Programme Officer (ECD)

BRAC International is Hiring! Join BRAC International to create opportunities for people to realise their potential. 

Position: Programme Officer (ECD)

Job Location:  Nyanza District, Rwanda

About the AIM Program:

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.

In the AIM project, the inclusion of Early Childhood Development (ECD) micro-enterprises as a pilot initiative is an innovative and community need-based solution where young women aged 18 to 35 will receive support in terms of knowledge, skills and capital to become micro-entrepreneurs. These women will provide quality child care services for young children in their own communities in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Liberia. The knowledge and expertise of the BRAC Play Lab model will be used in the form of curriculum, play space and materials design, training, management and monitoring to set up the childcare micro enterprises.

About the Role:

The Programme Officer will supervise the assigned Play Labs/ECD centers and coordinate with project staff and beneficiaries to ensure all project objectives are achieved on time and according to agreed standards. The role includes daily monitoring of Play Labs/ECD centers, overseeing children’s participation and progress, and ensuring the quality and equity of Early Childhood Development activities, especially for the most vulnerable children.

Key Responsibilities:

Community mobilization and facilitation:

• Ensure communities, government, and other stakeholders clearly understand the project’s objectives, priorities, and approaches.
• Use participatory methods to help children, communities, and government stakeholders identify their own needs, challenges, and priorities.
• Promote strong community ownership and active participation in Play Lab activities.
• Oversee procurement, logistics, and administrative tasks for the ECD project in the area, in line with BRAC policies.
• Work closely with project staff to maintain internal control systems and resolve day-to-day field-level issues. 

Effective project activities delivery based on standards: 

• Ensure close consultation with sector authorities, ECD micro entrepreneurs (play leaders / caregivers), children and BRAC`s technical staffs during project implementation 
• Ensuring market survey and child survey to set up the micro enterprise ECD center. 
• Identify potential ECD entrepreneurs from AIM participants, and select the ECD center or play lab house according to set criteria.
• Ensure that children’s attendance, fee collection, and necessary records are properly maintained at the center. 
• Ensure children’s attendance at play lab is more than 90% 
• Organize monthly parents and community meetings at play lab centers
• Support the ECD micro entrepreneur to set up the ECD center and installment of the indoor and outdoor play space.
• Ensure play lab materials and equipment are with quality and well maintained to enhance the overall quality of play labs
• Maintain the caseload of the enrolled children at the play lab centers and ensure children are well performing in the centers
• Follow up with micro entrepreneurs (Play leaders/ Caregivers) on pay regular installments of the cost-sharing approach agreed with BRAC.
• Monitor all project activities closely on a regular basis, document and share monitoring reports to Area Manager
• Conduct field visit to play lab centers by 100% of the work
• Attend staff meetings and develop monthly refresher module
• Effective monitoring the works done by micro entrepreneurs.
• Ensuring the recruitment and development of staff and ECD micro entrepreneurs.

Effective delivery of training and play-based curriculum: 

• Support the delivery of training for Play Leaders based on the project’s ECD curriculum.
• Ensure training sessions follow the approved play-based curriculum and meet the quality standards set by BRAC.
• Provide ongoing coaching and follow-up support to Play Leaders to strengthen their facilitation skills and classroom practices.
• Assist in implementing curriculum activities in Play Labs/ECD centers, ensuring age-appropriate and inclusive learning experiences.
• Collect feedback from the field to inform curriculum improvement and share insights with the technical team.
• Receive all the project training for own capacity buildings.

Coordination, Networking and Advocacy to project: 

• Establish good working relations with project team, government and stakeholders at districts and regional level 
• Participate and organize project meetings and stakeholder meetings at streets and play lab centers
• Enhance self – empowerment of children, parents and communities in play lab centres
• Ensure effective advocacy with local authorities at district and regional level, ensure that they are embedded in program delivery 
• Linking the children under play lab centers with available services surrounding them
• Ensure strong linkages between centre and nearby government primary schools and help the ECD entrepreneur the transition of the children in nearby primary schools. 
• Adhere to high ethical standards, and comply with all regulations.

Child Protection: 

• Promote and ensure child rights-based programming at field and office level
• Promote and abide by internal policies and procedures including child protection policy 
• Ensuring mandatory reporting of child abuse cases in play lab project operation
• Promote and facilitate child rights and gender inclusion based on play lab project at field level
• Ensuring Child Protection Committees at play lab centers are fully functional. 
• Ensuring all project team and relevant others, including play lab leaders, parents and project stakeholders are aware and have access to child protection policy, contents and the responsibilities it places on it.

Reports and documentation: 

• Develop and submit to the Region Manager monthly, field progress in timely manner
• Document well project success stories/ case study/ best practices/ lesson learned and submit to Area Manager 
• Ensure and monitor downward accountability to stakeholders especially children and communities including documenting what works for wider sharing across BRAC, government and donor
• Ensuring the project properties are well kept at play lab centers and office.

Safeguarding responsibilities :

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme’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, encourage others to do so.

Major Challenges :

• Children dropout from Play Labs
• Attendance of parents in parenting and parents meetings
• Attendance of parents in volunteer mother program
• Truancy of children in play labs
• Theft of indoor and outdoor materials.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) :

• Good attendance of children 
• Ensure availability of clean drinking water and hygiene at play lab facilities.
• Enough materials in the play corners 
• To help the play leaders for selecting the play lab space in their locality which is child friendly and ensure all play lab criteria
• Children aged 3-5 years show improvement in their developmental outcomes
• Percent of parents/caregivers understand and show positive attitude towards learning through play
• Number of Play Labs ensure quality play environment for the children
• Application of curriculum in terms of playfulness, stimulation, self-regulation and Language development
• Number of play labs established with full scale (structure room with indoor and outdoor) play facilities
• Percent of play leaders attended refresher training
• Percent of children (M: F) enrolled in the Play Labs show regular presence in the Play Labs
• Frequency of individual parent volunteer attendance in the Play Labs
• Sufficient play materials produced for the Play Lab
• Number of CMCs formed & functional.

Academic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or Postgraduate in Early Childhood Education, Education, International Development, Gender, Sociology, Anthropology, Social Sciences and other relevant fields.

Experience Requirements:

• At least 1-2 years’ practical experience working with NGOs, Education, Early Childhood, child protection or related programs.
• Teaching experience in early years will be an added advantage.
• Experienced in Administration and leadership.

Required Skills, Competencies & Knowledge:

• Have soft skills like teamwork, communication and flexibility 
• Little bit of knowledge on monitoring and evaluation 
• Knowledge of the Rwanda education system mainly about the available service of early learning opportunities, government policies, departments and institutions in the education field etc.

Employment type: Regular/Fixed-Term

Salary: Competitive

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 ( http://www.bracinternational.org )

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! 

Qualified and interested candidates are recommended to email their Resume with a signed cover letter and any supporting documents in a single PDF format mentioning a brief academic background, career summary, core competence, notarized copies of academic qualifications and professional certifications to bracrwandarecruitment@gmail.com .

Please mention the name of the position in the subject bar

Application deadline: 29th October 2026     

Please note that the shortlisting will be done on rolling basis, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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”

• Location: Kigali , RW