Youth Funding Project Officer at Plan International

Functional Area: Global Influencing and Partnerships (GIP)
Reports To: Product Owner
Grade: 3
Effective Date: 1 / 06 / 2022

Background

• As part of the LEAD global priority, Plan International aims to significantly increase its efforts through influencing and programming at every level, particularly at the grassroots, to support the efforts of young people – girls, young women and their male allies - to make change on critical issues related to girls' rights and gender equality that matter most to them.
• Powering the Movement is Plan International’s new global youth strategy and a pathway to deliver this ambition. It is focused on better supporting girl- and youth-led movements.
• A major focus of these efforts will be to provide innovative new platforms and approaches to ensuring young change-makers for gender equality are able to benefit from an enabling environment, increased funding and the ability to network and stand in solidarity with others around the world.

Role Purpose

• As the Youth Funding Project Officer, you will be responsible for the day-to-day coordination and delivery of this pilot programme.
• You will be responsible for ensuring all relevant stakeholders are up-to-date on the programme operations, act as a focal point contact for the young activists we seek to serve, and support the Project Lead in evolving the programme based on evidence from the pilot.

Dimensions Of The Role

• As the Project Officer, you will support a mid-size project budget (approximately EUR 300,000 for 12 months).
• You will manage the project’s day-to-day activities, and act as a first point of contact for young activists who interact with this programme.
• You will also support all monitoring and evaluation activities, as well as the long-term strategic planning for this programme.

Accountabilities

• Day-to-day coordination of the project, including all logistics coordination and administrative support such as keep accurate documentation of development, arranging meetings and travel, tracking budget expenditure, making purchases for the project, and coordinating tendering and contracting processes for the external vendors
• Act as the main contact for young activists that use the digital platform, answering technical questions and solving problems relating to the platform’s functionality. Bring an understanding of youth activism / movements and related risks (safeguarding, youth partnership) to ensure meaningful and respectful engagement with the youth groups.
• When engaging on the platform with youth groups and in the offices with country staff, always bring an intersectional lens to work e.g. ensure diversity and inclusion is prioritised in the design and implementation, actively support outreach with non-digital girl-led groups, track group profiles on the platform to ensure youth activist groups share values of gender equality and feminism.
• Lead on the implementation of a flexible funding mechanism that Plan will run on the platform, including disseminating information in a youth-friendly way, communicating outcomes of funding applications, carrying our verifications and due diligence checks, and any other project coordination tasks required. Use prior experience with youth movements to ensure a youth-focused, flexible and participatory process.
• Coordinate all monitoring and evaluation activities: support the Product Owner and in-country teams to collect relevant data and support with the analysis. This might involve working with the CO to arrange meetings with youth activist groups and co-designing the meeting agenda, collating findings into reports for the global staff and helping with analysis of data.
• Support the Project Lead and the global project team in evolving the programme based on evidence from the pilot: help with analysis of the pilot project, collect and analyse feedback from youth activist groups and CO staff (through calls and meetings that they coordinate), consolidate findings into a report for review and analysis with global staff, help formulate recommendations on next steps, work with CO staff to implement the recommended next steps.
• Support the Project Lead and the global project team in developing the scale and sustainability strategy for the programme; contribute to recommendations in the sustainability report, share insights and experiences from the country perspective and ensure the voices of youth activist groups are represented. This might involve gathering quotes and translating M+E findings into the report.
• Play an active role in the Plan International’s Youth Activism and Innovation communities, sharing learnings, best practice, and celebrating progress made by other people and team. The coordinator will do this by engaging in relevant networks and working groups, supporting with the implementation of an internal communications plan (using tools like email and Workplace) and supporting with internal meetings and workshops.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion 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.

Key Relationships

• Global Product Owner – global lead for this pilot programme, responsible overall for the successful delivery of the pilot programme globally. They will line manage this position
• Project Leads –responsible overall for the successful delivery of the pilot programme in each of our pilot countries; they will have matrix management responsibility for the Project Coordinator.
• Head of Youth Advocacy and Activism – responsible for oversight of all of Plan’s work with youth activists focused on influencing action.
• Innovation Project Lead – funding for this position and the pilot of the core product comes from this team; they will also provide technical advice and tools for the product.
• Girls and young people – girls and young people will engage with this project as its main audience. The post holder will need to build relationships with young people that use the digital platform.
• Safeguarding – the safeguarding team will provide steerage to make sure the core falls within the remit of this role do no harm to young people, their families or communities.
• External vendors – the post holder will coordinate communications with external vendors.

Technical Expertise, Skills and Knowledge
Essential:

• Experience coordinating complex projects, preferably delivery digital products or services
• Experience tracking budgets
• Experience coordinating contracting and tendering processes for external vendors
• Experience working with young people (14-24) and children as a mentor, project coordinator, or in any other capacity that requires direct contact.
• Understanding of gender equality and feminist issues
• Understanding of the youth activism/advocacy landscape and the barriers young feminist activists face in Latin America, preference will be given to candidates with experience as young activists in Latin America
• Understanding of child and youth safeguarding and risk, including safeguarding issues associated with youth activism
• A good understanding of digital technologies, including social media
• Fluency in English, and either Spanish or Portuguese with a working understanding of the others
• Experience working with multicultural, multi-language teams
• Willingness and ability to travel as required

Desirable:

• Educated to a Degree level or have equivalent experience in Human Rights, Gender, International Development or related areas.
• An understanding of Human-Centred Design and Design Thinking to human rights, international development, advocacy, or similar
• Understanding of the funding space for young activists
• Experience in M&E and/or user insight for social impact

Plan International’s Values In Practice

• We are open and accountable
• Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
• Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people
• We strive for lasting impact
• Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.
• We work well together
• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.
• We are inclusive and empowering
• We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
• We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
• We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.

Physical Environment:

• The post will be office or home -based with the potential for short-term field visits in pilot locations.

Level Of Contact With Children:

• High contact: Regular interaction with children