Education Sector Coordinator

ROLE PURPOSE: 

Lebanon is currently facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, with over 1.2 million people displaced due to escalating conflicts, including more than 400,000 children. The education sector has been severely impacted, with many schools damaged or repurposed as shelters, leaving approximately 1.2 million children without access to education. This disruption exacerbates existing socio-economic challenges, as prior to the conflict, 25% of children were already out of all forms of education. Prior to the September 2024 crisis, approximately 675,000 Syrian refugee children aged 3-18 resided in Lebanon. The compounded crises underscore the urgent need for coordinated advocacy to safeguard and promote the right to quality education for all learners in Lebanon, with equal attention to Syrian and other non-Lebanese school-aged children in the response. 

Chaired by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children, the Education Sector provides leadership, accountability, and a framework for the Education in Emergencies (EiE) response, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the various stakeholders. It fosters effective partnerships between MEHE, international and national humanitarian actors, civil society organizations, and affected populations to ensure a coordinated and impactful response.

The Education Sector Coordinator plays a critical role in ensuring a coherent and effective response to the evolving education needs. This involves coordinating agencies engaging in education interventions and working closely with key stakeholders, including children, families, communities, authorities, educational institutions, INGOs, and UN agencies. The Coordinator will represent the Education Sector impartially, fostering collaboration and partnerships, while working closely with UNICEF as the co-lead, UN OCHA through the Emergency Operations Cell, and MEHE to address the education crisis strategically and effectively.

Child Safeguarding: 

Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

Reports to: DPDQ, dotted line to Country Director

Staff directly reporting to this post: Information Management System Coordinator 

Key Deliverables and Areas of Work:

• Together with MEHE and UNICEF sector coordinators, develop the LRP Strategic Analysis and Response Plan, and related Appeals
• Together with MEHE and UNICEF sector Coordinators ensure Education and Child Protection joint work plan, unit costing and reporting are in place for 2025
• MHPSS Task Force Engagement and Emergency Response Plan revision
• Support to Remote Education Sector Coordinator to complete key projects including the ENA.
• Oversee the work of the MEHE IM focal point seconded by SCI

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Sector Coordination

• Assume overall responsibility for co-leadership of the education sector in Lebanon, ensuring the Sector is fulfilling the Core Functions of an EiE Sector (support service delivery, inform strategic decisions of Humanitarian Coordinator and Team, plan and develop strategy, support advocacy, monitor and evaluate performance of the Sector overall, build national capacity in contingency and preparedness). 
• Ensure that the NGO/INGO voice is heard and present in sector meetings in addition to relevant MEHE stakeholders and donor meetings liaising closely with NGO fora such as LHIF and LHDF
• Co-chair the coordination groups and task teams within the Education Sector, including the National Education Sector Working Group, the Education Core Group, as well as oversee and/or co-chair the Task Teams that report to the Coordinator. 
• Work closely with other key members of the Education sector in Lebanon, including government counterparts, donors,  OCHA, UNICEF and all other sector members.
• Support the Information Management focal person in ensuring robust strategic analysis of key data from various sources (including MEHE, VaSyr, MSNA, etc.), in order to better inform strategy and support evidence-based advocacy. 
• Keep abreast of Education partners´ response activities and identify any gaps by supporting the Information Management ensuring that the Education Sector dashboard is regularly updated
• Facilitate the development of an overall sector strategy and response plan (LRP) and to the extent possible, ensure the strategy complements government policies and plans.
• Ensure that the sector strategy and response plan is updated regularly according to evolving needs and that it establishes indicators by which performance of the sector can be measured
• Advise the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund strategy and allocation process, including through engagement in the selection committee, and in an advisory role during implementation.
• Co-ordinate the harmonization of response activities, ensuring that activities prevent overlap and duplication; develop harmonized standards and guidance when possible
• Ensure the development and implementation of a localization strategy for the Education Sector, building on existing efforts to adapt global insights to Lebanon’s context. This includes supporting the leadership of local organizations, integrating localization principles into task team initiatives, and leveraging existing tools developed through consultations with the GEC’s Localization Specialist.
• Lead early warning, contingency planning, and emergency preparedness efforts for the sector; ensure adequate sector participation in cross-sector early warning, contingency planning and emergency preparedness activities.
• Ensure that interagency response strategy for Education reflects key findings from needs assessments identifying gaps, and formulating a sector-wide interagency response plan, taking into account the crosscutting areas from other sectors or clusters 
• Ensure that information is shared amongst sector members, and that information from other sectors is made available to sector members in order to improve planning, integration and implementation.
• Ensure clear and effective communication occurs between the subnational and the national sector.
• Contribute to regular ISCG sitreps, and take an active part in ISCG co-ordination meetings.
• Ensure education is explicitly included and prioritized in all multi-sector assessments and reports, including ISCG Sitreps.
• Track and monitor sector members fundraising for Education specific interventions, and ensure that members are aware of funding opportunities

2. Develop and maintain collaborative relationships:

• Display neutrality and act as the representative of all education sector members.
• Actively engage in various stakeholder groups related to education, including LHIF, LHDF, and the Education Donor Working Group. 
• Support the MEHE Education Sector Coordinator (within the DG’s office) to engage with Education Sector partners to improve coordination and harmonization of partners in line with MEHE/Sector strategies. 
• Develops strategies for teams to work across traditional boundaries, working in diverse environments
• Establishes clear objectives with teams and individuals and monitors progress and performance
• Fosters collaborative, transparent and accountable relationships through wide diversity of partners
• Uses negotiation and conflict resolution skills to support positive outcomes for the Education Sector as a whole
• Develop and maintain a strong and positive relationship with the DG of Basic Education’s office and UNICEF, Education Sector co-leads
• Represent the Education Sector in the UNESCO-led Strategic Coordination Group with partners
• Develop and maintain a strong and positive relationship with sector partners

3. Capacity Building 

• Undertake capacity mapping and gap identification exercises to develop a capacity-development strategy for the sector.
• Identify the training needs of sector partners and advocate to lead-agencies, donors or other stakeholders to meet these needs.
• Support the Capacity Building Task Team Lead in implementing the workplan, ensuring that identified trainings are effectively rolled out to strengthen the capacities of the national education partner and sector stakeholders.

4. Advocacy

• Together with sector partners, identify core advocacy concerns for the sector and contribute key messages to the broader advocacy initiatives of the Inter-Agency Coordination body and other relevant actors. 
• Develop a joint sector/ cross-sector advocacy initiative to raise the profile and needs of the sector among in-country humanitarian donors. 
• Encourage all sector partners to include common/sector-wide issues, concerns and messages in their own communication activities.
• Provide strategic leadership to the Education Sector Advocacy Task Team, supporting the Chair (Save the Children ACCM Senior Manager) in coordinating sector-wide advocacy efforts, aligning priorities, donor mapping, and ensuring the integration of unified education messages into broader humanitarian advocacy initiatives.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Degree in education, international relations, human rights or development studies.
• Fluency in written and spoken Arabic and English

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• 3-6 years of progressive experience in networking or coordination within previous functions.

Desirable:

• Strong experience in data collection and analysis
• Demonstrated experience in managing partnerships with NGOs / CSOs and government
• Experience in strategy development and fundraising
• Strong understanding of child rights and governance. 
• Excellent time management skills
• Computer skills 
• Strength in interpersonal, communication and presentation skills. Previous experience of liaising with the UN, national and donor governments and NGOs as advantage.
• Available to travel in/out country 

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities 

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.