Youth Economic Specialist (f/m/x)

Plan International Belgium Recruits a Youth Economic Empowerment Specialist (f/m/x) Fixed term contract of 1 year, with possibility to extend

Plan International Belgium

For more than 35 years, Plan International Belgium is working towards a world that is fair and safe for all children. All children are entitled to education and opportunities. This begins with equal opportunities for girls and boys. Girls are still too often disadvantaged and discriminated against, sometimes even threatened and abused.

Plan International Belgium is part of an ambitious international federation with projects in almost 80 countries (including Belgium). With our projects, we generate impact, via policy advocacy, awareness-raising and projects with and for children and young people. Plan International Belgium is a strongly growing organisation. During the last 5 years, our income has increased from 14 million to 20 million and we have grown from 40 to about 60 highly motivated colleagues.

To translate Plan International Belgium’s bold ambitions even more strongly into a better future for children and young people, we are looking for an experienced Youth Economic Empowerment Specialist with strong interest in gender equality, girl’s rights, green solutions and climate change adaptation, to strengthen our International Programmes Department.

Objective of the function:

The Youth Economic Empowerment Specialist (YEE Specialist) is responsible for the design of projects that provide green, sustainable, decent and quality economic opportunities for youth, with a strong focus on young women’s economic empowerment.

The YEE Specialist designs and provides technical guidance to projects and programmes, with the objective to support the set-up and implementation of a portfolio of youth empowerment programmes.

The YEE Specialist contributes also actively to Plan International (Belgium)’s positioning as key stakeholder regarding gender-transformative youth economic empowerment programming, young women’s employment, green solutions, climate-change adaptation.

The YEE Specialist is in charge of grant management related to the programmes and projects he/she is involved in.

Main Result Areas Of the function:

Programme development:

• Identify and analyze business development opportunities focusing on youth employment, with a strong focus on young women’s opportunities, green solutions, sustainable jobs, decent work.
• Design gender-transformative projects that promote youth economic empowerment, young women’s employment, while fostering gender equality and promoting sustainable solutions.

In this scope, the YEE Specialist works as part of a team for programme design, supports our Plan international Country Offices in mobilizing resources, planning and engaging with donors in the fields of youth employment.

Technical Support & Capacity Development:

• Provide technical expertise and guidance for project planning, monitoring and evaluation on youth economic empowerment and livelihood in gender transformative programming, with a strong attention to green solutions, sustainable jobs, decent work.
• Develop capacity-building plans, training packages and toolkits, and provide training, coaching and mentorship on gender equality linked to youth economic empowerment to programme staff and partners.
• Provide technical support to research and impact studies that contribute to evidence-based and evidence generating programming.
• Document and facilitate consistent learning and sharing of good practices among staff and partners.

Coordination and Influencing:

• Contribute to Plan International’s global work on youth economic empowerment (SOYEE network), gender-transformative youth economic empowerment programming, green solutions, climate-change adaptation. Pre-position Plan International Belgium as a key stakeholder regarding youth economic empowerment, young women’s employment.
• Initiate, build and maintain meaningful relationships with key donors, relevant global networks (UN, international and national NGOs), key stakeholders in the field of youth employment & empowerment, climate-change oriented solutions (e.g. academic partners, specialized NGOs, private sector actors), Plan International Global Hub, other national organizations and country offices where Plan International is present
• Lead the design, writing and socialization of Plan Belgium’s learning outputs in the field of gender-transformative youth economic empowerment.
• Provide content to allow a detailed communication towards different stakeholders and present the project and the way of working towards an audience of sponsors.

Grant management:

• In charge of grant management through participation in project planning, regular communication with country teams, financial monitoring, country visits, and reviewing reports and evaluations of specified projects.

Required Profile:

Education, experience, knowledge and talents

Level of education/experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent development science, economics, agronomy, engineering
• Minimum 5 years of work in leading or providing technical support to economic empowerment initiatives like microfinance, business start-up, business incubators.
• Significant working experience within development and/or humanitarian sector.
• Proven track record in project design and grants acquisition.

Knowledge/Expertise

• Solid technical expertise in the field of youth (self-)employment, livelihood, vocational training, cash transfer programming, VSLA, business development and value chain analysis.
• Passionate about gender inequalities and girls empowerment.
• Good knowledge of climate change resilience, adaptation and mitigation.
• Significant experience in project planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Well-developed conceptual, critical and analytical thinking with the ability to convey complex information in a simple and interesting way.
• Experience in designing and delivering trainings on climate change, resilience and environmental sustainability with a variety of audiences.
• Excellent negotiation and representation skills and the ability to work comfortably with an ethnically diverse staff in a very sensitive environment.
• Ability to effectively advocate for, lobby and present issues at internal and external fora.
• Demonstrated ability to produce clear, concise reports, concept notes and other documentation.
• Excellent coordination, planning and organizational skills with the ability to manage complex tasks within agreed deadlines.
• Language skills: Bilingual EN + FR and/or NL. Proficient in SP is an asset.

Personal profile and skills

Core competencies

• To know the rights of the child, the rights of girls and the theme of "gender equality".
• Achieving objectives
• Work in a team, also transversal
• Get involved in the organisation
• Demonstrate a digital mindset
• Behave according to the basic values of Plan International Belgium

Competencies related to the function

• Innovate
• Organise
• Motivate employees
• Establish relationships

For legal reasons, candidates must be registered in Belgium and be authorised to work in Belgium.

What do we offer you?

• A fascinating working environment within both a Belgian and an international context at a prominent international NGO
• The chance to make a difference for children and young people in our partner countries and in Belgium
• Space for personal professional development, together with competent, passionate and socially committed colleagues
• A fixed term contract of 1 year, with possibility to extend
• A competitive remuneration within the Belgian NGO sector with extra-legal benefits (group insurance, hospitalisation insurance, meal vouchers, free public transport between home and work)

Plan International Belgium is located in the heart of Brussels, right next to the Brussels-Central railway station. We partly work by telework. This position is based in Belgium.

Interested?

Then we would like to hear from you! Please send your CV and cover letter to job@planinternational.be with reference "YEE Specialist", before 30 August 2021.

As part of our Child Protection & Safeguarding policy, we ask each employee to provide a criminal record extract (Belgian ‘model 2’)