Consultant, Better Learning Programme (BLP) Technical Support and Fundraising with 4 months maternity cover for Global Education Adviser – East and Southern Africa
TERMS OF REFERENCE
General Expertise: Education in Emergencies (EiE) and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
Department/Office: Education Core Competency and NRC Global BLP Unit (GBU), with a focus on East and Southern Africa (+Nigeria)
Contract Duration: 5 months with an estimated LoE of 100 working days.
Working Modality: remote with field visits as required
Start Date: February 2026
Overview
This consultancy is a dual role part time providing technical support to NRC Country Offices in East and Southern Africa with The Better Learning Programme (BLP) -NRC's flagship school-based psychosocial support (PSS) intervention, designed to help children affected by crisis improve their learning capacity by integrating techniques for coping with trauma into daily teaching and learning.
Additionally for a period of 4 months providing part time maternity cover for the Global Education Adviser – East and Southern Africa (+Nigeria).
BACKGROUND
As maternity cover for the Global Education Advisor, the consultant is responsible for providing strategic advice and guidance to the Education Specialist or Programme Development Manager and/or Head of Programme at Country level, and to Regional Offices, in ensuring that optimal Education programme strategies, systems, policy, tools and practices are in place. The Global Education Adviser will also contribute to regional, and country-based proposal development including identifying funding opportunities and ensuring donor requirements are met.
The Global Education Adviser will provide a range of advisory support, technical oversight and capacity building to CO staff in relation to their own specialist area of expertise.
Additionally, they may act within their Education Team as the focal point on a particular region and a particular specific expertise within the Education for other Education advisers. Staff within the team will be expected to provide direct support to country offices and regional offices and contribute to global development initiatives as part of the wider community of specialists.
BLP is implemented across all targeted NRC countries in East Africa. The consultant will play a key role in ensuring that BLP is implemented systematically, with clear pathways for fundraising, adaptation, and technical capacity-building. To strengthen institutional capacity and technical resources, NRC must ensure that BLP is properly contextualised, adapted, and sustained across targeted countries, with a strong focus on the wider Sudanese Response (Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda) and other emerging EiE responses in Somalia, Mozambique, and Ethiopia.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Within the role of Acting Global Education Adviser:
- Provide strategic technical advice to ESA (+Nigeria) country offices and the Regional Office to ensure optimal education programme strategies, systems, policies, tools and practices are in place, aligned with NRC guidance.
- Support country and regional education strategy and programme development, including contributing to innovation and piloting where relevant and feasible during the cover period.
- Contribute to resource mobilisation and proposal development for ESA, including identifying opportunities, providing technical inputs, and ensuring donor requirements are met.
- Provide technical supervision, advisory support and targeted capacity building to relevant CO and RO staff, including coaching, staff training support, and contributing to recruitment processes where required.
- Support quality programming and MEL continuity, including Safe and Inclusive Programming considerations, roll-out and use of sector MEL tools, data utilisation, and technical inputs to evaluations and research as delegated.
- Gather and synthesise evidence and learning from ESA country offices to feed into global learning and advocacy processes, sharing good practice across the wider technical community.
- Maintain continuity of key internal and external coordination relevant to education in ESA, including agreed stakeholder relationships and support to regional advocacy priorities.
- Provide technical support and quality control for ESA country offices receiving regional or global education grant funding, ensuring timely technical inputs to meet grant expectations.
- Provide special focus on the new First Line Education Responses (FLER) approaches that are being rolled out and scaled throughout ESA country offices, including identifying and supporting new FLER opportunities and funding (e.g. LEGO, ECHO).
Within the role of BLP Consultant:
- Provide technical inputs to fundraising and proposal development, ensuring BLP is positioned within broader education programming and aligned with donor requirements.
- Support partnership and donor engagement for BLP, including identifying and supporting relevant grant opportunities to sustain and expand BLP across targeted NRC country offices.
- Guide and oversee contextualisation of BLP materials with country teams, ensuring alignment with NRC global standards and country-specific needs, with clear documentation of adaptations.
- Provide quality assurance and technical oversight for BLP implementation, including support to planning, sequencing, training delivery, monitoring and use of relevant tools within education programming.
- Support innovation and alternative delivery methods, including technical guidance on partner or institution-led delivery models and development of audio-based or other accessible formats to reach diverse contexts and low-resource settings.
- Deliver targeted capacity building for Master Trainers and education staff, including coaching and technical clinics to strengthen fidelity and quality of BLP delivery.
- Conduct 1–2 multi-country field visits (subject to access and funding) to provide direct technical support, troubleshoot implementation challenges, and strengthen country-level ownership.
- Introduce and support roll-out readiness for BLP-T and BLP2 in the region, providing technical and quality oversight and working closely with Master Trainers to ensure consistent standards.
- Document learning, good practice, and priority recommendations from implementation and field support to inform continuous improvement, future adaptations, and regional scale-up planning.
CONSULTANT SPECIFICATIONS
- Work Experience: At least 10 years in Education in Emergencies (EiE) and MHPSS in humanitarian settings.
- Education: Postgraduate qualification in psychology, social work, counselling, or PSS.
Required Experience
- Recent experience working within the Education CC in NRC
- Experience of working within the field of EIE within East and Southern Africa Region particularly in displacement-affected education systems.
- Experience contextualising and adapting PSS materials for education responses.
- Proven track record in grant writing and partnership development for EiE and MHPSS.
- Strong understanding of donor funding mechanisms (ECHO, UNICEF, ECW, Lego Foundation etc.).
- Experience of using alternative delivery modalities for MHPSS including audio and radio.
Desirable Experience
- Strong familiarity with NRC's FLER approaches
- Experience leading training and mentoring for education teams in EiE and PSS.
- Ability to produce and edit audio content, such as experience in radio programming, audio-based learning, or digital storytelling.
- Ability to work remotely while managing regional coordination efforts.
Deployment and Flexibility
- Willingness to deploy for 1–2 multi-country visits for in-person technical support.
- Ability to coordinate across multiple NRC country teams, providing both remote and in-person support.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
Applications should include the following:
- CV and cover letter with at least two samples of previous work undertaken and led by the service provider.
- A proposed budget detailing service provision fees. All budgets and final quotations should be made in PDF files.
- Submission by CoB 16 January 2026
Evaluation Criteria
Offers from providers will be evaluated by the following criteria:
- Overall proven expertise and experience of the applicant, with a particular focus on the applicant's CV/previous experience - 70%
- Pricing - 30 %
This position was originally posted by NRC and has been curated by PurposePhil Career. To apply, please visit the original listing on the "apply" link on the side. We are not affiliated with the employer organization of this job ad or consultancy, and provide this curated listing as a service to our users.
