Project and Youth Engagement Manager At Plan International

ROLE PURPOSE

Plan International is a rights-based development and humanitarian organization working for better lives for all children. We are independent of government and have no political or religious affiliation. Our purpose is to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Our global strategy has a specific focus on girls, as they are often the most marginalized and most often left behind. We have committed ourselves to the ambitious target of reaching 100 million girls over 5 years, to ensure they can learn, lead, decide and thrive. This is our contribution to reaching the sustainable development goals and in particular the goals of gender equality. Our organization is transforming itself to meet this enormous challenge everywhere we work. We need bold, forward-thinking, and innovative individuals to lead our country’s operations, driving change and delivering results that will allow us to reach our target of 100 million girls.

The role of the Projects and Youth Engagement Coordinator is to support the CSO Project administration, partner reporting, ensuring quality reporting, and implementation of the Regional projects. The position will be in charge of project-related internal and external communication maintaining close communication with the project partners, Plan MEESA regional Office, country offices, and relevant external audiences. The position will support project management, including review of and compilation of partner proposals and implementation reports, Plan internal project management systems updates, project record keeping among other project management tasks.

The position will also lead plan international’s youth influencing work in the MEESA region, and position Plan International as a reliable partner and a facilitator of youth – ensuring that young people are proactively and meaningfully involved in the decision-making processes at a global, regional and country level, and throughout relevant workstreams. The position will help to strengthen and scale up young people’s participation in programs, partnerships, innovations, and advocacy platforms. The role will work closely with country offices, to provide support and coordinate youth engagement work and provide advice and capacity building support to regional youth-led organizations to strengthen their organizational and activism capacities to enable their active participation in campaigning and to increase young people’s leadership on issues that matter to them.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

Regional Projects coordination, planning & Implementation (40%)

• Plan for, manage and schedule project management and other meetings, communicate schedules, capture proceedings, action points, and reports on the same.
• Identify and manage project risks
• Promote the realization of set targets quality outcomes.
• Smooth efficient project performance and effective management of and communication with project partners and donors.
• Provide an external audience packaging for partner reports as part of the Regional Hub, project activities, and partner profiling.
• SAP online support and regular project maintenance to align project implementation to SAP system alignment.
• Conduct regular partner site visits to deepen the partnership relationship and identify and offer support for any emerging challenges, programmatic, financial, institutional, or any other.
• FAD drafting, review, and amendments to align agreement to Partner agreements and FADS.
• Attending, preparing, and packaging partner briefs for dissemination within Plan and with outside audiences.
• Keep updated about the project development and perform necessary communication with partners and other stakeholders to follow up on deadlines, project changes, and key timelines/Schedules.
• Keep a record of projects including events; manage project files and or any other relevant project documents and records.
• Partner support including workshop planning and logistics on a needs basis.
• Strengthen collaboration working with the CSSP specialist to strengthen the capacity of partners while employing the Building Better Partnerships principles

Budget Management (10%)

• Monitor expenditures to promote prudent budget management and adherence to the approved budget.
• Review and submit financial reports according to donor regulations supported by the Finance and Grants Coordinator
• Develop a project implementation plan and update the project Budget in close collaboration with partners

Project Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Reporting (10%)

• In liaison with the M&E Hub Coordinator, collect and collate project-specific data and compile reports while drawing out learnings to improve project design, implementation, and learning.
• Develop quality and timely reports in accordance with donor guidelines and procedures.
• With the support of the M&E Hub Coordinator, enhance learning and knowledge management through documentation and profiling of Plan’s work.
• Promote evidence-based learning and programming

Build and maintain stakeholder relations (10%)

• Maintain a clear communication line with Donor (SNO), partners and Plan MEESA, Plan International AU Liaison Office (PAO), and other Plan International offices.
• Participate in external meetings with partners and other stakeholders on the project’s deliverables.
• Promote sensitization of stakeholders and partners on the Plan’s policies, strategies, procedures, values, and behaviors.
• Coordinate with other NGOs, local and private sector players working within the operational areas to expand opportunities for partnerships.

Youth Engagement Strategic Support (15%)

Support the adoption and the implementation of the new global youth strategy at the regional level

• Support in the localizing and implementation of Plan International’s youth strategy at the regional level, in collaboration with relevant colleagues at country, regional and global levels.
• Lead on all youth-related events at the regional level and support the organization of the regional youth influencing camp
• Oversee the co-creation, co-implementation, and co-evaluation of specific youth engagement platforms and initiatives (including regional and multi-country ones) on thematic priorities.
• Support the Global Hub, National, and Country offices when young activists from the region are participating in major international and regional events
• Oversee the recruitment of additional regional young Champions and Leaders

Youth-led Influencing (15%)

Working together with activists, regional children, and youth/girls movements, committed to equality for girls to mutualize resources and capacities to influence the state of girls in the region.

• Develop modalities for strengthening meaningful and representative youth engagement through training, networking, exchanges, and building stronger linkages between young people’s participation in regional processes and mechanisms as well as seeking influencing opportunities in line with our priorities.
• Support building organizational capacities of Youth-led organizations
• Support the development of innovative Youth-led initiatives at the regional level.
• Connect national-level initiatives to regional opportunities and spaces
• Ensure visibility of our work with youth/girls and will facilitate sharing and learning among countries within the region and above

Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI)

· Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

· Ensures that all staff in the unit/function/department are properly inducted on and understands their role in upholding Plan International’s safeguarding and GEI policies;

· Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in day-to-day work.

· Ensures to contribute to Plan International’s global efforts to ensure safeguarding and GEI, including making sure that relevant reporting and data are submitted.

Technical expertise, skills, and knowledge

Knowledge and experience

· Minimum Bachelors in social or political sciences or any other relevant degree.

· Knowledge and professional experience in the area of project management especially those around civil society strengthening, child rights, and child/youth governance and participation.

· Demonstrated technical experience Monitoring Evaluation, reporting, and Learning (MERL)

· Knowledge of results-based project management or logical framework, or rights-based programing.

· Understanding of youth movements and youth activism approaches and trends in the MEESA region 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 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

· Demonstrated facilitation and training experience.

· Prior experience with SAP financial system.

Plan International’s Values in Practice

We are open and accountable

We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organization by being open, honest, and transparent. We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others while doing what we say we will do.

We strive for a lasting impact

We strive to achieve a significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people and to secure equality for girls. We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused, and innovative.

We work well together

We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organization, including our sponsors and donors. We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals. We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams, across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities, and our partners.

We are inclusive and empowering

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