Specialist, Education, Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women in partnership with BRAC (AIM) Program

Job Description

BRAC is an award-winning international non-governmental development organisation, with the vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination, where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential. BRAC is a leader in developing and implementing cost-effective, evidence-based programs to assist poor and disadvantaged communities in low-income countries, including in conflict-prone and post-disaster settings. It is an organisation of and for the people of the Global South, pioneering new development and social enterprise approaches to equip communities to achieve prosperity. As well as being the world’s biggest NGO by number of staff and people directly reached, BRAC has regularly been ranked the number one NGO in the world by the Geneva-based NGO Advisor, an independent organisation committed to highlighting innovation, impact and governance in the non-profit sector. BRAC retained the top spot in 2020 among the top 500 NGOs for the fifth consecutive year.

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. It started its first program outside of Bangladesh in Afghanistan in 2002, and has since reached millions of people in 11 countries in Asia and Africa. BRAC has a holistic approach to development that uses a wide array of programs and social enterprises, including in microfinance, education, health, agriculture, gender and human rights. BRAC believes that every person has inherent potential, and when an enabling environment is created and that potential is unleashed, even the poorest can become agents of positive change in their own lives, for their families and their communities.

Purpose

The Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women (AIM) in Partnership with BRAC is equipping 2 million adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) with age-appropriate entrepreneurship, employability, and life-skills training, as well as the tools to start and scale their own businesses. The nine-year program (2021-2030) applies BRAC’s proven model using microfinance, youth empowerment, agriculture, education and skills development to improve lives and livelihoods. It currently operates in seven African countries: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Kenya. Based on the AGYW age, needs, and circumstances, AGYW are placed on one of two pathways in the AIM program: an education pathway or a livelihood pathway.

About the AIM Education Pathway

The AIM Education pathway is designed to increase access to and completion of quality secondary education for adolescent girls, aged 12-17, across the AIM countries: Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda. The program seeks to achieve three core objectives: (1) to empower 400,000 adolescent girls by increasing their agency, voice, and life skills; (2) to support adolescent girls to complete at least lower secondary school; and (3) to improve gender-responsive education in at least 2,000 secondary schools, positively impacting an estimated 2.4 million students.

This AIM education pathway is closely aligned with the Mastercard Foundation’s strategic priorities under its Young Africa Works initiative, particularly the emphasis on improving the quality and accessibility of secondary education to better prepare young people for meaningful work. Through a set of integrated interventions, AIM Education targets structural and social challenges that often hinder girls’ education—including financial barriers, inadequate infrastructure, undertrained teachers, harmful gender norms, lack of community support, and weak school governance systems.

Job Summary

The Specialist, Education, AIM will manage the overall planning, coordination, and implementation of the AIM Education pathway in BRAC Liberia. This exciting role involves the overall management, leadership and oversight of the education pathway, under the direct supervision of the AIM Program Manager, BRAC Liberia, and with technical and programmatic supervision (dotted/indirect supervision) received from BRAC International’s (BI’s) Early Childhood Development & Education (ECDE) team and support from the AIM central team at BRAC International. This will be a full-time position based in BRAC’s country office in Liberia.

Apart from the overall management, coordination, leadership, and oversight of the education pathway, the role includes direct and indirect management, coaching, and capacity building of BRAC AIM program implementation staff, budget management, internal and external stakeholders, and partnership management, effective communication and reporting, and promotion of safeguarding in the program.

The specialist will serve as the technical focal person for the AIM Education pathway, and s/he under the supervision of the AIM program manager, will support the AIM program manager in any internal and external stakeholders’ engagement and/or communication of the AIM Education pathway.

Key Responsibilities:

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.

Develop, Contextualize and Manage the AIM Education Pathway for Adolescent Girls (AGs):

• Lead the AIM education pathway in the attainment of measurable impact in the lives of VYA & AGs to ensure the completion of their education journey.
• Foster an understanding of the context – political, cultural, etc, and community expectations, within the AIM education team and country education team in Liberia– and contribute to the development and implementation of contextually appropriate education design and operational manual.
• Manage stakeholder coordination to develop, adopt and deliver localized and comprehensive solutions for achieving education goals for the very young
• adolescents (VYAs) & adolescent girls (AGs) in targeted communities, relationship building, and carry out the approval process with the respective authorities at district and national level.
• Oversee overall implementation and supervision of the AIM education pathway-related interventions in the targeted areas. Ensuring that the AIM education interventions are delivered on time, on budget, and in compliance with BRAC and donor regulations.
• Ensure the establishment of a robust system for the smooth channeling of the school grants for financial support for the VYAs and AGs.
• Support and provide indirect/dotted supervision to the AIM Technical Sector Officers for Education to ensure smooth, timely, and quality implementation of the gender responsive training and other pedagogical interventions at the school level.
• Lead the AIM education pathway to develop work-plans and follow up with team members regularly to ensure that activities are on track.
• Monitor the AIM education pathway progress against both the AIM programmatic and budgetary targets and propose making adjustments in consultation with the AIM program manager, to the program design as necessary.
• Help the AIM program manager to prepare timely and high-quality program and donor reports on project activities in compliance with internal requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
• Follow-up AIM education field-level program activities and provide supportive supervision to improve the quality and staff knowledge
• Where needful, contribute to country-level contingency plans and support the integration of contingency planning for the AIM program

Ensure the Implementation of a Robust, Inclusive Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) System:

•  Enhance quality programming in the education pathway through incorporating quality planning and system monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Ensure appropriate, timely, and accurate data collection against agreed indicators to enable both internal and external reporting.
• Work closely with the M&E and knowledge management teams to collate lessons learnt and best practices among internal and external stakeholders.
• Work with the MEL team to identify and incorporate project-suitable accountability mechanisms for the AIM education pathway.
• Regular visits to monitor and verify program performance.

