Regional Technical Advisor Education - PlayMatters

Benefits

Additional Information

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future. The IRC has been working in Uganda since 1998 supporting refugees, vulnerable host communities, and various institutions in the country notably the government, community-based organizations, civil society, and the private sector. Currently, the IRC in Uganda has a presence across five sub-regions and six refugee settlements, implementing programming in the sectors of health, protection and rule of law (PRoL), women's protection and empowerment (WPE), economic recovery and development (ERD), and education. IRC Uganda also implements cross-cutting programming focused on systems strengthening and accountability to affected persons. Job Overview/ Summary: PlayMatters (PM) phase 3 is a 4-year education initiative (2026-2030) with a goal of improving the well-being and holistic learning outcomes of pre-primary and primary school aged children (ages 3-12+), including those who are affected by conflict and crisis, in Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda by strengthening education systems to deliver quality education services using active teaching and learning through play. PM prioritizes strengthening education systems to be resilient and scaling impact by working with and through existing systems rather than establishing parallel systems. PM has three main outcomes: Outcome 1: Education systems have increased capacity, uptake, and coordination of Learning through Play (LtP) as a teaching method; Outcome 2: School-aged children in refugee hosting and post-crisis recovery zones have increased access to quality learning opportunities in safe environments; Outcome 3: School-aged children's holistic development is protected in times of acute crisis. The PlayMatters Technical Education Advisor will provide technical leadership and support related to the adaptation, development, testing, and improvement of teacher-focused active teaching and learning content and approaches for PlayMatters education technical teams based in Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan. The TA will work closely with the PlayMatters global, regional and country-based technical teams from IRC and partners, as well as the leadership of PlayMatters in each country. The TA will lead an ongoing content review, analysis, and adaptation process in partnership with country teams to ensure that existing content is being leveraged, adapted and improved as needed to support Playmatters objectives, including working towards scale of PlayMatters' core package within government systems. The TA will also collaborate directly with technical teams at the country level to ensure that educational content is co-designed with relevant system actors in alignment with the overall project vision, framework, definitions and parameters. The TA will guide the multi-media team to develop and contextualize evidence based multi-media solutions to facilitate teacher capacity building and reach more learners. The TA will collaborate with the Research and MEL teams to maximize learning around education content at regular intervals. The TA will also collaborate with the Policy and Advocacy team to support PlayMatters' partnership with system actors and external partners in each country. Coordinating across partners and stakeholders to develop a shared vision will be central to success. Major Responsibilities: The PlayMatters TA for Education is responsible for providing technical leadership in the following key areas of responsibility: 1. Content: Ensure that PlayMatters' definition of Learning through Play as an active teaching method is clearly understood and implemented in practice through content, facilitation, and teaching and learning materials across locations and partners. Provide technical guidance and support to country teams in designing and implementing a strategy to review, select, adapt, co-create, test and improve active teaching and learning content, including trainer-facing, teacher-facing and instructional leader-facing content, that adheres to the PlayMatters vision and framework, with a goal of scaling this content within government and humanitarian education systems Provide technical guidance to the multimedia enhancements, ensuring it is aligned with country-level content strategies and support