Early Childhood Development (ECD) Hub Lead and Practice Lead

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.

The Opportunity

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Hub’s work to support the embedding of gender transformative ECD programming across the organisation in development, humanitarian and protracted crisis settings, through: development of a vibrant and engaged community of practice, support for the development, testing, adapting and scaling of programme and influencing models of relevance and ensuring that learnings are captured and shared; ensuring robust technical support – including learning and development initiatives – is available to Plan International offices to progress the broader implementation of gender-transformative ECD programming; and supporting strategic partnerships for impact and income.

As the Global Hub Lead, you work in coordination with the Hub Steering Group to ensure that the ECD Hub delivers on ambitious objectives set by the Gender-Transformative Policy and Practice (GTPP) leadership, managing other Hub team members and being accountable for budget and deliverables. You are a member of the GTPP leadership team, playing a role in setting direction for the department, agreeing on priorities, resource allocation and provisions to ensure GTPP advances gender equality and children’s rights in a holistic manner.

Key Responsibilities

You will provide overall leadership and direction for gender-transformative ECD programming as the Practice Lead. This involves:

• Ensuring that the ECD thematic package is implemented and updated to align with the Global Strategy ambitions, supporting the operationalization of gender-transformative approaches across the core components, and coordinating/supporting work on ECD models as per the global approved process.
• Ensuring quality support on ECD is provided to Plan Country Offices and the Plan Federation where needed, including for country strategy development.
• Ensuring that Plan International’s ECD vision, strategy and work is further operationalized and communicated within the Federation and beyond to position Plan as a strong player within gender-transformative ECD work in development and humanitarian settings.

As Hub Lead you provide overall leadership and direction for the ECD Hub team as Hub Lead.  This involves:

• Collaboration with other Hub members (Policy and Advocacy lead, Network Coordinator) to define and take forward a shared agenda, in partnership with the  ECD Core Group and ECD Regional Focal persons.
• Horizontal leadership with other Hubs to ensure that all policy, advocacy and gender transformative program work is supporting gender equality and children’s rights
• Overseeing the Hub’s strategic direction, managing the Hub’s operational budget and leading internal fundraising efforts for strategic projects.

This role involves communications, representation and relationship management with technical and senior staff both internally across the entire organisation, and externally with a range of partners.

The post-holder is expected to travel from time-to-time for international key events, and to provide regional and country support.

About You

You bring considerable experience and expertise in ECD programming and influencing, preferably within both development and humanitarian settings or protracted crisis settings. Direct work experience in countries where Plan International operates, in one or more low- and middle-income country contexts is essential.

Knowledge and experience within parenting/caregiving, community-based early learning, maternal and child health and nutrition, WASH as well as a child protection, gender and inclusion focus is key.

You bring knowledge and understanding of gender-transformative and inclusive programming and influencing approaches and design, monitoring & evaluation, learning and knowledge management and how these might be practically applied in the area of ECD.

You have experience of successful resource mobilisation, donor representation and growing a portfolio in ECD or closely related areas.  

You are a motivating, engaging, and inclusive driver who fosters team spirit and community of practice around ECD across the whole Federation and leading in a matrix envioronemnt, adjusting approaches, style and behaviour to work effectively across cultures and with diverse stakeholders. You are structured, with strong organisational and planning skills, including budgeting, to balance multiple activities and projects. You bring strong initiative with the ability to work independently and solve problems with limited supervision.

Please follow this link for a full role profile; Global ECD Program and Hub Lead role profile.docx

Location: The location of this role can be flexible where Plan International has an office* that can employ on behalf of the Global Hub and you have the pre-existing right to work and live. Those locations where Plan International implements country programmes in the global south will be preferred. 

Type of Role: Permanent or maximum fixed term contract available as per employing office terms and conditions

Reports to: Director of Gender Transformative Policy and Programming

Salary: We will be happy to disclose the salary and applicable benefits to applicants as part of this process, however, please kindly note that the salary and employment benefits will be set according to your location and therefore it is not possible to include full details here.

Closing Date: Sunday 2nd July

*Applicable locations include: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.