Early Childhood Development (ECD) Senior Assessor - Beirut

In-line with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Ahlan Simsim’s objective to have a sustainable impact on a child's life in a cost-effective way by using easy to replicate activities that are tailored to and integrated in existing early childhood development (ECD) systems across the region; large- scale systems change need to be established to ensure sustainable in-country change that is locally owned and managed for the benefit of future generations. To that end, the IRC ECD Lebanon team collaborated with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and the Knowledge to Policy Center (K2P) at the American University of Beirut (AUB); and developed evidence-informed contextualized and leveled standards aiming at improving the wellbeing of children in private nurseries in Lebanon by ensuring healthy, child-friendly, inclusive and safe services. The standards were launched on June 27, 2022.

Scope of work

The standards have three levels, the first being a necessity for any private nursery to operate. The standards include chapters related to governance, human resources, education, curriculum and play, health & safety, infrastructure and sanitization, inclusiveness and equal opportunities and working in partnership with parents, nutrition, and physical activity. The MOPH - Mother, Child and School Health Department intends to send all private nurseries across Lebanon a ministerial memo to inform the nursery that assessors will be visiting nurseries to assess that they are in alignment with the licensing. Requirements. To that end, the coordinator will work closely with the MOPH - Mother, Child and School Health Department in following up and supervising the assessors in the assessment process as well as communicating necessary steps and measures to nurseries for implementing the standards. The assessment process consists of an initial assessment of the various levels of private nurseries vis-à-vis the standards, identify the gaps nurseries have in specific areas to meet the first level of the standards as well as training needs within the nurseries and conduct a second assessment once nurseries have received the needed trainings and were given time to reach the first level. The coordinator will be trained on the standards and the two assessments to be conducted.

Deliverables

The key deliverables of the assignment are:

• Attend training and refreshers that cover the objectives of the assessments, the instruments to be used and the data collection procedure, as well as ethics and child safeguarding compliance.
• Lead and supervise the assessors in carrying out data collection for the initial assessment of the various levels of private nurseries vis-à-vis the standards using the provided assessment tool, including taking appointment and visiting the nursery to fill out the initial assessment and sharing the results of the assessments with the nurseries and responsible for follow up and review of daily field reports to the supervisors during data collection.
• Lead and supervise the assessors in carrying out data collection for the second assessment once nurseries have received the needed trainings and were given time to reach the first level, including taking appointment and visiting the nursery to fill out the second assessment and coordinate closely with the mother and child department in the MOPH to convey official necessary steps and measures to nurseries upon results of data analysis.
• Responsible for quality control of the data collection process to ensure sound implementation.

Payment Rate and Schedule:

Payments will be settled upon the completion of the above-mentioned deliverables in monthly instalments.

Tablets will be distributed to the coordinator and are considered under the full responsibility of the coordinator; any damage or loss of the device will result in the suspension of payment. The coordinator will also receive a recharge card to follow-up with assessors and will have transportation available for their visits to the nurseries.

Requirements

• Educational background in the social sciences, psychology, education, or related field.
• At least 2 years of experience in data collection.
• Excellent time management skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills as well as excellent strategic and analytic thinking.
• Ability to work on complex projects in multitasking and respect deadlines.
• Fluent in spoken and written Arabic and English.
• Experience with survey data collection and/or observational measure administration [e.g., observations of classrooms or interactions] preferred but not necessary.

Working Environment:

The ECD Senior Assessor will be based in Beirut with travels to the ALEY, CHOUF/BAABDA, BEIRUT, BEKAA, METN, SOUTH, NORTH and JBEIL/KESEROUAN when needed to visit nurseries.