ROLE PURPOSE

As part of our purpose and global strategy, 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.

Over the next five years all of Plan International’s entities will be guided by our refreshed Global Strategy “All Girls Standing Strong Creating Global Change” which will help us achieve three core objectives: Increased Impact, Strengthened Legitimacy, and Improved Sustainability. Underpinning this all is our focus on girls and young people and our drive to become even more youth-centred.

The Regional Youth Engagement Lead will drive Plan International’s youth engagement work in West and Central Africa region. The ambition for the Regional Hub together with Country Offices across the region is to engage and connect people and partners – inside and outside Plan International – to be an engine for driving youth voice and engagement in all areas. We are working towards a world where young people, particularly girls and young women in all their diversity, are active drivers of systemic change, leading feminist movements and campaigns with the support and collaboration of allies.

This role will provide strategic and operational leadership to the youth engagement aspects of our programming, influencing and humanitarian work to position Plan International as a reliable partner for gender equality and youth led initiatives across the region.

The role will lead Plan International’s implementation of the regional youth engagement framework and the Youth Challenge Fund, as well as ensuring young people perspectives are reflected in the organizational governance across the region. S/he is expected to lead on Plan International engagement with regional and sub-regional youth led institutions and networks that promote Child rights and equality for Girls. S/he is expected to support youth led programming and influencing models and lead on attracting the quality funding needed to resource or ambition in line with the refreshed Global Strategy. This role will provide thought leadership briefing, policy/trends analysis and recommendations to the Regional Leadership Team on issues affecting youth, girls and young women to further position Plan International as a go to organization and a partner of choice for gender transformative youth engagement work

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 and thought leadership and coordination on youth engagement, youth in governance and decision making, youth policy and trends analysis, gender transformative youth led feminist approaches. The role is expected to lead our partnerships and external engagement with youth led organizations and networks in line with our ambition, and to facilitate two-way capacity strengthening support on organisational needs and activism capacities to enable their active participation in campaigning and to increase young people’s leadership on issues that matters to them.

The Regional Youth Engagement Lead will own and lead on key initiatives/projects/programmes management responsibilities, provide direct support to the work and deliverables of the WACA Programme & Influencing team and work in close collaboration with the Girls and Youth Power and Action Hub at the global level. The role will ensure a high-quality implementation of the regional youth engagement framework, the Youth Challenge Fund 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. 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. The role will work closely with Regional and Country Leadership Teams to promote and strengthen youth in governance and decision making practices.

This role will coordinate and manage the regional youth engagement team, according to Plan’s performance management procedures and values-based leadership framework underpinned by feminist principles.

Accountabilities

Lead the regional youth engagement agenda in line with the “Youth Centred” priority of the refreshed Global Strategy, The LEAD Area of Global Distinctiveness “Girls and boys as active drivers of change” global framework and the Regional Youth Engagement Framework:

• Lead on ensuring the “Youth Centred” priority of the refreshed Global Strategy, The LEAD Area of Global Distinctiveness “Girls and boys as active drivers of change” global framework and the Regional Youth Engagement Framework are embedded in strategies, plans and programmes across RH and COs in West and Central Africa.
• Drive the implementation of the regional youth engagement framework and the regional youth engagement hub as a center of expertise to support COs capacity strengthening and sharing needs;
• Provide guidance and leadership on all youth related events, partnerships and external engagement at regional and sub-regional levels;
• Drive the transition from regional youth led events to regional youth led movement for gender equality;
• Represent the region in global and regional youth engagement platforms and networks, both internally and externally.
• Support the organisation’s global campaign especially the youth led collective actions component and related initiatives;
• Drive the implementation and scale-up of the Youth Challenge Fund and lead on Youth resourcing programming and influencing model scale up across the region;
• Ensure staff and leadership capacity strengthening  on youth engagement and activism for gender equality including youth in our governance, leadership and decision making spaces.

Lead on youth led collective action efforts across the region, including supporting and working with COs to ensure excellence in youth led programming and influencing across the region.

• Support COs to ensure high quality youth engagement plans, programmes are developed and being implemented including governance aspect;
• Maintain a strong network of youth engagement leads across the region;
• Connect national level initiatives to regional and global 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).
• Lead on the resource mobilization plan to support the scale up of gender transformative youth led programmes across the region

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

• Design and implement annual training initiatives for young people and girls on leadership and as well as seeking gender transformative programming and influencing opportunities in line with our priorities, building institutional capacities of Youth led organisations
• Identify strategic partnerships opportunities to amplify the regional youth engagement work;
• Support proposal development and donor engagement initiatives to attract additional funding needed to amplify and sustain Plan International youth engagement ambition in the region.

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, WACA Regional Leadership Team including Country Directors, the Global team and the other regions to mobilise required expertise that advance our youth engagement work
• The Regional Youth Engagement Lead 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
• Regional Management Team
• Country Leadership Teams
• Country Programs and Influencing staff including Youth Engagement Leads
• Girls and Youth Power and Action Hub, Gender Transformative Policy and Practice Department

External:

• Government Officials and Regional Bodies
• Youth led organizations, networks, activists…
• 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

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

We strive for lasting impact

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

We work well together

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

We are inclusive and empowering

1. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
2. We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
3. 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.

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 August 24th 2022:

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