Global Technical Lead – Inclusive Education

Overview

Sightsavers is looking for a Global Technical Lead – Inclusive Education, to provide technical leadership in inclusive education within our programmes.

Salary: Local terms and conditions apply
Location: Senegal, Dakar or Cameroon, Yaoundé
Contract: Two-year fixed term contract
Hours: Full-time at 35 hours per week, With potential for flexibility around hours worked.

About the role

Sightsavers’ work in the field of education is driven by the principle of inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. We are looking for a Global Technical Lead – Inclusive Education to provide technical leadership and expertise in inclusive education to guide the development and delivery of specific initiatives and programmes.

As the Global Technical Lead for Inclusive Education, you will support Sightsavers to promote inclusive education for children, youth, and adults with disabilities in education systems in West Africa, East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA), and South Asia. Working across multiple countries, you will ensure that disability inclusion is at the centre of conceptualisation, design and implementation of Sightsavers’ projects.

Strong communication skills in English and French are essential for this role, as is the availability to travel 12-16 weeks a year, nationally and internationally.

Principal accountabilities will include:

• To provide technical leadership and expertise in inclusive education at the programmatic level
• To strengthen the global programme portfolio in inclusive education through leading strategic and technical inputs in proposal development for funding opportunities.
• To pioneer new strategic initiatives and innovative approaches in inclusive education to improve and enhance the quality of Sightsavers’ work, especially in cross-cutting priority areas like climate action, gender equity and the use of data and evidence.
• To contribute to the research, innovation, policy, advocacy and communications agendas through close collaboration with interdepartmental teams and key external stakeholders.
• To undertake senior level representation of Sightsavers as an expert in inclusive education at national, regional and international professional and sector-specific networks, platforms, conferences and meetings.

Skills and Experience

This is an ideal opportunity to build on your existing expertise in leading and developing programmes in inclusive education in lower income countries. We are looking for a skilled communicator with the ability to build strong working relationships across different departments and work collaboratively as a member of our cross-functional teams. To succeed in this role, you will need:

• A Postgraduate qualification (minimum Master’s) or equivalent experience in a relevant field, e.g. education, special needs education; disability, international development
• Business to fluent French language skills
• A proven record of leading, developing and implementing programmes in inclusive education in lower income countries.
• Experience of working with national governments and international institutions such as Global Partnership for Education, UN agencies, bilateral agencies as well as non-state actors to contribute to education system transformation.
• Knowledge of current developments, issues and best practice in inclusive education to effectively address the barriers to education for children with disabilities
• Able to travel for up to 12-16 weeks a year (regional and international).

This is a varied role, please read the full job descriptionfor further details