Global Youth Participation Specialist (Nairobi or Mumbai) at Girl Effect

Context of the role

Over the next 12-months, Girl Effect is committed to adapting and enhancing how we involve young people in designing our programmes, shaping our communications messaging and participating in our organisational decision-making forums. 

We are looking to hire a Global Youth Participation Specialist to join our Programmes team and support with the implementation of Girl Effect’s latest youth participation strategy. You will work alongside a multidisciplinary group of experts in gender, research, safeguarding, governance, storytelling and social behaviour change communications. 

In this role, you will be responsible for supporting the development and delivery of global tools, training and policies, applying your expertise and experience to global-level thinking. In addition, you will also provide technical support to youth participation focal points in Tanzania, India and Ethiopia, as required. 

A key part of this role is supporting Girl Effect to remain up to date with the latest thinking and evidence in the field of youth participation. You will be responsible for supporting colleagues to mainstream this best practice thinking to promote positive changes in how we work alongside young people to deliver our work. 

What you will do

• Project management of the youth participation  workstream (work plans, timelines, contracting, invoices etc.).
• Work alongside youth participation focal points in India. Ethiopia and Tanzania to support programming to be youth-centred and grounded in best practice approaches. Responsibilities could include capacity building, research and developing guidance.
• Keep up to date with trends on youth participation across the different geographies that Girl Effect operates, and use this to spearhead our global youth participation internal learning agenda. 
• Support the global communications team to enhance the way we collect case studies and involve young people in the development of our communications messaging. Including but not limited to the creation of a longitudinal study of youth champions.
• Work with the global Evidence team to track and measure global and country-level youth participation activities. 
• Create and/or identify multiple ways to capture feedback to strengthen youth participation. 
• Manage logistics, agendas and minutes for monthly team and cross-functional meetings. 

Who you are

• Have a commitment to gender equality, safeguarding and an understanding of the specific issues faced by adolescent girls. 
• Have an understanding of and interest in children and young people’s rights and participation, including an understanding of barriers young people face to meaningful participation in international organisations/programmes.  
• Experience in programming, youth work and/or activism that supports young people’s participation.
• Experience in setting up and managing systems and processes to track and stimulate progress against key milestones and agreed deliverables, to deliver projects on time, on budget and to a high standard.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to build and maintain meaningful and supportive relationships across the team in order to deliver successful projects. This role requires someone who is positive and passionate when it comes to their work.
• Collaborative and consultative capturing young people’s voices and creating inclusive systems for young people’s engagement   
• Innovative and takes on new ideas and approaches for the best outcomes for young people’s participation  
• Adaptable / can-do attitude – comfortable working with changing parameters and finding solutions to unforeseen problems in short timeframes. 
• Comfortable taking direction and working without close supervision.
• Accuracy and attention to detail, even when working under pressure.
• Strong communication, writing and organisational skills.
• A creative and inquisitive mindset.
• Cultural awareness and understanding of the geographies within which we operate. 
• Excellent written and fluent spoken English.

What else you should know

As we continue to scale and grow – we are hugely ambitious for our future and we are looking for people who are driven to change the world for girls.

Our teams are a diverse mix across sectors (non-profit and commercial) and specialisms (from Brand and Creative through to Gender and Insight). You’ll learn and grow in an environment that will challenge you to think and work with a fresh perspective. In turn, you can expect to work somewhere where you will be stretched and developed in your role, a place where you can build your career and work with talented, engaged people committed to our cause.

Girl Effect is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to recruiting candidates with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

This role is being recruited on a 12 month fixed term contract basis.