Lao People's Democratic Republic (the): Education Programme Officer

Aide et Action International (AEAI) is an international NGO, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. AEA International began its programmes in 1981 and is now working in more than 20 countries across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia and China to support the development of sustainable education projects with our belief in the universal right to a quality education.

AEAI has been operating in Laos since 2006 to support the development of sustainable and quality education for marginalized children working alongside local families, communities, partner organizations, and government departments. The country office is currently seeking an enthusiastic colleague to join the team, and support the achievement of ‘education for all’ in Laos.

The incumbent will work closely with the Programme Coordinator to initiative/develop/advise programme planning, implementing, monitoring, evaluation, and s/he will provide technical support to programme staff and partners to ensure the programme implementation delivers desirable quality results. The role is a marked contribution to the key support and implementation of the AEA Laos Country Plan, as part of the Regional Strategy Plan 2017-2020. The incumbent will represents AEAI Laos and advocate on behalf of its development agenda building institutional relationship and promoting community driven initiatives/approaches with local partners, institutional donors, and government agencies, especially with Laos Ministry of Education and Sports.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide initiatives and support the development of operational plan (CO 2017-2020) to strengthen existing projects and develop new project innovative concepts focusing on technical aspects educational development, according to Laos context.
• Manage and implement AEA Laos projects to achieve the desired results,
• Support of the implementation of regional and country strategic plan.
• Provide support to the team, local partners and contribute to the capitalization of AEA procedures in planning, budgeting, monitoring, training and evaluation of the programmes.
• Liaise with the government at all levels to ensure the participation and ownership of stakeholders.
• Draft Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) and other legal partnership agreements.
• Participate in identifying potential partners and areas of interventions and contribute to the project designing, research, regular monitoring of lessons learnt as well as feedback sessions with the project team.
• Strengthen the relationship and network with representatives from institutional partners, government counterpart, UN agencies, International and local NGOs.
• Represent AEA to different forums and keep abreast of trends in education for advocacy/ collaboration and promote organizational niche/thematic at national and regional levels.
• Support on communication and sponsorship, including: produce articles from field projects and other tasks with the request from various offices to promote the work of Laos programmes; and coordinate sponsors’ visits and volunteer trip to the field from time to time.
• Other tasks will be assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in the field of international education, development, social science, or related disciplines, preferably a Master’s Degree;
• At least three (3) years working experience in related fields. Prior experience with development projects and/or INGOs preferred, ideally in education sector; course(s) attended in teacher education and project cycle management will be an advantage;
• Strong working knowledge on education issue and development of Lao PDR preferred, and familiarity with gender and child rights issues an advantage (e.g. MDG and Education for All)
• Skills in analysis, facilitation and ‘trainings of trainer’ methods and participatory approaches;
• Strong reporting and communications skills, including in networking and advocacy;
• Experience of working and negotiating with government agencies/officials, NGOs, international agencies and donors and able to work with government authorities at different levels;
• Able to work collaboratively as a team member, community and partners as well as independently and deadline oriented;
• Fluency in written and spoken English required; working knowledge of French an advantage. Preference will be given to candidates fluent in Lao and/or local ethnic language(s);
• Proficiency in MS Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint required;
• Strong leadership and management skills with ability to promote team synergy and capacity building in a multi-cultural work environment;
• Prior experience in proposal development, fundraising and budgeting preferred; strong writing and critical thinking skills required;
• Pro-active, self-motivated, results-oriented and quality-driven personality

This position is opened to NATIONAL candidates only and is based on AEA’s salary scale for Laos. AEA offers competitive compensation and local benefits, including paid leave, health insurance, annual bonus.

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and CV to: pouy.phavanna@aide-et-action.org