Project Officer at Save the Children

TITLE:   Project Officer, Migration and Displacement Initiative (MDI)

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Migration and Displacement Initiative (MDI)

LOCATION: Flexible (remote, UK or where Save the Children has a country or regional office)

GRADE: (please leave this blank)

CONTRACT LENGTH:

1 year (renewable)

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 1:  A basic criminal record background (DBS) check is required/equivalent police record check.

CONTEXT

More than 100 million people are currently displaced by conflict and violence. Children account for 30% of the world’s population, but 41% of all forcibly displaced people. Of the 280.6 million international migrants in 2020, 35.5 million of them were children under the age of 18. These numbers are rapidly growing as climate change increasingly drives further migration and displacement. The impact of migration and forced displacement forms one of the pivotal political and humanitarian issues of our time. Children migrating or forcibly displaced are more susceptible to violence, exploitation, trafficking, family separation and physical and sexual abuse.

In response to the increasing impact of this crisis upon children, Save the Children (SC) established its Migration and Displacement Initiative (MDI) at the end of 2016. The MDI places children at the heart of our work, ensure our programs reach more children through effective, durable, and scalable solutions, and that we are recognised as a global leader in child focused programming for children who are migrating and displaced.

As a compact, multidisciplinary team, the MDI exists as a catalyst, a convenor and a connector specifically designed to drive forward knowledge, programming and foster innovation within Save the Children on child focused migration and displacement programming to ensure that all migrant and displaced children survive, learn and are protected.

The MDI seeks to achieve this in three ways:

• As a catalyst unit to foster innovation, nurture technical excellence and conduct research to drive knowledge, programming and policy work
• As a connector to join the dots across our operational platform and key migration routes and connect those on the frontline of delivery with fundraisers
• As a convenor to bring public, private and social sector partners together to tackle the issue collaboratively

The MDI is made up of 4 main pillars:

1. Programmes: working closely with Save the Children colleagues and peer organisations to improve long-term outcomes for children who are migrating and displaced
2. Research: undertaking exploratory research on emerging issues facing migrating and displaced children, and assisting other Save the Children teams on the design of relevant research
3. Innovation: creating and collaborating on displacement tools, research and solutions
4. Advocacy: responsible for influencing policy and supporting children to advocate and campaign for their rights

ROLE PURPOSE:

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring the strong and effective co-ordination of the team and provide a crucial link between each pillar of the MDI as well as acting as the principal administrative liaison with our supportive functions.

In addition to co-ordinating the team, the Project Officer will be responsible for consolidating and communicating knowledge and new learning both internally within Save the Children and externally, contributing to building Save the Children’s profile on migration and displacement with key donors and influencers and enabling us to amplify the voices of children.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Senior Research Advisor, Migration and Displacement Initiative

Key internal relationships: MDI pillar leads, colleagues working on other teams in the Program Quality & Impact unit including knowledge management and learning, supporting functions (e.g. HR, finance), country office focal points, Save the Children members, global media and communication teams

Key external relationships: consultants, graphic designers, copyeditors, translators

Role Dimensions: The role is embedded in a small, agile team that works in a complex, international federated organisation across over 100 countries.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Team Management and Co-ordination: Oversee and co-ordinate administrative functions

• Support MDI team’s annual planning, monitoring and reporting, helping to track progress against our key deliverables
• Manage MDI’s MS Teams, Sharepoint and OneNET pages
• Provide logistical support for MDI Team Meetings and other key strategy meetings
• Provide admin support/help trouble-shoot Source to Pay, Procurement and Oracle HR issues
• Support budget management, particularly monitoring transactions, to help ensure projects run to deadlines and provide good value for money
• Support recruitment of external consultants and management of contracts

Knowledge Management: Help to consolidate knowledge/new learning and disseminate effectively

• Maintain and disseminate learning from the global Migration & Displacement Community of Practice
• Support the Senior Research Advisor and other team members in gathering and synthesise information on what works to protect and drive the rights of migration and displaced children
• Support the Senior Research Advisor and other team members to draft and update presentations and briefings for internal and external dissemination
• Help maintain and ensure that internal and external MDI resources are up to date

Communications: Support the team to communicate the MDI’s work and raise their profile within and outside of the movement. Specifically:

• Support team members to keep abreast of, share and make available new data, resources or reports relevant to the MDI and colleagues, and ensure updated data and statistics are included in our materials and across the wider organisation
• Communicate with Save the Children Migration & Displacement focal points and other key stakeholders on the latest MDI activities and identify potential areas of collaboration
• Cultivate and support the use of communication tools and platforms
• Liaise with graphic designers, copyeditors and translators to deliver high quality products
• Monitor and assess the impact of MDI’s communication and dissemination activity

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Hold self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

• Hold the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Set ambitious and challenging goals for you and your team, takes responsibility for your own personal development

• Widely share your personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

• Take initiative and share new ideas and ways of working to support Save the Children’s global M&D strategy

Collaboration:

• Build and maintain effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

• Value diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develop and encourage new and innovative solutions

• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourage openness and transparency; demonstrate high levels of integrity

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Proven experience in a similar role, preferably in an international environment

• Highly organised and excellent administrative skills

• Demonstrable skills of effective project organisation or management

• Competent in use of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and SharePoint sites etc.

• Strong analytical and problem solving skills

• Excellent time-management skills
• Ability to effectively prioritise multiple tasks in a constantly changing environment
• Detail-oriented
• Ability to work autonomously when needed

• Strong interpersonal and cultural awareness skills,

• Ability to work collaboratively and develop productive relationships across a wide range of stakeholders in a diverse, international environment

• Fluency in English with excellent written and verbal communications skills

• A passion for creative and effective communications

• Commitment to the mission, vision and values of Save the Children

Desirable

• Proficiency in language other than English
• Experience working for international NGO including developing country experience
• Experience conducting research in developing countries
• Experience with communication management and document/web-page design a plus.

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.

JD written by: Ilana Tyler-Rubinstein

Date: 30/11/22

JD agreed by: Tory Clawson

Date: 02/12/22

Updated By: Ilana Tyler-Rubinstein

Date: 05/12/22

Evaluated:

Date: