August 23rd, 2022 at 06:14 am

AfriKids Latest Job Vacancy

About AfriKids

AfriKids is a partnership between a UK Charity (AfriKids) and a Ghanaian NGO (AfriKids Ghana). We have a shared mission to ensure that every child in Ghana is afforded his/her rights as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We do this by building the capacity and resources of local people, organizations, and initiatives in such a way that they will be able to continue their efforts independently and sustainably in the future.

Our strategic priorities under this mission are:

• Firstly, Education
• Secondly, Child Protection
• Thirdly, Health

AfriKids (UK) has been a registered charity since 2002 and AfriKids Ghana since 2005. AfriKids Ghana runs projects in 16 districts in the Upper East Region of Ghana, two in the Upper West Region, and two districts in the Northern Region. All these projects are geographically focused on the three poorest regions of Ghana.

Job Description

TERMS OF REFERENCE (ToR)

Recruitment of Service providers to develop icons to enhance Early Childhood Education toys to include nurturing care messages for caregivers

Project Background

In Ghana, a third of children are behind in the domains of literacy numeracy, physical, social-emotional, and learning (UNICEF 2018). Children in rural northern Ghana face even more hardships (UNICEF 2018) due to a combination of poverty, low educational attainment of caregivers, and underresourced early years education services (Afrikids, 2021).

Based on this critical need, there is widespread agreement amongst scholars that integrated early child development (ECD) programming which engages multiple sectors, particularly health, nutrition, and education, is needed.

However, integration is hard. Almost all primary caregiver-focused programs concentrate on educating parents to stimulate children through play.

When other topics, such as nutrition, health care, and child development are included, they are delivered sequentially which takes time and raises a number of challenges: it is costly; it increases the burden on providers and the opportunity costs for caregivers, and it limits the intensity and quality at which topics can be covered.

As a result, AfriKids and Women and Children First (WCF) will be developing and testing toy enhancements to improve nurturing care of caregivers in Ghana. These toys – Play++ toys – are low-cost and a simple innovation to support stimulating play and early learning opportunities for children, while simultaneously being enhanced with icons to support and motivate responsive caregiving that protects children from threats and improves their nutrition and health care.

Play++ toys are an exciting innovation because they have the potential to overcome challenges to integration by uniquely supporting parallel delivery of multiple components of nurturing care in primary caregiver focussed programs.

Following the development of the enhancements, the Play++ toys will be piloted over the course of one year in Talensi District, northern Ghana.

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Scope of Work

• Review formative research to understand ECD practices: review the findings from the formative research to understand the attitudes and practices of local communities regarding ECD in Talensi District Ghana and start to generate ideas for the icons to enhance the ECD toys.
• Participate in design workshop: participate in a 4day design workshop with AfriKids, WCF, and key stakeholders to design the Play++ innovation based on the formative research.
• Design prototypes: use the formative research findings and the discussions from the design workshop to develop the prototype icons that will be placed on the 3 ECD toys to communicate aspects of nurturing care, such as nutrition and health care.
• Test prototypes: will support AfriKids in developing the tool(s) to test the prototypes with the end users. In addition, the service provider will support AfriKids in the analysis of the results of the testing.
• Refine prototypes: will participate in the 2nd 2day design workshop and will use the findings from the prototype testing to refine and adjust the prototypes
• Deliver finished product: you will deliver the final product.

Payment deliverables

• A report documenting key lessons learned from the 4day Design Workshop
• Prototype icons for the toys
• A final set of icons for the toys and a report documenting the design process and lessons learned

Required Skills or Experience

• Excellent spoken and written English
• Proven experience leading design research, product design, and prototyping with end users (at least two years experience as design leader)
• Exceptional visual design skills to showcase ideas and concepts to non-designers
• Strong creative problem-solving skills
• Ghanaian national. If the service provider is a team, then at least one team member should be a Ghanaian national

Qualification and Experience

• Good understanding of rural communities in Ghana
• Preferred experience working with non-literate adults and young children
• At least a basic understanding of early child development, child health, nutrition, or hygiene
• Able to understand human problems from a design perspective
• Excellent verbal, written, and visual communication skills
• Excellent ability to be clear and concise in all communications
• Strong organizational and time-management skills, proven ability to prioritize and deliver on time
• Ability to work both independently and in a dynamic, interdisciplinary team

HOW TO APPLY

• Cover Letter (no longer than 1 page, font size 11)
• CV including a portfolio of graphic design, prototyping, design research, and/or product design projects 
• Proposal for project delivery, outlining pricing and daily rate and proposed schedule/timeline for project delivery.
• Name and contact details of two referees, who know you in a professional capacity

Anticipated timeline

• Applicants must apply by 31^st August 2022
• Interview and selection process between 12^th to 14^th September 2022
• The final decision, candidates to be notified: 19^th September 2022
• Tentative start date: 3^rd October 2022

For further questions on any aspect of the selection process, please contact lindamarfoh@afrikids.org and info@womenandchildrenfirst.org.uk.

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