The Youth Empowerment and Employability Advisor

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.

The Youth Empowerment and Employability Advisor will lead in the development of a country programme on Youth Empowerment and Employability that is aligned to Plan Kenya’s Country Strategy and Plan International’s Global purpose; The position holder will drive new program development in Youth Empowerment and Employability (YEE) by promoting employment opportunities, increasing employability, entrepreneurship skills and financial capability among adolescents and young people. S/he will ensure YEE is mainstreamed across our programme, drive high-quality programming through capacity building of field staff and partners; The position holder will maintain high-level engagement with government and other actors to drive policy reforms, influencing the agenda as need be, and to position PIK in the YEE eco-system. The position holder will drive program development through new business acquisition by actively participating in resource mobilization efforts to deliver on Plan Kenya’s bold ambitions for girls and youth in Kenya.

Accountabilities and Main work activities

Strategy design and planning – (25%)

· Lead development of a CO programme on Youth Empowerment and Employability that is aligned to Plan Kenya’s Country Strategy and Plan International’s Global purpose;

· Take leadership in defining the Youth Empowerment and Employability strategy for PIK and provide guidance in development of an implementation strategy;

• Develop minimum standards, technical frameworks and strategies on Youth Economic Empowerment that are in line with Plan Kenya’s new five year strategic and our Global ambition;
• In close collaborating with the Influencing and Advocacy Advisor and communications team, manage national influencing efforts in the area of Youth Economic Empowerment and support with technical documentation of evidences from the projects, develop position papers and write stories of change when required. Ensure that all projects on Youth Economic Empowerment have influencing outcomes that are aligned to the Country Strategy;

· Provide technical input on key thematic areas, including but not limited to YEE Plan of Action for Kenya and other pertinent issues in the youth sector;

Technical leadership for Programme Quality (25%)

· Provide targeted technical assistance to Plan Kenya’s portfolio of YEE projects deploying economic strengthening strategies targeted at young people, with a focus on cost effectiveness, building a solid evidence base of what works, as well as driving innovations and moving these to scale;

· Support the development of an integrated approach to programming for adolescents and youth, including strengthening capacity of staff implementing child sponsorship projects that have an adolescent development component;

· Provide technical assistance to support quality design, implementation, monitoring, learning and evaluation of Youth Empowerment and Employability programs while providing support to teams on reporting for this strategic workstream;

· Ensure that PIK’s Empowerment and Employability programs are evidence based and grounded on Plan International global standards, contextually appropriate and with meaningful youth engagement;

· Strengthen the capacity of program implementation teams and partners, through relevant training modules, to develop, mainstream and implement quality and innovative Youth Empowerment and Employability programme;

· In collaboration with Monitoring Evaluation Research and Learning team, provide oversight and technical guidance in monitoring and harnessing learning from implementing Youth Empowerment and Employability projects, across the programme areas and keep track of achievement of the intended outcomes;

· Provide input into Country Office learning and innovation by supporting the design, testing and evaluation of innovations to advance economic strengthening programming for youth, including participating and supporting project/program assessments and evaluations as need be;

· Work with program teams to provide succinct and compelling evidence of Youth Empowerment and Employability and best practices, for internal and external consumption, through documentation and dissemination of lessons learnt;

· In close collaboration with Program Unit Managers, provide timely reports, as may be required on the Plan Kenya’s Youth Empowerment and Employability program portfolio, including updates on program/project challenges and successes;

· Monitor development in the fields of YEE and incorporate these into PIK experiences in the development of new program work and refinement of existing projects;

· Drive YEE dissemination of technical and project materials to ensure key stakeholders are optimally informed and engaged;

Resource mobilisation and programme development (25%)

· Incorporate lessons from Plan Kenya’s projects and previous technical experiences in YEE into high quality thought leadership pieces and positioning activities for industry engagement and participation in practitioner networks;

· Actively leverage Plan International experiences to develop proposals for program development and grants acquisition in YEE;

· Develop tactical and strategic relationships with key funding agencies, implementation and other partners, including advising the Country Office on appropriate fund-raising approaches;

· Lead and actively participate in resource mobilization efforts to deliver on YEE as appropriate

Partnerships, networking and influencing 10%

· Actively participate in Youth Empowerment and Employability eco-systems with the global hub and regional teams as well as within Kenya’s community of practice;

• Participate actively in programme meetings, planning and review activities, providing enhanced insight into child rights programming;
• Actively participate in key relevant internal meetings such as Programme Review Meetings, Advocacy and Communications or area-based meetings as required;
• Participate in any donor visit to project(s) within the country office portfolio, as required;

· Represent Plan Kenya in relevant national Youth Empowerment and Employability technical working groups and networks;

· Advocate and negotiate with high level technical experts and government officials, parliamentarians and CSOs;

· Conduct policy analysis to inform advocacy issues and establish and maintenance of dialogue with key decision makers within government;

· Advice on the partnership networks for overall enhancement of the Youth Empowerment and Employability programmes that impact at the different levels of engagement (County, National and Global).

Risk Management & Financial Responsibility (5%)

· Monitor programme performance and budget utilization and guide on corrective measures where needed;

· Support the annual planning process to ensure budget are well structured and effectively managed and utilised;

· Coordinate and support programme quality and delivery on Youth Empowerment and Employability projects audits and adequate application of management response across all impact areas.

Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) (5%)

· 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;**

· Leads the orientation of programme staff to ensure that they 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 project design, during implementation and as principles applied in day-to-day work of Programme team; **

· Ensures that Plan Kenya contributes 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

Qualifications/ experience essential:

· A Master’s degree in Education, Economics, Business, Social Sciences, or related field;

· A minimum of 7 years’ experience, five of which are in implementing Youth Empowerment programs at or national level, is acceptable in lieu of a Master’s degree;

· Strong and up to date knowledge of Youth Empowerment and Employability programmes;

· A clear understanding of the strategies for engaging with youth, especially young women in programme activities and advocacy;

· Good understanding of safeguarding standards and protocols;

· Result oriented, good interpersonal and communication skills including influencing and negotiation;

· Commitment to Plan values and willingness to abide by Child and Young people Safeguarding Policy and hold others accountable;

• Excellent presentation and communication skills; **
• Excellent planning, coordination, and reporting skills;

· Proven experience in providing technical assistance to complex protection programs;

· Commitment to Plan Kenya’s position on promoting girls’ rights and gender equality and integrating all these aspects in their day to day work.

Qualifications/ experience desirable:

· Demonstrated experience in coaching and mentoring staff on youth empowerment strategies;

· Experience in designing and technical support/management of Youth Empowerment and Employability;

· Demonstrable advocacy experience in national and county level on youth empowerment systems and structures.