Program Partner - Youth Engagement (Consultant) at Mastercard Foundation

THE OPPORTUNITY  

Reporting to the Program Lead, Youth Engagement, the Partner will support the implementation of the Foundation’s youth engagement strategy and initiatives that advance the delivery of Young Africa Works Strategic goals, and country road map for Kenya. Specific activities include supporting meaningful engagement of young people as a key strategic pillar, supporting Mastercard Foundation alumni network Kenya chapter, elevating youth voices for impact, gathering youth engagement insights, and supporting integration of young people’s initiatives and ideas into the country road map.

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Support Youth engagement mainstreaming in programs and mapping of youth engagement stakeholders and youth-led organizations in Kenya.
• Collaborate with the team to identify, document, and mobilize youth engagement and inclusiveness-related insight and learning from the Foundation’s work.
• Provide support in diagnosing and contributing to expertise on youth engagement enabling environment, and policy to inform country strategy design, partnership development, and monitoring processes. 
• Support in identifying key gaps, trends, and opportunities for youth engagement work to influence decision making, resource allocation, building youth agency, and policy change to support creation of dignified and fulfilling work for young people in Kenya.
• Support youth engagement assessments and designing detailed support plans for staff and partners at the country level including sensitization, capacity building, training, resource development, reporting, identifying support networks, etc.
• Support meaningful engagement of young people during proposal development, program implementation and during close out.
• Support development of comprehensive youth engagement approaches on mindset change and transformation among young people and communities.
• Support segmenting of the different groups of young people in Kenya and development of personas to inform Foundation programming.
• Support provision of perspectives, insights, and trends on emerging opportunities and issues affecting engagement of young people in Kenya and their endeavor to access dignified and fulfilling work opportunities.
• Provide support in the adaptation and development of youth engagement analysis tools to suit country context and provide technical support in applying them to various programs at the country level. 
• Provide support and offer implementation guidance to the Mastercard Foundation alumni network chapter for Kenya leadership teams in-country.
• Plan, and support Mastercard Foundation alumni network chapter for Kenya committee recruitment, onboarding, and offering guidance.
• Support establishment of a feedback loop mechanism for the Mastercard Foundation Kenya Alumni Network Chapter and Youth Led Organizations initiatives.
• Offer support to the alumni committee to build connections with private, public, and civil society networks. 
• Support creation of safe spaces where young people are engaged in dialogue and positioned to positively influence resource allocation, mind set change, decision making, and sector-wide policies at the sub-national, national, and regional level to achieve long-lasting impact in the creation of dignified and fulfilling work for young people.
• Support and guide partners on ways to invest on youth voice and adopting best practices of meaningfully engaging young people in the program.
• Support setting up and utilization of genuine, safe, inclusive, and comfortable forums including Youth Forums, Youth Voice Platform, youth Panels and Meet your Role Model sessions to drive engagement, solicit input from young people and extraction of learnings and reflections (through the young person lens) and to enable for a continuous adaptive management of program implementation.
• Support implementing partners to build effective youth engagement and outreach mechanisms that keep young women and men as the focal point in their approach.
• Support the launching of the national Youth Advisory Group for Kenya and youth feedback loop mechanisms.
• Support our partners to establish Mastercard Foundation Sounding Boards to enhance youth voice and their participation in decision making.
•  Ensure the Foundation and its partners are accountable to the young people their thoughts, aspirations, dreams, and ideas are reflected in the Foundation programming.
• Initiate relationships with organizations working on youth voice, meaning engagement, youth leadership and youth empowerment and various segments of young people and create opportunities to listen to them and consider their input towards enhancing reach and impact for underserved young women and men in the country.
• Collaborate with the Youth engagement community of practice to identify and contribute to relevant learning represent the Foundation at youth engagement related events within the Country.
• Build and maintain relationships with leaders in the field of youth engagement and youth voice, particularly in and identify and help develop strategic partnerships at country level.

WHO YOU ARE

• Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline such as International Development, Youth Engagement, Social Science etc.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience supporting young people, community mobilization and engagement, organizing youth engagement forums involving young women and men in Kenya.
• Proficiency with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Slido, Kahoot, Mentimeter, Teams, Zoom etc.
• Excellent English and Kiswahili written and spoken communication skills and fluency in other local language(s).
• Must be familiar with the Kenyan youth landscape and culture.
• Solid experience in progressive responsibility in the development and private sector with proven history of integrating youth engagement outcomes in programs and operations.
• Youth events planning, management experience, strong coordination skills, and understanding of project management.
• Experience in related discipline such as youth engagement, management of alumni network, community engagement, Youth Voice, social science, project management etc.
• Excellent organizational skills and proven ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Earlier experience consulting in the youth engagement space including working with youth leaders, influencers, refugees, people with disabilities and young people in the informal settlements is an added advantage.
• Ability to make sound judgement decisions and proofreading skills with a high attention to detail.
• Flexible, intellectually curious, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.