Plan International is hiring a Regional Youth Engagement Officer

Role purpose

As part of our purpose and global strategy 100 Million Reasons, Plan International has committed to supporting girls, boys and young people as active drivers of change. This is outlined in the global LEAD programme and influencing framework. A core component of this area of global distinctiveness is to support adolescents and youth, and particularly girls, to take collective actions for systemic social and political change that contributes to the realization of human rights and gender equality. The Regional Youth Engagement Officer will support the WACA/GYPA Hub Youth Engagement Lead to engage and connect people and partners (inside and outside PII) and drive youth voice and engagement in all areas. The role will focus on ensuring high quality implementation of the regional Youth Engagement Framework working closely with country and regional teams.

Dimensions of the Role

Working with Country Offices and regional teams (programming and influencing including colleagues leading our humanitarian preparedness and response interventions), this role will provide technical advice and coordination on youth engagement and youth networks feminists approaches. They will own key initiatives/projects management responsibilities, provide direct support to the work and deliverables of the WACA/GYPA Hub Youth Engagement Lead and work in close collaboration with the global GYPA Hub and LEAD network. The role will ensure a high-quality implementation of the regional youth engagement framework and support COs to design and implement high quality youth/girls led programming and influencing across the region. She/he will support COs and regional resource mobilization efforts under the leadership of the WACA/GYPA Hub Youth Engagement Lead. Like all members of the team, they will also act as a focal point for gender transformative influencing and programming. While there are specific deliverables and responsibilities, there is an exciting opportunity for creativity and ownership within the role to drive youth/girls led interventions in Plan International development, humanitarian and peace building interventions.

Accountabilities

Coordinate the regional youth engagement agenda in line with LEAD including Powering the Movement, and the regional youth engagement framework

• Support the implementation of the regional youth engagement framework and LEAD including powering the movement in COs with movement building approaches. Develop and implement a plan to do this.
• Provide technical support to offices on youth-led collective action and drive work around youth participation to amplify the regional youth movement for gender equality;
• Support the Girls Get Equal campaigns efforts especially the youth engagement component and related initiatives;
• Support the youth engagement component of regional programs/strategies (Sahel Strategy; Lake Chad Strategy…) in line with the global “LEAD” Area of Global Distinctiveness (AoGD) and the regional youth engagement framework.
• Stay up to date on youth engagement trends, models, approaches and external youth activism development and contribute to evolving Plan International approaches, ways of working in this area
• Support regional monitoring and evaluation, learning and development efforts
• Contribute to documenting youth/girls led initiatives or models for internal and external positioning.
• Lead youth engagement efforts across the region, including supporting and building COs capacity
• Coordinate an internal working group made up of youth engagement focal points and advisors from Country Offices and Act as a focal point for youth engagement in humanitarian contexts.
• Map relevant projects in country offices and participate in relevant internal working groups and strengthen the work in our national and regional programme and influencing models
• Support COs to ensure high quality youth engagement plans are developed and being implemented including governance aspect;
• Connect national level initiatives to regional opportunities and spaces;
• Ensure visibility of our work with youth/girls and facilitate sharing and learning among countries within the region and beyond;
• Encourage the documentation of youth led initiatives and stories to support our advocacy and resource mobilization objectives;
• Contribute to the review of Country Strategies, COs annual and transformation plans and provide high quality input on Gender Transformative Youth Engagement (both programming/influencing and organizational dimensions).
• Ensure continuous and mutual capacity building efforts with COs using relevant tools and approaches depending on needs;
• Co-develop and deliver a learning and development plan and support facilitation of spaces for learning, sharing, and collaboration
• Working together with activists, regional children and youth/girl’s movement, committed to equality for girls to mutualise resources and capacities to influence the state of girls in the region
• Design and deliver annual training initiatives for young people and girls on leadership, empowerment, governance and seek gender transformative programming and influencing opportunities in line with our priorities;
• Support youth funding efforts especially the youth challenge fund and its scale up
• Map existing youth movements, networks, coalitions in the region aligned to our ambition and support building connections, partnerships and capacities of Youth led organisations
• Identify strategic opportunities to amplify the regional youth engagement work;
• Support resource mobilization efforts to attract additional funding needed to amplify and sustain Plan International youth engagement ambition in the region
• Act as a focal point for this work, staying up to date with external youth funding trends and developments

Key relationships

• Engage and collaborate with youth activists and youth-/girl-led organisations who are key stakeholders for the role
• Collaborate with other members of the WACA RH team, the Global team and the other regions to mobilise required expertise that advance our youth engagement work
• The Regional Youth Engagement Officer will work with other youth engagement focal point across the organisation and participate in the LEAD network and other global and regional platforms to share best practices, case studies and learn from others’ experiences

High Level Contact

Internal

• Regional Program and Influencing team including Gender Equality and Inclusion
• Country Programs and Influencing staff including Youth Engagement Leads
• LEAD Network; SOYEE Network.

External

• Youth led organizations, networks, activists… contacts
• UN, INGOs, Private sector organizations active in youth engagement work
• Donors

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Knowledge

• Understanding of youth movements and youth activism approaches and trends in West and Central Africa including the intersectionalities of youth movements and of strategies to support cross-movement and intergenerational learning, collaboration and influencing.
• Knowledge of working directly with children and youth in participatory ways to develop youth-led influencing strategies and campaigns for change including experience of developing and delivering advocacy strategies and/or campaigns preferably with a gender equality or girl-led focus
• Advanced practical understanding of child and youth safeguarding and child rights, current issues and best practice including child protection issues associated with youth campaigning and advocacy including digital safety

Skills

• Fluent in French and in English
• Experience in strategic youth advocacy and activism at the local, national and/or global level
• Analytical skills including comfortable in gender analysis
• Good understanding of development sector and socio-cultural contexts in which Plan International operates in the West and Central Africa region and ability to interact effectively with youth advocates and activists and adults in cross-cultural environments
• Experience preparing young people for advocacy engagements, activities and opportunities e.g. meetings with decision-maker, speech development, key messages development, communications plans.
• Knowledge and competence in identifying risks and mitigation processes that are associated with youth influencing – risks that young influencers in particular face to their activism and their security and wellbeing.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant
• Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Plan International’s Values in Practice

We are open and accountable

• Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
• Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact

• Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We work well together

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering

• We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
• We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
• We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.

Physical Environment

• Typical office environment, will include occasional travel
• Level of contact with children
• High contact: moderate to high frequency of interaction

If interested, please send your CV and cover letter in French or English.

How to apply?

This position is opened for all applicants and females’ candidates are highly encouraged to apply. The successful candidate should be immediately available. To apply, click on the link below and send by June 15th 2021:

Your application should include:

• A comprehensive cover letter
• A comprehensive and clear CV that includes the contact of four (4) of your professional referees, one of whom should be your current employer.

Females’ candidates are highly encouraged to apply

Closing date : 15 Juin 2021.