Manage Stakeholder Coordination, Advocacy, and Networking:

• Lead internal coordination, especially with the schools, district, and national level education officials, education partners in the countries implementing similar kinds of programs, and other global technical/functional teams.
•  Collect different levels of government approval needed for the implementation of the AIM Education pathway.
• Manage day-to-day coordination with country support teams in areas of human resources, finance, procurement, administration, IT, communications, etc. o Support the AIM program manager to oversee BRAC and relevant partner staff involved in the education pathway to ensure effective coordination of integrated programming and multi-sectoral interventions.
• Support technical donor reviews and external engagement activities, including meetings with implementation partners, government agencies, civil society, and local community-based Organizations, organizing learning and knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Strengthen/create a local and national-level advocacy network to support VYAs and AGs education goals.
• Support the AIM program manager with linkages between the internal and external stakeholders and the AIM program in-country.

Grants, Knowledge, Risk management and Reporting:

• Proactively monitor the AIM education pathway performance, identifying and mitigating programmatic and organizational risk, and escalate as necessary. o Support the AIM program manager in the implementation of standard award contracts, coordinate approval of agreements and sub-agreements, amendments, and extensions, where applicable related to the AIM education pathway.
• Support and coordinate with country-level Grants Managers, M&E, and Finance teams to ensure timely submission of quality narrative and financial reports quarterly. Additionally, frequently (at least monthly) monitor the AIM education pathway budget intake.
• Support the AIM program manager in the AIM program database management, including updates for pipeline reports, grant stewardship, and prospect research relevant to the AIM education pathway.

Lead and contribute to the capturing and documentation of the AIM education-related knowledge and learnings, and contribute to process development and documentation

Team management and overall stewardship:

• Support and coordinate the AIM education team, ensuring competent and motivated staff, as well as manage the performance of the AIM education staff, and encourage on-the-job coaching, identify and address learning and training needs and opportunities.
• Support the development of capacity-building plans for the AIM Education team ○ Manage external technical consultants and partners involved in the AIM education pathway in the country.
• Support the AIM communication team with up-to-date content to create presentations and marketing materials to showcase program and project successes.
• Act as a mentor and role model for less experienced staff.

Safeguarding Responsibilities

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment, and exploitation to achieve the program’s goals on safeguarding implementation ○ Act as a key source of support, guidance, and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment
• Practice, promote, and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, and encourage others to do the same

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in education/development studies/Anthropology/Sociology/Business Administration and/or other relevant fields
• Minimum 8 years’ work experience with at least 3 years of managerial/leadership experience in managing and implementing education program(s), international development, working with ultra-poor and marginalized communities to implement education and/or girl’s and women’s empowerment programs
• Experience in project management and coordination, including supervision and monitoring, administration, finance, and logistics

Required Skills, Competencies & Knowledge:

• Proven aptitude in proposal development and writing including advanced budgeting skills
• Experience in representation and negotiation with government, donors, partners and other stakeholders
• Ability to interpret financial data and prepare budgets and financial grant reports
• Strong Microsoft Office skills, especially Excel
• Strong problem-solving skills, highly organized, strategic thinker with a strong attention to detail.
• Strong sense of teamwork and collaboration and demonstrated ability to build relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
• Diplomatic and highly effective on an interpersonal level in addition to cross-cultural sensitivity
• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and dedication to the mission of BRAC..

About BRAC International:

BRAC International (BI), a leading non-profit organization, is on a mission to empower people and communities facing poverty, illiteracy, disease, and social injustice. Our vision is to create a world free from exploitation and discrimination, where everyone has the opportunity to realize their potential. We design proven, scalable solutions that equip people with the support and confidence they need to achieve their potential.

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 and over the last five decades has grown to become one of the world’s largest non-governmental organisations (NGOs), reaching over 100 million people. We started our first international operation by venturing into Afghanistan in 2002, building on lessons from our work in Bangladesh to support a nation devastated by war. Currently operating in 16 countries across Asia and Africa. Born, proven and led in the Global South, BRAC International brings a unique Southern perspective and commitment to continuous learning, providing a depth of insight, experience and evidence to meet the needs of diverse communities with humility and courage across Asia and Africa. To learn more about BRAC International, please visit (www.bracinternational.org.com)

Our Core Values:

Integrity: We approach our work with honesty and integrity.

Innovation: We innovate and iterate to improve our impact.

Inclusiveness: We foster inclusion to reach those who need it most Effectiveness: We strive for effectiveness to better serve people in poverty

If you feel you are the right match for the above-mentioned position, please follow the application process to grab your dream opportunity!

External candidates are recommended to email their Resume with a cover letter and any supporting documents to bimcf.liberia@brac.net

Internal candidates are recommended to apply with their latest Resume including all job assignments in detail and a cover letter mentioning core competence and career aspiration with BRAC PIN and email to bimcf.liberia@brac.netcopying their immediate line manager. Please mention the name of the position in the subject bar.

Application deadline: 26th September, 2025

BRAC is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share the same commitment. We believe every stakeholder and every member of the communities we work with has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect, harassment, and exploitation – regardless of age, race, religion, and gender, status as an individual with a disability or ethnic origin. Therefore, our recruitment policy and procedure include extensive background checks and disclosure of criminal records in order to ensure safeguarding to the fullest extent.

“BRAC International is an equal opportunities employer”

Nationals are encouraged to apply!