[GESS 2 Monitoring Officer] Girls’ Education South Sudan Programme Phase 2

ToR for GESS 2 Monitoring Officer - final.pdf (230.3 KB)

Terms of Reference

GESS 2 Monitoring Officer

Basic Programme Data

Title: Girls’ Education South Sudan Programme Phase 2 (GESS 2)

Operational Area: South Sudan

Total Duration: 5 Years

Inception: 1st May 2019 – 31st July 2019

Implementation: 1st August 2019 – 31st March 2024 (including respective break points)

Donor: UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID)

Client: Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS)

Lead Supplier: Mott MacDonald/Cambridge Education (MM/CE)

Consortium Partners: BBC Media Action, Leonard Cheshire, Montrose, Windle Trust

Background and Description

South Sudan, the newest country in the world, has some of the worst educational indicators, with education for girls being particularly poor. Only one girl in ten completes primary education and girls comprise just one-third of the secondary school population. There are many barriers (cultural, financial, physical, and quality) that are preventing children from enrolment and completing school. The Girls’ Education in South Sudan Phase 2 (GESS 2) Programme aims to contribute to removing these barriers and enable a transformative societal change through education.

The GESS 2 Programme results chain is as follows:

The impact of the Programme will be to continue to transform the life chances of a generation of South Sudanese children (particularly but not exclusively girls) through education, while stabilizing priority areas of the education sector and concurrently seeking to deliver improved quality education. The impact may therefore be permanent, although a long-term impact on the sustainability of the education sector requires positive changes in the context (in particular the economy and the conflict) and the political will of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan.

The outcomes of the Programme will be an improvement in girl’s educational attainment from that already achieved in GESS1; building further gains on school enrolment, reducing barriers to education and promoting equity in access for all children.

The outputs of the Programme will be: Cash Transfers to individual girls; Capitation Grants to schools; Behavioural Change; Learning Groups and Quality Interventions, Accelerated Learning and Livelihoods for adolescents previously without access to Education.

The consortium that DFID contracted to manage the Programme consists of Cambridge Education/Mott MacDonald (in the lead) with technical support from - BBC Media Action (BBC MA), Leonard Cheshire, Montrose, and Windle Trust.

Job Title Monitoring Officer
Reporting to Monitoring Lead
Duty Station Juba, South Sudan with frequent travel around South Sudan
Job Category Full-time, technical staff.

Job Description Due to the multi-faceted and national scope of the GESS 2 programme, it is critical that substantial and encompassing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is being undertaken consistently to ensure realisation of results and that the Programme is achieving its desired impact.

The Monitoring Officer will work closely with the GESS 2 Team in operating a service-oriented Programme to assure that all interventions are completed within time, quality and cost parameters.

The Monitoring Officer’s primary responsibility is to work as an in-the-field monitor, monitoring the inputs and impacts of the GESS 2 programme. S/he will support ensuring the accountability and compliance of the GESS 2 programme key responsibilities being:

Monitoring:

• Conduct field Monitoring visits and quality assurance of Consortium/Technical Partners and Regional Anchor inputs, activities, staffing and resources on a monthly and quarterly basis in regard to all GESS 2 components.

• Ensuring that relationships with State, County, and Payam Education Officials are maintained, monitoring their responsibilities, and ensuring the GESS 2 programme is being embedded in their systems.

• Follow up on field visits with meetings with Consortium/Technical Partners and Regional Anchor Management teams, identifying performance weaknesses, and agreeing on remedial actions.

• Engaging in capacity building of Consortium/Technical Partners and Regional Anchors on monitoring as needs arise, e.g. coaching on mobile and paper-based reporting formats;

• Contribute to ensuring lessons learning and the dissemination of best practices between the Outputs and States, during bi-annual programme review and planning workshops.

• Contributing to Consortium/Technical Partners and Regional Anchor performance monitoring by reviewing their progress reports.

• Conduct monitoring of Schools and Communities to ensure that activities are being well implemented and the Schools are undertaking their responsibilities correctly and ensuring that the GESS 2 programme is having the desired effect.

• Verifying that schools have made the Capitation Grant qualification requirements as follows: a.

Creation and Maintenance of a Pupil Admission Register

b. Submission of Attendance Registers

c. Formulation and continually functioning of a School Management Committee and a Parent-Teacher Association.

d. Formulation and Maintenance of a School Development Plan

e. Formulation and Maintenance of a School Budget

f. Open a School Bank Account

g. Account for previous expenditure of Capitation Grants.

