Senior System Strengthening Specialist at Chemonics

Chemonics seeks a Senior System Strengthening Specialist for the USAID Zambia Foundational. This five-year activity will seek to provide technical assistance in the education sector to scale the Primary Literacy Program (PLP), support the Ministry of Education to institutionalize the PLP and early learning reforms, and enhance the delivery of remedial and catch-up education. This position will be based in Lusaka, Zambia. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world.

Responsibilities include:

• Support policy review and reform as well as the strengthening of decentralized delivery of quality early grade reading services
• provide technical assistance for activities focused on strengthening the capacity of the Zambian basic education system—understood as the wide range of stakeholders from the central MOE to district education officials, to district councils, school management committees, to parent/teacher associations, as well as the private sector (such as publishers) and civil society — to improve the delivery of instruction and learning outcomes of foundational skills in early grades.
• Support the MOE to review policy issues and consider reforms as appropriate to meet their goals with respect to early grade reading.
• Engage with host-country government, Zambian counterparts, and local partners to strengthen their capacity to deliver high-quality education at scale,
• Collaborate with other technical lead roles of the activity to design and deploy approaches for strengthening institutional capacity and stakeholder engagement that adequately plan for sustainability.
• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team to develop frameworks and methods for capturing data (quantitative and qualitative) relating to improvements in education system capacity

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as education or social development;
• 10 years’ experience in education development and systems strengthening;
• Experience in managing and delivering education development projects;
• Demonstrated knowledge of the Zambian education system;
• Strong organizational abilities including strong team management abilities;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and good ability for relating and networking;
• Strong computer skills in MS Office;
• Strong project management skills. Demonstrable attention to detail and accuracy;
• Clear thinking and effective decision making, able to retain composure under
• pressure;
• Flexible approach with commitment to meeting challenging deadlines;
• Fluent in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Nyanja/Chewa or Bemba preferred