Youth Engagement & Consultation (YEC) Officer 376 views0 applications

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

ROLE PROFILE

Title	Youth Engagement & Consultation (YEC) Officer – Lake Chad Programme
Functional Area	Programme
Reports to	CO line management: Livelihood Coordinator Functional report: YEC Advisor of the Lake Chad Programme Unit
Location	Maroua	Travel required	Yes, national and international, up to 30%
Effective Date	May 2019	Grade	National

role PURPOSE

Plan International has full-fledged Country programmes in three out of four affected countries in the Lake Chad Basin. Since 2016 Plan International is coordinating and harmonizing its response to the Lake Chad crisis through the Lake Chad Programme, currently coordinated by the Lake Chad Programme Unit.

The Like Chad Programme is guided by Plan International’s Regional Lake Chad Programme Strategy (2018-2023). While all Strategic Programme Objectives (SPOs) of the Strategy are targeting, among others, youths, the 4th SPO is targeting specifically youth and adolescent girls to “Promote effective participation, empowerment and leadership of adolescent girls and youth in the Lake Chad region”. In order to achieve this SPO, Plan International is currently conducting a study the three Lake Chad Programme countries in order to develop a strategy on how to best and meaningfully engage with youth and their networks/groups.

Under the general guidance of the Lake Chad Youth Engagement & Consultation Advisor, the Youth Engagement and Consultation Officer will ensure that the study findings and strategy on YEC are rolled out in the Lake Chad Programme of the Plan Country Office and link in to the Plan International’s YEC programme activities in the rest of the Lake Chad region.

Dimensions of the Role

The role is expected to:

• Support the roll-out of the study findings from the YEC consultancy and related strategy document through support to technical project designs and youth engagement & consultation processes in the Plan International Country Office.

 

• Ensure that the YEC approach is contributing to the gender-transformative programme approach being used by the Plan International Country Office’s Lake Chad Programme with a particular focus on the participation and perspectives of female youth and adolescent girls.

 

• Coordinate with the YEC work being done at country level in Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, as well as with the Lake Chad Programme’s YEC Advisor, including the participation in exchange and learning across the countries on the YEC approach.

Accountabilities

1.   Roll out of the YEC Strategy

• Developing an implementation plan of the YEC strategy document for the Plan International Country Office.

 

• Implementing programme activities within the scope of the YEC strategy (and within the context of SPO4 in the Regional Programme Strategy) directly with youth and other relevant stakeholders, as well as liaising with national and local actors as relevant for the preparation and implementation of such activities.

 

• Assist the YEC Advisor in conducting internal orientations/training for the Plan programme country office staff on the YEC strategy and the roll out phase

 

• Technical support to intervention designs relevant for YEC

 

• Support the development, at field level, of an appropriate monitoring, and evaluation systems for YEC interventions, and ensure that it is functional.

 

2.   Information and Co-ordination

• Provide intervention updates and reports on a frequent basis and whenever required and requested to the Lake Chad Programme’ YEC Advisor, as well as respective line manager, on the progress of the YEC strategy implementation as well as planned and ongoing YEC actions in the Country Office.

 

• Participate in regular meetings of the YEC team (YEC Advisor, as well as YEC Officers in the other two Plan International Country Offices) to strengthen YEC strategy roll out at country levels.

 

• Collect, analyse, and share YEC-related data at country level.

 

• Ensure that lessons learnt at country level on YEC are systematically documented/captured and can be used for further implementation improvement as well as development of new interventions around YEC.

 

 

 

3.   Capacity Building

 

• Assist the YEC advisor in providing orientation/trainings to country office programme staff on the YEC strategy and meaningful youth engagement, participation, and consultation.

4.   Resource Mobilization for follow up and/or extension phase

• Support the YEC advisor, CO resource mobilization teams and Plan International NOs on securing funds for continuous YEC programme scale up through providing lessons learnt and project related contextual information as well as technical support for intervention design and youth engagement and consultation processes

Dealing with Problems

The post will be charged with implementing the YEC strategy at CO level together with all relevant CO programme and project staff, as well as coordinating with the Lake Chad regional YEC team in the other COs as well as the YEC Advisor in the Regional Programme Unit. The post will also be responsible for interacting directly with local authorities, partners, youth and youth organisations to advance the objectives of the YEC strategy. For this reason, the post holder must be able to master and manage relationships a different levels of authority well and respectfully in regards of different needs with different stakeholders, including conflicting priorities and ad hoc request.

While the YEC Officer is responsible for the implementation of the YEC strategy in the CO, there is no direct authority over implementing CO staff; it is, therefore, essential that the post holder is able to stay on top of a variety of work, make clear prioritization and be creative in making use of internal (and external) resources (people/funding) to ensure that we achieve the envisaged SPO 4 of the Lake Chad Programme at CO level.

Excellent and creative – but non-directive- technical leadership skills will be utilized to overcome hurdles and other bottlenecks which might affect negatively the impact and the quality of the YEC strategy.

Key relationships

Internal:

• Livelihoods Coordinator  (Line Manager)
• Lake Chad Programme’s YEC Advisor (technical supervision, very close collaboration/coordination)
• CO Head of Programs and Emergency Response Manager, as well as all relevant CO programme staff
• Technical collaboration with YEC Officers in the other COs of the LC regional Programme.
• National Organisations, in particular for technical support in intervention design around YEC
• Global Youth Advocacy and Activism Advisor of Plan International (coordinated by YEC Advisor)
• Plan International AoGD Network coordinators for LEAD (coordinated by YEC advisor)

  External:

• Youth organisations and other stakeholders at community level relevant to the implementation of the YEC Strategy.
• Other agencies and stakeholders related to the intervention or decision makers (i.e. national and local governments, local and international NGOs, relevant UN agencies, etc).

   

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

 

• University degree or appropriate work experience in a field relevant to the position
• At least 3 years of experience in planning, design and implementation of integrated humanitarian and/or development programmes
• Knowledge of international humanitarian standards and codes of conduct
• Significant experience in youth participation and youth engagement as well as on participative approaches
• Experience in working with children and girls’ rights

• Advocacy, influencing and negotiating skills, experienced in gaining commitment from a wide range of people, bringing about change and providing support from a distance
• Work style: well organized even within a fluid working environment and has a capacity for initiative and decision making with competent analytical and problem solving skills.
• External representation and communication skills Requires general administration, information management and telecommunication skills and proficiency in IT/computer skills (including sound MS excel and word proficiency)
• Fluency in French / English
• Flexibility to travel within the CO’s Lake Chad Programme area, within security limitations set by Plan International

Physical Environment

Maroua, capital of Far North region of Cameroon, is located in an arid tropical zone. It has many facilities and infrastructures: running water, electricity, restaurants, hotels, health facilities, telephone, public transport agencies, international airport,… After a period of uncertainty marked by some attacks in the city, the situation safe is progressively improving.

 

Level of contact with children

Medium Contact – High Contact