Associate Education Officer

The Office of the UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).

The UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 by the UN General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally, or resettle in a third country (www.unhcr.org).
The Associate Education Officer will support the rollout of Refugee Education 2030, the Refugee Education Strategy, in line with the Global Compact on Refugees. This compact calls on States and relevant Stakeholders to contribute resources and expertise to expand and enhance the quality and inclusiveness of national education systems, facilitating access to primary, secondary, and tertiary education for refugee and host community children and youth. Providing inclusive and equitable quality education is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, and the Associate Education Officer will ensure UNHCR’s programming aligns with these goals.
Leveraging the growing global momentum, UNHCR is working to translate the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) into impactful results. Contributing to this global roll-out of the GCR, the Associate Education Officer, in collaboration with the Education Section in the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS), will provide technical support to UNHCR Country Office(s) and partners to advocate for and implement the objectives of Refugee Education 2030:
1. Promote equitable and sustainable inclusion in national education systems for refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, stateless, and internally displaced persons.
2. Foster safe, enabling environments that support learning.
3. Enable learners to use their education toward sustainable futures.
The incumbent will serve as a focal point for education within their area of responsibility (AoR) and, under the leadership of the supervising officer(s), support UNHCR’s work on education and advocacy related to all issues affecting UNHCR's education programmes and strategic directions. Under the general direction of the supervising officer(s), the incumbent will support the implementation of global-level policies, including the UNHCR Education Strategy.
The Associate Education Officer may assist in liaising with the Ministry of Education and with education coordination networks at national, provincial, and district levels to improve the quality of refugee education. They will liaise with partners to assess the education context, develop an implementation plan, and monitor the programme, as well as assess its impact. The incumbent will work in collaboration with in-country education partners to improve access to and quality of refugee education at all levels, both formal and non-formal, and may liaise with partners for joint support for education access for refugee and host community children. The Associate Education Officer will develop innovative education approaches for emerging needs in refugee education, including attention to special needs, minorities, girls, pre-school education, and non-formal activities. S/he will facilitate inter-sectoral linkages with programmatic areas, including child protection, SGBV, gender, community services, livelihoods/economic inclusion, and health, among others.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Senior Protection Officer or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer Associate Education Officer will:

• Stay abreast of political, social, economic, and cultural developments that have an impact on access to and quality of education.
• Actively pursue opportunities to promote refugee inclusion into national education systems
• Coordinate with relevant partners to support access to education for refugees and also host communities.
• Assist in providing comments on existing and draft legislation related to education for persons of concern (PoC).
• Coordinate with partners and other education stakeholders to adapt the Refugee Education 2030 Strategy to the local context, ensuring ownership.
• Collaborate closely with partners to ensure coherent annual planning based on a longer-term strategy, and jointly monitor and assess implementation, providing advice on programme reorientation where necessary.
• Provide technical advice and guidance on education issues; assist in liaising with competent authorities to ensure the issuance and recognition of education-relevant documentation.
• Assess needs for services of PoC, as related to education, and coordinate partners’ responses if required.
• Systematically promote and comply with the Age, Gender, and Diversity policy and other priorities, such as the guidelines on HIV/AIDS.
• Assist in advocating with authorities for respect of the right of PoC to education and their access to education services.
• Coordinate with education networks to ensure that the interests of refugees in education are understood and incorporated into relevant policies and initiatives.
• Participate in humanitarian and development sector working groups to support and ensure all refugee education support programming at the country level is extended, amplified, and reported against sector development goals. Humanitarian partners and funding serve to strengthen the system.
• Assist the Country Office(s) in developing and implementing strategies to address issues related to education access, quality, and data in cooperation with other UN agencies (e.g., UNICEF, UNESCO, WFP) and key education stakeholders.
• Undertake direct dialogue with Country Office(s) on the implementation of education programmes in line with strategic directions, integrated with SDG4 and Education Sector Plans, including with Ministries of Education/Higher Education, education partners, and coordination networks (such as the Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and Local Education Groups).
• Foster and ensure inter-sectoral linkages and coordination with child protection, SGBV, gender, community services, livelihoods/economic inclusion, and health, among others, and provide specialist advice to other sectors to ensure they fully integrate education-related concerns into their planning and implementation.
• Support and monitor the implementation of Global Refugee Forum pledges within the Area of Responsibility (AoR).
• Assist in the planning and coordination of UNHCR’s role concerning education, representation of UNHCR at national consultations, and representation of UNHCR’s education strategy and policy to other UN bodies, NGOs, interlocutors, institutions, and organizations within the AoR.
• Ensure active exchange of information and that best practices are identified, documented, and disseminated both within the AoR and beyond.
• Participate in joint assessment missions in emergencies to minimize the time refugee children and youth spend out of education, ideally a maximum of three months after arrival.
• Prepare the drafting of education input in key internal and external documents and reports.
• Support the country's education information management strategy by collecting disaggregated data on PoC and ensuring the collection and dissemination of education information and best practices to enhance education delivery.
• Identify and support initiatives to build the capacity of communities and PoC to assert their right to education and access to quality education.
• Promote and participate in initiatives to equip national authorities, relevant institutions, and NGOs with the necessary resources to enhance access to quality, certified education for refugees.
• Contribute to a communications strategy that generates external support for UNHCR’s education activities and the education rights of PoC.
• Make recommendations on individual education-related cases.
• Enforce compliance among staff and implement partners with global protection policies and professional integrity standards in the delivery of education services.
UNHCR Burundi context-related roles:
• Set the strategic direction of UNHCR Burundi in education and provide country-level leadership and oversight of the portfolio, which encompasses early childhood, learning achievement, primary education, accelerated education, secondary education, non-formal education, scholarships, tertiary education, and education in emergencies. Develop a transformative approach in collaboration with the government, development actors, UN agencies, international organizations, and academic partners to promote the inclusion of refugees and returnees in the national education system, including work on policy, delivery, and financing.
• Represent UNHCR at the Local Education Group (LEG) and Education in Emergency Working Group (EiE WG) meetings and participate as necessary in ad-hoc working groups and coordination mechanisms. Explore options for establishing a dedicated Working Group or Sub-Group (under the LEG) for refugee and returnee education, utilizing this forum and others to bring together different stakeholders and build awareness of the inclusion of refugees and returnees.
• Lead UNHCR engagement in the development of the MoE strategy for refugee inclusion and returnee integration. This may include i) providing expertise on forced displacement issues; ii) providing up-to-date and accurate education data and information on refugee and returnee caseloads; iii) developing long-term relationships with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, including the East African Community, development actors (both multilateral and bilateral), private sector, other UN agencies, international organizations, and NGOs; iv) drafting/ editing support and; v) organizing workshops as required.
• Collaborate with Community-Based Protection, Child Protection, GBV, Livelihoods, and Social Protection colleagues to ensure that the specific protection needs and aspirations of refugees are integrated into education programming. Ensure the availability of sufficient education data and information to articulate immediate needs and contribute to education planning for both government and UNHCR programmes implemented by UNHCR partner agencies.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme's mandate into their assignments and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities as part of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and taking an active part in UNV activities (for instance, in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Provide annual and end-of-assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results, and opportunities.
• Contribute articles or write-ups based on field experiences and submit them for publication on UNV's websites, newsletters, press releases, and other relevant platforms.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups on the use of online volunteering and encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to utilize the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.