Community Engagement Specialist 79 views0 applications

THE ORGANIZATION
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 on 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 operations, driving change and delivering results that will allow us to reach our target of 100 million girls.
In Mozambique, we are working to eradicate early marriage and early pregnancy through projects that focus on adolescent girls in Inhambane Sofala and Nampula provinces. These projects are programmed along our three strategic pillars: Girl Education, Sexual Reproductive Health Rights, Youth Economic Empowerment and climate change. Our work is gender transformative and includes influencing work at national and sub-regional level.

ABOUT THE ROLE
Community Engagement Specialist will support a design and manage overall implementation of the community engagement activities of EU SOU CAPAZ Programme. This position is contingent upon award of the programme to Plan International.

Direct reports – 32 District Supervisors

KEY RELATIONSHIPS
Internal
•    Plan International Mozambique (Head of Program, Gender Specialist, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Program Area Managers, Communications Officer)
•    Global and Regional functional and thematic leads
•    Plan Inc. National Organizations
External
•    National and Local authorities
•    Partner organisations
•    Other INGOs

This position will have a direct coordination with the Team Leader and will have working relationship with the Head of Program and Program team, as well with key stakeholders.

LEVEL OF CONTACT WITH CHILDREN
Medium contact: occasional interaction with children

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Office work in Maputo with frequent travel to six provinces of the country (Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia, Sofala, Manica, Maputo).
If remote work still needed due to Covid-19 we should be adding something along these lines: Specific online meetings or physical meetings at Plan’ office will be required with relevant team members and other key stakeholders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES  

• Manage overall implementation and support monitoring of the community engagement activities, including community awareness campaign, capacity building and mobilisation and life skills component of the programme
• Co-design and manage capacity building of community leaders to create awareness about the program and its benefits, as well as SRH, GBV, and education, in the context of girls’ empowerment. It will include mapping of leaders, training, and behavior change campaign. Propose a methodology and content for this activity.
• Support design, oversee implementation and reporting for the life skills program for out-of-school adolescent girls to increase the girls’ decision-making capacity as well as knowledge, skills (social-emotional, SRH, educational, financial, literary, employment, and GBV related). Activities will include sensitization, selection of beneficiaries, training and mentoring sessions.
• Manage engagement of parents, husbands and other partners of out-of-school girls as agents of change around social and gender norms, GBV, fertility, sexual behaviors, family planning and economic empowerment. Activities will include sensitization, selection of participants, training and reporting on the activity
• Supervise and provide ongoing technical support to 32 district supervisors (one per district) who will be managing and monitoring work of the community facilitators and mentors on daily basis
• Support the INJ in managing the work of community actors (community facilitators and mentors), including:
  • Define the annual work plan of the community actors, including indicators and targets to monitor performance;
  • Support community actors in program implementation, ensuring technical guidance, logistical support, monitoring of quality;
  • Supervise the community actors, monitoring attendance and performance, to be reported to the INJ every (1) one and (6) months respectively;
  •  In coordination with M&E Specialist, oversee development of a proposed design for the component of the Management Information System MIS that will be used to manage the work of the community actors.
• Support the implementation of the Project’s GRM Manual under the EU SOU CAPAZ program. Contribute to the dissemination of the GRM to girls and boys, parents and caregivers, teachers, school authorities, and community leaders. Report on the dissemination and functionality of the GRM
• Adhere to Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP), Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion and support as necessary to ensure they are fully embedded across all project activities in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility
• Support/ input to mid-year progress reports and Completion Report

REQUESTED PROFILE 
    At least a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Public Health, Community Development or a related field
    Minimum of 8 years of experience (preferably in Mozambique) in Advocacy, Community Mobilization and Communication for Social and Behavioral Change in the context of Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescent Girls and Young Women
    At least 10 years of experience in implementing or advising large-scale girls` empowering programmes, including out-of-school girls` empowering programmes, community leaders and families mobilisation and behaviour change initiatives, in Mozambique or the region
    Experience working on an adaptive programming
    Experience of managing development activities at national level, with links to community-level actions
    Experience in utilizing innovative training participation models with proven evidence of positive results in engaging community leaders and partners of out-of-school girls in Mozambique or a comparable country
    Experience of working with a range of donors, and specifically WB
    Experience in monitoring and evaluation, working to build an evidence base and learning from data coming from the implementation
    Must have a deep knowledge of the institutional, social and cultural reality of Mozambique
    Mozambican national
    Must be fluent in Portuguese, English, and at least one local language spoken in the Central and Northern Provinces of Mozambique

We highly encourage Women to Apply

Position contingent upon award

Location: Maputo with frequent travel to the provinces

Plan is an Equal Opportunity Employer and as such qualified female candidates are highly encouraged to apply.
Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.
A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Child Protection Policy.
As an international child-centered community development organisation, Plan International is fully committed to promoting the realisation of children’s rights including their right to protection from violence and abuse. That means we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with.
Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. We must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.
Plan International operates an equal opportunities policy and actively encourages diversity, welcoming applications from all areas of the international community