National Professional Volunteer - Gender & Social Inclusion at VSO

Location: Abuja with possible travels to States
Type of Role: Advocacy policy and research
Responsible to: Head of Programs
Duration: 13 months: March, 2020 to March, 2021
Start Date: 15th April 2020

Job Purpose

• VSO Nigeria is recruiting a national professional volunteer to grow and develop VSO’s work on social inclusion and gender at country level and across selected State’s
• The role will provide technical support in participatory approaches, programme design, and methodological support in social inclusion and gender analysis
• Additional support in other areas, such as: power analysis, stakeholder mapping, Gender, inclusion & analysis tools and strategies, strategies and stakeholders engagement towards promoting inclusion
• The role will support across practice areas of education, livelihoods, health and safe peaceful and resilient communities initiative with close engagement with the Program managers
• It will involve training and capacity building of volunteers, Primary Actors, partners, government and CSOsin line with VSO’s global social inclusion and gender approach and People First Principles.

Responsibilities

• Champion the Social Inclusion (SIG) work in Nigeria and engage with programme managers to facilitate inclusion within their practice areas and Volunteering for Development (VFD) plan.
• Support and facilitate the  political economy context analyses to feed into the implementation of  practice areas
• Conduct  training and provide accompaniment support to country staff, partners, volunteers and youth networks in SIG concepts and tools such as power analysis, gender analysis, participatory budgeting etc. in line with VSO’s global Approach
• Support the roll out and implementation of SIG Action Plans in all project areas.
• Support the Country program team to plan workshops, identify participants and develop relevant contents for promoting VSOs work across the core approaches with focus on SIG.
• In collaboration with SIG advisor, build the capacity of youth networks/platformsto create inclusive enabling environments where young people’s voices can be heard in new or existing, formal and informal spaces and platforms.
• Ensure visibility of our work and liaise with the global communications lead on the best methods to communicate their activities and campaigns.
• Build youth capacity to use various inclusion and gender analysis tools to monitor SDGs implementation on their priority topics, engage with duty bearers and influence change
• Support the preparation of guidance and practice notes that programme teams can use to inform their SIG work and practice in the field.
• Identify and advise on the development of partnerships with other key agencies in the development sector that  are aligned  with VSO’s global approach and could help with strengthening of VSO’s competency around SIG
• Review SIG Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks for practice areas and key projects to ensure they effectively capture social change as a result of SIG programming
• Participate in and contribute to global, regional and country forums and activities that advances the general work of VSO on social inclusion and gender
• Programme Funding- Support the development of funding opportunities and bids that may contribute to growing the portfolio of SA work in-country
• Ensure the SA programmes and projects are delivered in a primary actor-driven way in line with People First Framework principles and the SA planning cycle.

Other Duties:

• Liaise with the Social inclusion and gender Lead Adviser from time to time as is necessary to support the quality assurance and technical alignment with VSO’s SIG work.
• Submit monthly plans and reports to VfD Project Manager and participate in project planning and review meetings

Key Performance Indicators:

• Staff, partners and volunteers are inspired to engage with SIG and build it within their practice and demonstrate a shared understanding and commitment to SIG
• Social inclusion and gender in practice areas programmes including VFD plans in Nigeria meet quality standards and aligns with People First Framework principles, and the SIG Global Theory of Change (TOC)
• Number of VSO programme team members, partner staff and primary actors trained/coached in SIG and project plans implemented.
• Availability of strong, inclusive youth platforms for youth voice.
• Ability of youth to understand social exclusion and gender analysis issues,  engage and facilitate inclusive programming
• Number of guidance and practice notes developed
• Number of relevant organisations and best practices identified  to support VSO Nigeria’s work on SA
• Social inclusion M & E and Learning frameworks are robust and consistent with the global evidence and learning agenda around SIG
• Active participation in global SIG activities and efforts to support technical alignment between national and global SIG work
• Evidence of contribution to the development of programme funding to support the expansion of SIG  portfolio
• Evidence of contributing to the development of VSO culture and way of working in line SIG and with People First framework
• Number of monthly plans and reports submitted and approved by manager.

Skills and Knowledge
Successful candidates will be a Nigerian and would have the following skills, knowledge and experience:

Essential:

• Young persons with a Bachelor's Degree or Advanced Diploma in Social Sciences, Management, Business, Economics or other related courses
• Dynamic diploma holders with ambition, youth engagement skills, and exposure are eligible
• Leadership experience in the community or in a business setting
• Meeting facilitation skills
• Familiar with Youth programmes and initiatives in Nigeria
• A good level of spoken and written English
• Ability to use MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Desirable:

• A good network with youth organisations in Nigeria
• Previous experience or current involvement in youth sport and entertainment clubs or organisations
• Previous or current involvement in volunteering work in the community
• Experience in facilitating meetings and group discussions.
• Experience in Youth Mobilisation and Training
• Knowledge of current issues and best practices in Child Protection, Disability and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Competencies

• Self confidence
• Analytical and communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Open Minded and Respectful:
  • A non-judgemental approach that values other people and culture.
• Seeking and Sharing Knowledge:
  • Recognition that learning is a two-way and continuous process.
• Facilitating Positive Change:
  • The ability to analyse problems and develop solutions in line with VSO approaches.
• Adaptability:
  • A flexible approach and the ability to adapt behaviour to different situations.
• Resilience:
  • The self-confidence to work with a variety of situations, diverse people and ambiguity.