1. Planning, budgeting, and supporting grantees as they develop and implement activities under Alternative Learning Pathways:

• Engage with alternative learning (i.e., digital learning, distance learning, multi-media) networks and reach out to potential grantees and beneficiaries, collect and organize proposal submissions.
• Utilize agreed prescreening criteria for alternative learning pathways, based on preidentified funding windows, to review and shortlist eligible proposals for grant allocation.
• Ensure that the short list of eligible proposals (prescreened) is presented to the UNICEF internal rating committee and that the proposals are rated in a timely manner by members of the Technical Review Committee.
• Facilitate the review of proposals and budgets by members of the review committee through secretarial services.
• Support grantees to revise budgets or initiate amendments where operational conditions change.

2. Grant management, program implementation, and program reporting:

• Manage the selected beneficiaries and recipients of alternative learning initiatives, including drafting memorandums of agreement, or other partnerships/procurement documents, based on the grant size and following UNICEF’s procedures for contracting individuals, CSOs, non-governmental organizations, and international non-governmental organizations.
• Ensure that contracts are negotiated, and payments are processed with assistance from the Program Management Unit, the Financial Management Unit, the Supplies Unit, and Zonal Offices, if necessary.
• Monitoring, Ensuring Accountability, and Assessing Performance for Grant recipients, including (i) collecting regular progress reports from beneficiaries who have been selected; (ii) conducting occasional monitoring visits or coordinating with UNICEF relevant Offices to conduct monitoring/support missions.
• Providing internal monitoring reports and reporting to grant recipients in support of UNICEF Third Party Monitoring.
• Ensure activities are on track through creating a system and/or work plan to monitor progress and flag delays to supervisor.
• Coordinate with relevant experts (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse/Gender Based Violence, Environmental and Social Safeguards, GRM) to maintain compliance with donor protocols.
• Prepare monthly and quarterly reports on the progress and utilization of grants to internal and external stakeholders.
• Communicate with grantees about financial management and expenditure tracking (soft and hard commitments, for example) to improve grant management, monitoring, and reporting.

3. Knowledge generation, knowledge management, and grantee technical capacity support.

• Support the grantee in socializing all innovative systems and solutions it has developed internally to improve program monitoring, expenditure tracking, etc.
• Chair relevant meetings related to knowledge sharing on alternative learning in Afghanistan with grantees and other stakeholders.
• Enhance the capacity of grantees to monitor their programs and report on progress according to the grants team’s standards and formats.
• Provide detailed feedback to grantees on improving performance, both in grant management and in program delivery.
• Collate multi-media resources from grantees for use in resource mobilization and donor reporting.
• Conduct periodic internal reviews of the portfolio and identify potential synergies between grantees to maximize use of resources and build partnerships.
• Support research partners to conduct studies on alternative learning pathways, particularly as a liaison with local partners.

Requirements: 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in one of the following fields is required: Education, International Relations, Information Technology, public administration, financial management or any other relevant studies
• A minimum of five of relevant professional experience in program planning, coordination, or management in the education sector.
• Experience with Grants, Financial, and Results Based Management of large grants with complex donor requirements, including using dedicated tools/systems/dashboards can be an asset.
• Experience working in complex contexts with multiple partners across different geographical areas is an asset.
• Experience with organizing work and data flows from multiple sources for donor reporting is an asset.
• Experience supporting the management of complex grants from WB and ADB will be an asset.
• Experience of managing and overseeing alternative pathways and should design educational projects is an asset.
• Fluency in English and either Dari or Pashto is required.