Program Manager - Early Childhood Care and Education(ECCE)

Roles and Responsibilities

Capacity building and technical support (40%)

• Design the capacity building plan for the ECCE programme
• Develop state specific training modules and facilitate workshop/ sessions for state ECCE teams, implementation partners and government officials to build their capacities.
• Lead pilot initiatives and innovations related to capacity building
• Design assessment framework and tools to understand change in child development outcomes
• Mentor state ECCE teams and implementation partners, so that they are able to support government functionaries and communities appropriately
• Ensure regular exchange of knowledge, good practices, and lessons learned among state teams, partners, Government officials, other experts, and colleagues.
• Provide technical support for infrastructure development projects, to ensure that spaces and layouts are child-friendly, and facilitate play and learning
• Plan research studies, project evaluations, process documentation etc. required to demonstrate the impact of capacity building initiatives
• The Program Manager will closely work with experts and other technical partners as required for the above, and will be responsible for coordination with individual consultants / agencies for completion of such tasks.

Program Management (25%)

• Develop and review work-plans and budgets to ensure that resources for capacity building are allocated adequately and utilized efficiently.
• Develop mechanisms to assess the quality and effectiveness of capacity building initiatives
• Monitor quality of implementation (including visiting the field regularly), support state teams and partners to identify gaps in delivery, and devise strategies to reduce implementation gaps as needed

Government liaison and partnerships (25%)

• Liaise actively with key agencies in the ECCE ecosystem and Government stakeholders at national and state levels
• Support state teams and partners in their dialogue with Government departments at the state and district level and identify opportunities for convergent actions
• Develop concept notes, reports, case studies, presentations etc. to share with strategic partners

Other activities (10%)

• Provide necessary support to other teams, particularly Communications, so that program activities are highlighted properly.
• Design and organize workshops, conferences, and field visits for internal and external groups
• Any other responsibilities, as per program and organizational requirements, as assigned by line manager

Personal Qualifications and experience:

• Post Graduate Degree in ECCE / education / social work / social science / any relevant field
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience, especially in ECCE
• Experience of designing and facilitating capacity building on ECCE, especially for Government functionaries and frontline workers.
• Experience of designing / implementing ECCE assessments, classroom quality tools, KAP studies etc.
• Excellent understanding of national and state policies and programs related to ECCE
• Articulate and well-versed with the subject to communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders
• Experience in participatory design methods and/or systems thinking approaches
• Understanding of research methods, study design etc.

Key Competencies:

• Self-starter who takes ownership and responsibility for his/her projects.
• Demonstrates high levels of empathy, understanding challenges of stakeholders, listening actively and working in a participatory manner.
• Demonstrates creativity in her/his work, responding flexibly to a changing field situation and devising innovative ways of solving challenges.
• Excellent interpersonal and team skills, with leadership abilities
• Ability to manage processes and activities in a result-oriented manner and work effectively to tight deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills in Hindi and English. Written proficiency in Hindi is preferred.
• Knowledge of other languages like Marathi / Gujarati may be desirable.
• Excellent documentation, data analysis and presentation skills. Proficiency in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint is required. Knowledge of statistical analysis and tools like Stata, R, and SPSS is preferred.