Finland: Education Cluster Coordinator

Organization: Finn Church Aid
Country: Finland
Closing date: 29 Sep 2014

Finn Church Aid is Finland’s biggest development co-operation organisation and the second biggest organisation in Finland working in humanitarian aid.Finn Church Aid is a member of the ACT Alliance (ACT), an alliance of faith-based development and humanitarian aid organisations forming one of the world’s largest aid organisations.Finn Church Aid iscommitted to continue working until people in need of assistance can make their own living and fulfil their basic needs. Finn Church Aid also campaigns for dignity and justice.

Background

Finn Church Aid has agreed with the Education Cluster, co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children, to contribute to the establishment of a Rapid Response Team (RRT) of Education Cluster Coordinators. Finn Church Aid will contribute one member to the RRT while NRC and Save the Children will also contribute. This advertisement calls for applications among qualified and interested candidates for the Education Cluster Coordinator position to be a Member of Education Cluster Rapid Response Team.

The Education Cluster convenes a range of UN, NGO and other actors to meet the needs of the Education in Emergencies sector, by producing key interagency tools, building capacity, and developing shared advocacy and policy. The Education Cluster is one of 11 clusters established by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to strengthen system-wide preparedness and technical capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies.

On the basis of learning from a range of humanitarian settings, and the experiences of other clusters with RRTs, the need for rapidly deployable capacity to support interagency responses has been identified as a key need in the Education Cluster.

Purpose of the RRT

The main purpose of the RRT is to provide high quality, rapidly deployable education coordination capacity in humanitarian situations, including large scale emergencies (level 3) as first priority, other acute emergencies, and chronic crises. The RRT member will fulfil this through deployment to UNICEF at the country level, at a minimum of 48 hours’ notice, to support interagency coordination of education responses. The RRT member will be deployed approximately 50% of his/her time.

When the RRT team member is not deployed, he/she will contribute to a secondary purpose of the team, which is to support the work of the global level Education Cluster in strengthening education capacities at country level to prepare for, respond to and recover from humanitarian crises as per the Education Cluster Strategic Plan, for 25% of his/her time In addition, 25% is dedicated to education in emergency related work for FCA.

Responsibilities

Deployments will be managed at the global level by the Education Cluster Coordinator at UNICEF, in consultation with an RRT management committee. While in the field, the RRT team member will perform his/her duties under the supervision of designated senior UNICEF staff or inter-cluster coordinators. The Terms of Reference (TOR) for each mission will be specific to the given context, but will include the key elements of the generic TOR for Education Cluster coordinators.

While not-deployed, the RRT team member will perform his/her duties under the supervision of the Head of Humanitarian Assistance. The tasks will relate to strengthening technical capacity and providing operational support, in particular to strengthen Finn Church Aid’s contribution to the achievement of the global cluster work plan. Specific tasks will be agreed with the Education Cluster Unit in Geneva. The RRT team member will also participate in and support the annual global Education Cluster meeting, other selected meetings/workshops, and participate in capacity development/trainings related to the coordination function.

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree in social sciences, (e.g. in education, humanitarian affairs, development studies, political science, or a related field) or the equivalent combination of education and experience in a related area. Specialisation in Education in Emergencies is an asset.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience with education in emergencies, including demonstrated experience/competencies in coordination
• Demonstrated experience with and knowledge of the Cluster approach
• Strong interest and motivation for inter-agency coordination
• Experience with strategic planning, funding mobilisation and advocacy
• Demonstrated understanding of education in emergencies programming, needs assessment and monitoring
• Excellent communication skills in English and preferably other languages (French, Arabic, Spanish)
• Flexibility, diplomacy, leadership, cultural sensitivity and team-spirit are important personal features

We encourage all qualified candidates to apply, irrespective of nationality, race, gender or age.

Conditions

Availability: 1 November 2014

Duty station: Helsinki or regionally based (to be negotiated), with regular deployments to the field (50 % of time); there will be induction periods in Helsinki and Geneva

Contract: 24 months. Salary and other conditions are in accordance with Finn Church Aid Collective Agreement and internal policies.

Further information

For more information, please contact Finn Church Aid contacts, Eija Alajarva (e-mail eija.alajarva (at) kirkonulkomaanapu.fi) for the content of the work and Ms. Hanna Saarelainen (hanna.saarelainen (at) kirkonulkomaanpu.fi) for the terms of employment. Unfortunately we are not able to answer queries by telephone.

How to apply:

Please apply using this link. Finn Church Aid welcomes international candidates to apply for this position.

Applications are to be received no later than 29 September 2014.