ROLE PURPOSE

Plan International is an independent child rights and humanitarian organisation committed to children living a life free of poverty, violence and injustice. We actively unite children, communities and other people who share our mission to make positive lasting changes in children’s and young people’s lives.  We support children to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to claim their rights to a fulfilling life, today and in the future. We place a specific focus on girls and women, who are most often left behind. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 75 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Plan International is operating in 15 countries across West and Central Africa helping poor children to access their rights to health, education, protection and livelihoods. Plan works to bring long lasting improvements to children’s lives. Plan ‘s main goals are that: Children grow well in a healthy environment; Children participate in the development process; Adults, particularly women, acquire literacy and life skills; Communities are well organized.

DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE

The Regional CPiE Specialist will provide strategic humanitarian leadership related to Child Protection across the West and Central Africa region specially in the countries affected by the crises. The post holder supports affected country Offices ensuring child protection interventions are of high quality and position Plan International as a leading agency working on child protection in emergency with a specific recognition of our girls focus.

The position will develop strong relations with regional networks (CPiE and SGBV regional networks), regional UN and donor offices. There will be more attention on Plan International’s engagement which focuses on influencing and ensuring the specific needs of girls.

The Regional CPiE specialist will provide support to CPiE specialists or focal persons in the country offices and will ensure that Country Offices have the right technical capability on Child Protection in Emergency by supporting the professional development of Plan’s staff across the region.

Furthermore, the Specialist will focus of her/his time on the provision of technical assistance to

1. ensure that CPiE interventions are aligned with the Child Protection Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Action and other existing global guidelines and tools for CPiE and to create synergies between our CPiE and GBV programming and
2. to ensure that our CPiE interventions are linked into longer term programming.
3. to support the technical coordination and implementation of the Emergency Response Programs of Plan International across WACAH region.

The post holder will not have direct staff supervision but will support Regional ERM to have indirect oversight of a significant CPiE budget managed by individual Country offices.

The post holder is expected to deploy (sometimes at short notice) as Child Protection in Emergency to support Country Offices in the region to respond to new crises.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Provide Technical Assistance to WACA region Emergency teams in CPiE

• Provides Country Offices with strategic advice and guidance on their CPiE portfolio, ensuring it is of high quality, aligned with standards and has a clear focus on gender, diversity and inclusion.
• Provide technical assistance to   project implementation teams on the ground across the region
• Provide technical assistance to Emergency’s Base-based office in the formulation of child protection in emergencies programme strategies and plans
• Support development and roll-out of contextualised CPiE guidance and tools
• Develop and support mobile protection programming (development of guidelines and tools,

project evaluation) in the region

• Ensure Country office response CPiE staff have access to relevant knowledge, practices, resources and tools
• Work closely with MERL specialist in the countries to strengthen M&E and reporting mechanisms for CPiE program
• Ensure that CPiE interventions are aligned with the Child Protection Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Action and other existing global guidelines and tools for CPiE as well as to create synergies between our CPiE and GBV programming
• Ensure that CPiE interventions are linked in to longer term programming
• Leads the quarterly CPiE Analysis within the region and provides communication

2. Programme Implementation

• Lead on (rapid) child protection needs assessments coordinating with Plan’s other programmatic areas and regional and country-based Child Protection Networks, ensuring assessment findings are documented and disseminated, including the rapid needs assessments
• Ensure that the different capacities, vulnerabilities and coping mechanisms of girls and boys are considered and analysed.
• Ensure the effective planning, implementation and coordination of child protection programming
• Contribute to the development of staffing (CPiE specialist or focal persons) plans to implement CPiE programme activities in the region,
• Supports Country Offices develop and update Emergency Response Plans to ensure CPiE quality programming are considered

3. Capacity Building

• Develop capacity building plans and provide training, coaching and mentorship on CPiE to base country programme staff, partners 
• Coordinate and/or implement trainings and briefings of Plan staff, partners and other key stakeholders on CPiE
• Promote the application of best programme practices in CPiE

4. Strengthen Evidence and Learning 

• Promote organisational learning on CPiE programming through collecting and publishing case studies and reports on good practices, lessons learned collected from country offices
• Provide technical support to researches that contribute to CPiE evidence-based programming
• Work closely with country offices for scaling up Plan International CPiE intervention impact while using evidence to improve programme quality

