POSITION/DESIGNATION

Program Manager – Monitoring & Communication

PROJECT/UNIT

India Partnership for Early Learning

PROJECT DURATION

5 years (October 2021 - September 2026)

POSITION DURATION

3 years

REPORTS TO

State Project Lead

LOCATION

Bihar

TRAVEL

30% of total time – Especially District / Block Level in respective

PROJECT DETAILS

I India Partnership for Early Learning (IPEL) is, five years long, USAID funded project that aims to ensure all children (girls and boys) from Early childhood education to early grades (grades 1&2) are positively impacted in four Indian states/municipal (Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, South Delhi Municipal Schools). The ultimate goal of the project is that all children (age 3-6) attending AWCs/Balvatika/preschools attain school readiness by age 6; and children (age 6-8) attending early grades (1-2) acquire reading fluency and comprehension, number recognition, two-digit addition and subtraction, express emotions safely, and express understanding of emotions of others verbally or through pictures by end of grade 2 in four intervention states. The project approach will influence practices of both government run and private schools in intervention states to ensure every child of the state is positively impacted.

The project is designed to work very closely at state education/WCD department and its institutions to work, influence and advocate on the agenda of Early Childhood Care and Education and Foundational Learning and Numeracy (FLN). IPEL project adopts a system strengthening approach using technical support model to work with state government. For this, IPEL project has set up a central and state level Project Management Unit, having experts on foundational learning, to engage, influence, and technically guide department of education and its key institutions for effective delivery of foundational literacy and numeracy program in the state. The key technical area includes - Effective FLN content and materials for teachers and children, Robust and quality capacity building approach and review system, FLN vision, budget and financing, Quality educational monitoring and learners’ assessment tracking system and Empowered community engagement in each of the state. Since The IPEL project objectives and goals are aligned with the national mission- NIPUN BHARAT, it will also contribute to larger goal of National Education Policy and state priorities. The project is led by a consortium of organizations led CARE and to be implemented by its partners at state level.

JOB SUMMARY

Program Manager - Monitoring and Communication will be responsible for development of the FLN monitoring system for Bihar where either a new monitoring system may be created, or an existing state monitoring system may be modified.She/he will be responsible for technical as well as operational workflows. On the technical front the candidate will work closely with state education functionaries to diagnose the existing state monitoring system and build a technology centered road map for monitoring of FLN outcomes in the state. Also, PM – Monitoring and Communication will be responsible for building awareness and salience around NIPUN Bihar Mission. S/he will actively work to develop communications campaigns, generate content and support the state in implementing the communication plan. Additionally, S/he will be responsible for knowledge management.

On the operational front the candidate will be expected to understand the state education system, its various stakeholders and their roles thoroughly and support state CFLRS members in designing the input tools, data pipelines and dashboards and also communication strategy around NIPUN roadmap and its’ implementation. S/he will be based at state education department premise (BEPC) in the state capital in Bihar, will report directly to the State PMU head/State Lead of IPEL. This position will involve frequent travel to field offices, as well as regular interaction with education officials, partners, school administrators, teachers, and students.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibility 1

Diagnose State Level Educational monitoring and communication practices and needs in State.

• Engage with key stakeholders at the state, district, block level to understand their needs, capacities for conducting monitoring and communications around FLN
• Review existing monitoring and communication approaches and management information systems of the state.
• Help the state to develop (on-board a vendor) / re-develop (improve upon existing systems) an effective monitoring system for FLN (CFLRS) to address the monitoring needs
• Work with stakeholders and decide the KPIs for monitoring of FLN and continuously iterate the same.
• Create and sustain stakeholder engagement mechanism and bring new ideas to build capacity of influencers and partners to drive convergence of narratives in the state.

Responsibility 2

Lead design of Comprehensive Foundational Learning Reporting Systems (CFLRS) and Communication Plan for State

• Support state education department in developing unambiguous functional and technical design specifications forCFLRS in Jharkhand
• Independently coordinate with onboarded tech vendors and state to ensure that a technically and functionally robust monitoring system is developed
• Ensure CFLRS system takes into account APIs, security, scalability, manageability, usability, and other critical factors that contribute to robust monitoring offoundational learning in the state
• Build/review workflows, wireframes and documentation required to build the solution
• Test CFLRS systems developed by technology partner/vendor and work closely with the state education functionaries to ensure seamless roll out of CFLRS in the state.
• Responsible for building awareness and salience around NIPUN Bihar Mission with various community and state level stakeholders.
• Create frameworks to monitor reach and effectiveness of various IEC campaigns implemented in states and use the data to inform future campaigns and events.
• Play a leading role in building innovative communication approaches and campaigns to inform, engage and inspire stakeholders to understand and appreciate IPEL and FLN vision and mission
• Support state in Implementing IEC plan in Bihar

Responsibility 3

Ensure operationalization of CFLRS and Communication roadmap at state and district level for program review and decision making

• Build capacity of state and district officials around CFLRS data tools/dashboard for reporting, monitoring and information processing
• Build capacities of district education functionaries to effectively use CFLRS dashboards for monthly progress tracking and decision making.
• Organize refresher orientation of district officials, State resource group members and other relevant stakeholders on various CFLRS FLN modules
• Conduct field visit to understand the usages, challenges to design robust plan
• Network and develop strategic relationships with media and key ecosystem influencers.
• Conducts salience building events in Bihar which will be attended by bureaucrats and ministers.

Responsibility 4

• Ensure State has IEC material on FLN.
• Play a leading role in building innovative communication approaches and campaigns to inform, engage and inspire stakeholders to understand and appreciate IPEL and FLN vision and mission
• Create and sustain stakeholder engagement mechanism and bring new ideas to build capacity of influencers and partners to drive convergence of narratives in the state
• Conducts salience building events in Bihar which will be attended by bureaucrats and ministers
• Create frameworks to monitor reach and effectiveness of various IEC campaigns implemented in states and use the data to inform future campaigns and events
• Work closely with external agencies for designing collaterals like posters, leaflets, brochures, fact-sheets, a/v scripts etc
• Writing concept notes for the campaigns, press notes for the events and coordinating with media for public relations
• Manage dissemination of all print and electronic collaterals, reports from other IPEL work streams and any other collaterals / documents which help in creating salience for IPEL work streams

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Senior Program Manager- Reporting, Monitoring, Communication at CMU level, Program Manager Assessment, Communications Specialist, State project Lead and Monitoring Officer at state level.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Master’s degree in relevant fields, including economics, public/education policy, or any related field
• Degree in Mass Communication, will be an added advantage
• 4-6 years of relevant experience in the designing and implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation in development program
• Strong skills in usages of tech tools and data collection (quantitative and qualitative), including designing of tools and strategies for data collection, data analysis, and reporting
• Work experience in planning and executing mass media and socialmedia campaigns

Desirable

• Previous experience of working with education department
• Understanding gender and inclusion issues at school level

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

Communication skills:

Able to articulate and communicate well to all stakeholders (both verbally and in writing) in a manner that meets the different needs of different audiences.

Language skills:

Able to read, write and speak in Hindi and English language at an expert level

Research skills:

Able to conduct secondary research for identifying the newest trends and incorporate them in program / process approach.

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

Big picture / critical thinker (able to think clearly and rationally and select the best method as appropriate) / connector (able to spot gaps, establish needs and opportunities)

Change Management:

Resilient: able to deal well with ambiguity, uncertainty, and change

versatile: able to juggle different and conflicting priorities

Operational excellence (Project / Program / Process management):

Able to incorporate feedback and continually work on project / process improvement

Commitment towards social equity and drive to bring gender equity in education