Ensures compliance with the National ECCE framework, Asmae’s global policy on ECCE as well as with national policies and laws.

· Ensures quality programming and implementation of ECCE interventions.

· Identifies best practices and contribute to their dissemination towards relevant stakeholders (Asmae, partners, networks, etc.)

4.2Strengthen partners capacity in the field of ECCE

· Conducts needs/capacity assessment of the project partners through meetings, consultations, etc.

· Develops an overall capacity building plan for the project partners and other identified stakeholders

· Provides technical support on ECCE

4.3 To contribute to Networking and External Communication

· Participates and actively contributes in team meetings and seminars organized by Asmae

· Participates in external ECCE meetings, networks and other fora

· Organizes networking and coordination meetings to promote referral and collaboration mechanisms, exchange of information/experience and tools on ECCE

· Liaises with relevant stakeholders in the area of ECCE, including Ministries, etc.

V-PROFILE

Education and experience

· Master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies

· At least 5 years of teaching and training experience in the field of Early Childhood Education

· Experience in NGO and/or association and/or direct work with children is required

· Experience with developing ECCE projects and programs

Professional skills required

· Good knowledge of the Indian Early Childhood Care and Education Sector (Governmental and Private)

· Good Knowledge of Curriculum, Policies, Quality Standards and legal frameworks for ECCE in the Country

· Excellent working knowledge of the main educational and pedagogical approaches

· Good teaching and facilitation skills.

· Observation, analysis and synthesis capacities

· Fluency in English and in Maharati (Minimum level of B2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or a minimum TOEIC score of 785)

Personal skills

· Autonomy

· Ability to build trustable relationships with different partners and stakeholders, diplomacy

· Observation, analysis and synthesis capacities,

· Listening skills and flexibility

· Team spirit

· Organized

· Proactive

VI- GENERAL INFORMATION

· Place of work: Pune, with some visits to Chennai.

· Status: Indian fixed-term employment contract (full time job)

· Duration: 12 months

· Starting date: ASAP

· Salary: according to experience

Candidates should send a detailed resume outlining their academic and professional background relevant to the proposed position, as well as a cover letter, showing the person’s motivation and expertise, with salary expectations, via our website: https://www.asmae.fr/jobs/