5. Coordination and representation

• Build and maintain relationships with relevant UN agencies and NGOs at regional level
• Actively contribute to regional CPiE Coordination Mechanisms
• Contribute to relevant global advocacy and policy objectives with documented learning and evidence
• Proactively engage with international/regional agencies and networks, such as the regional CPiE and SGBV sub clusters or working groups.
• Set up a regional coordination mechanism across WACAH with all CPiE specialist or focal persons.
• Actively represent WACAH in all related child protection and SGBV global coordination mechanism

6. RESOURCE MOBILISATION

• Support Country Office resource mobilisation teams on securing funds for continuous programme scale up through providing lessons learnt and project related contextual information.
• Identifying potential extension/follow-up interventions.
• Providing programme presentations to potential donors of the region Programme to enhance resource mobilisation 

GENERAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) 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.

Ensure staff understand Plan International’s commitment to driving a feminist agenda within the organisation, and the ambition for gender equality and gender transformative leadership is embedded in our value- based leadership framework.

DEALING WITH PROBLEMS

The post is a key linkage/coordination/interface across the region with 3 major Response Programmes (Lake Chad, Central Sahel, Central African Republic, and the Cameroon North West and South Ouest crisis). For this reason, the post holder must be able to master and manage relationships well and respectfully with regards to different needs with different stakeholders, including conflicting priorities and ad hoc requests.

Given the wide scope of responsibility and at the same time limited direct authority over implementing CO staff, it’s essential that the post holder is able to stay on top of a variety of work, make clear prioritisation and be creative in making use of internal (and external) resources (people/funding) to ensure WACAH region achieve envisaged outcomes of the Regional Programme Strategy Objectives related to Protection 

Excellent and creative – but non-directive- leadership skills will be utilised to overcome delays and other bottlenecks which might affect negatively the impact and the quality of the intervention.

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.

PLAN INTERNATIONAL’S VALUES IN PRACTICE

We are open and accountable

1. Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
2. Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
3. Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
4. Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
5. Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact

1. Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
2. Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
3. Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
4. Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We work well together

1. Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
2. Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
3. Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
4. Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering 

1. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
2. We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
3. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.  

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Internal:

• The Regional Emergency Response Manager (line manager) and all humanitarian staff in the region
• WACAH Programme specialists (EiE, Gender…etc), MERL Specialist as well as Communications and Advocacy Specialist
• DRM/ERMs of Plan International country offices 
• Global Child Protection Lead – Plan International Global Hub
• Safeguarding Specialist in countries

External: 

• CPIE and GBV Working Groups at regional and national level, CP Working-Group, GBV Working-Group and Protection Cluster at regional and national levels, other agencies and stakeholders working on Child Protection

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

• Networking and representation: demonstrable experience of organisational representation and engagement with humanitarian donors
• Communication: Well developed written and oral communication skills. This includes effective negotiation and representation skills.
• People management: Ability to work independently and as a team player who demonstrates leadership and is able to guide local and international staff and also able to work with disaster affected communities in a sensitive and participatory manner.
• Adaptability & flexibility: Ability to operate effectively in stressful working environments. 
• Work style: well organised even within a fluid working environment and has a capacity for initiative and decision making with competent analytical and problem-solving skills. 
• Knowledge & skills: General knowledge and understanding of CPIE and GBViE minimum standards, Core Humanitarian Standards, SPHERE, Red Cross/NGO Code of Conduct and other relevant international standards for humanitarian response. General CPiE, GBViE and TVET/IGA related experience is considered as an advantage.
• Experience in conducting CP assessments in emergency contexts
• Experience in training/mentoring on CP technical areas with a variety of audiences.
• Previous work experience in the region (desirable) & emergency context (mandatory)
• Fluency in French and English (business level mandatory)

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

• The holder of the position will be working in field offices and entails 60-70 % travel within WACAH country offices and occasionally in Global Hub and other regions.

LEVEL OF CONTACT WITH CHILDREN

• High contact: The Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist will have significant interaction with children

HOW TO APPLY?

This position is opened for all applicants and females’ candidates are highly encouraged to apply. The successful candidate should be immediately available. To apply, click on the link below and send by September 1st 2023:

Your application should include.

• A comprehensive cover letter
• A comprehensive and clear CV that includes the contact of four (4) of your professional referees, one of whom should be your current employer.

Females’ candidates are highly encouraged to apply