• Assessing the expenditure ledgers and receipts maintained by the schools and its corresponding information in the Schools’ Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS)

• Verifying the accountability and expenditure of the Cash Transfer.

County, and Payam Education Officials are maintained, monitoring their responsibilities, and ensuring the GESS 2 programme is being embedded in their systems.

• Monitor how GESS activities and modalities are being embedded into Public Systems and monitoring of these activities.

• Ensuring that Education Officials and Institutions understand their responsibilities in regard to GESS 2 and are enacting on them.

• Quality Assurance of the GESS 2 activities being undertaken by Education Officials and Institutions.

• Provide relevant training/briefing to Education Officials in relation to the GESS 2 programme on a needs basis.

• Provide Capacity Development of Education officials on monitoring on a needs basis.

• Identification, development, and monitoring of issues and subsequent actions in regard to Technical Partners, Regional Anchors, Schools and Communities, and Education Officials and Institutions involved in the GESS 2 programme including expected results and timelines.

• Identification of any issues and the development and monitoring of subsequent actions plan/points for all of the above.

• Work with the Monitoring Advisor/Lead to ensure field monitoring visits are undertaken at least 6 times per quarter with minimum of 5 working days in each location.
• Dissemination of findings and information from monitoring visits to relevant members of the GESS2 team: urgent issues immediately by email and full report within 3 days workings from return from the field.

• Contribute to the development of the overall Programme M&E framework, and M&E data analysis

• Giving advice, where relevant, on adequate Programme indicators;

• Giving advice on relevant M&E tools for data collection against the Programme results.

• Supporting the development of guidelines/instructions on M&E for the Technical Partners, Regional Anchors; and training of the Technical Partners and Regional Anchors on these guidelines/instructions;

• Training of GESS 2 staff on data analysis, management, monitoring as needs arise;

• Working in collaboration with M&E Advisor on validating database data and verifying programme Outputs;

• Working in collaboration with the M&E Advisor on reviewing the indicators used and make recommendations for improvements by examining the indicators with output leads;

• Reviewing/revising M&E tools and strategy as needed, gathering feedback from the Technical Partners, Regional Anchors and Output leads;

• Contributing to coordination/consultation in education in South Sudan, as well as to any other development partners’ platforms, including Education Cluster meetings at

National and State levels upon request.

• Documenting the findings of each field visit in a report, which will feed into the Programme’s overall Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Progress Report and other reporting requirements;

• Support lesson-learning within the GESS 2 programme among/between M&E team, Consortium/Technical Partners, Output Leads, through meetings, sharing of good practice examples etc.

• Contributing to Programme reviews, overall monitoring and evaluation, and research.

• Contributing to preparations for annual Consortium/Technical Partners and Regional Anchor Performance Review and participate in these review meetings.

• Contributing to knowledge management and filing of monitoring reports, data, and audio-visual materials of field monitoring etc.
• Contributions to the Final Report for the Programme, as set by line managers.
Educational Profile

• Master’s degree in a discipline relevant to statistics, education, social sciences, humanities or development studies.

General Skills and Experience

• At least 5 years’ progressive experience as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer or Monitoring Officer in development projects in basic social services programs.

• At least two years of implementing surveys, data analysis and/or other research activities within an NGO environment preferred.

• Strong experience of monitoring of development project activities at field level.

• Strong experience of monitoring and evaluating achievement of project results.

• Ability to write and contribute to reports on the findings and lessons learned from project innovations;

• Strong analytical skills.

• Ability to work with a range of partners.

• Ability to travel to the field sometimes in difficult conditions

Specific Skills

• Ability to develop monitoring and impact indicators for project success and liability;

• Ability to organize and conduct training on monitoring for project staff.

• Ability to assist the project personnel at the level of the implementing partners with monitoring tools and in supporting them in their use.

Additional Skills

• Good written and verbal communication skills.

• Good computer skills.

• Fluency in English.

• Working knowledge of Arabic is an advantage.

• Familiarity with database systems is an advantage.

• Experience of working in fragile/conflict effected states.

• Experience of working in South Sudan is an advantage.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are at the heart of our organisation. We promote equal opportunities and have initiatives to create an inclusive workplace culture. We are especially keen to hear from female applicants to create a gender balanced team. If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like us to make any adjustments to enable you to apply or attend an interview, please contact us at [email protected] and we will talk to you about how we can assist.

Position is open only to South Sudanese nationals.

Please submit your application (including a cover letter stating the position to which you are applying and CV) to: [email protected]

Deadline for applications: Friday, 23rd August 2019

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for both oral and written interviews by 27th August 2019

Selected Candidate is expected to be contracted by 1st September 2019