Global Lead - Youth Movements at Plan International

ROLE PURPOSE

To lead Plan International’s cross-organisational ambition to grow and strengthen youth collective action, including our work to increase resourcing for girl and youth led movements. This is a core component of Plan International’s ‘LEAD’ Area of Global Distinctiveness (AOGD), focused on supporting young people to be active drivers of change. The role provides expertise and thought leadership for the organisation’s programming and influencing work, at all levels, in this area. The role oversees the development, management and scaling of a portfolio of priority youth gender transformative programming and influencing models.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES OR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Operate in a ‘shared leadership space’ for the GYPA Hub, and co-lead the LEAD AOGD with the LEAD Practice Lead.
2. Lead and drive the development and delivery of the Youth Collective Action core component of the LEAD AOGD, including operational management of associated budget, in consultation and collaboration with all parts of the organisation, including country/ national and regional offices.
3. Line manage colleagues managing a suite of programme and influencing models focused on youth influencing, and matrix manage cross-organisational project teams for key initiatives.
4. Enable, support and guide integration of global youth collective action work into country strategies, national influencing strategies, and standalone national level plans.
5. Lead monitoring and learning for this area of work at the global level.
6. Oversee the development of priority programme and influencing models, in collaboration with the Gender Transformative Policy and Practice Hub. Develop and manage a portfolio of new, innovative models for youth influencing and movement building, and lead the work to test, replicate and scale these in different contexts (incl. models for flexible and sustainable funding).
7. Oversee resource mobilisation for priority programme and influencing models (within the broader GYPA Hub financial management processes).
8. Co-lead youth engagement and youth-led campaigning plans for the flagship girls’ rights campaign, Girls Get Equal. This includes co-designing and implementing a global youth engagement plan, matrix management of the Global Youth Campaigns Officer, and advising on youth mobilisation plans for global campaign moments.
9. Oversee priority global youth advocacy initiatives, providing thought leadership, managing relevant projects and line managing relevant programme staff with a global youth engagement and advocacy remit e.g. Generation Equality and She Leads.
10. Advocate internally for adaptations to Plan International’s policies, processes, attitudes and behaviours to ensure our work to support youth collective action is consistently strategic, meaningful, inclusive and safe. This includes collaboration with various functions including risk and compliance, programme quality, HR, finance, M&E (as well as others).
11. Develop buy-in and strong working relationships across Plan International, ensuring senior leadership support for this area of work.
12. Identify and manage complex risks and problems that arise as a result of this work, including re safeguarding and legal, and provide advice and guidance to colleagues as appropriate.
13. Manage and cultivate partnerships and profile with key external girl and youth-led organisations and associations, including through collaborations and joint initiatives.
14. Oversee the creation and implementation of a learning and development plan to build youth movement building capacity across the organisation.
15. 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 onduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE

1. Act as a leader within, and member of, the Girls and Youth Power & Action Hub, ensuring youth movement building work is embedded in the organisation’s broader approach to enabling girls and young people as active drivers of social and political change.
2. Provide youth partnership, influencing and movement building expertise and leadership.
3. Line and matrix management of colleagues and consultants.
4. Build effective relationships and networks across the organisation to achieve buy-in and enable this work, including for collaboration and learning.
5. Oversee the development, management, resourcing and scaling of a portfolio of programme and influencing models for youth influencing.
6. Identify and manage increased risks resulting from the development of this work.
7. Manage and cultivate partnerships with key external youth-led organisations and associations, and position Plan International within the sector at the global level.
8. Advise on donor engagement and proposal development.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

1. Girls and Youth Power & Action Hub – incl. Head of Youth, Movements & Campaigns, Global Lead - Campaigns & Mobilisation, Executive Director of West and Central Africa & Girls and Youth Power and Action Hub
2. Global Heads of Partnerships, Policy & Advocacy, Gender & Inclusion, Innovation, Director of MERL, Director of Safeguarding, relevant Finance and HR leads at the global level
3. Regional influencing and youth leads
4. Youth engagement and partnership leads in all country/national offices
5. Relevant internal thematic expert networks and the Disaster Risk Management team
6. External partners for key issue areas/ agendas – e.g. UN agencies, private sector, foundations, think tanks/academia and CSO partners (incl. girl and youth-led)

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

1. Advanced knowledge and practical experience of engaging and partnering with youth movements, youth organising and influencing
2. Deep commitment to feminist leadership principles and a practical understanding of how to apply them, including enabling collective self-care
3. Knowledge of and practical experience in strategic gender transformative programming and influencing, particularly girl- and youth-led
4. Experience in developing and implementing organisational strategies across different contexts and at different levels
5. Knowledge of and practical experience of programme design and implementation, and the integration of influencing approaches within programmes
6. Advanced knowledge and practical understanding of child and youth safeguarding and child rights, in relation to youth influencing
7. Experience of risk management in relation to safeguarding, partnerships, legal and funding
8. Experience managing complex problems, being able to identify problems before they arise and develop contextually relevant solutions
9. Experience of building and managing effective teams
10. Ability to work in an international multi-cultural environment, including virtually
11. Experience of resource mobilisation including developing and managing partner and donor relationships and developing grant proposals
12. Strategic thinking and innovation skills including experience of applying innovation methodologies to programme and influencing initiatives