National Project Coordinator – Youth Participation and Communications NOB (DC)

Introduction

The Government of the Netherlands is supporting the PROSPECTS Partnership Programme (hereafter referred to as the “programme”) in response to the Global Compact on refugees underpinned by the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants adopted at the UN General Assembly in September 2016 and its Annex the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). PROSPECTS builds on the combined strengths, experience and values of specific development and humanitarian organizations to develop a new paradigm in responding to forced displacement crises. The partners include: the Government of the Netherlands, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Finance Corporation (IFC), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United National High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Bank. The programme aims to help transform the way governments and other stakeholders, including the private sector, respond to forced displacement crises – and in particular:

1. to enhance the enabling environment for the socio-economic inclusion of forcibly displaced persons (to mitigate their plight during years of exile and to best prepare them for their return);
2. to enhance access to education and child protection for vulnerable children on the move; and
3. to strengthen the resilience of host communities through inclusive socio-economic development that also benefits forcibly displaced persons.

PROSPECTS Programme in Uganda
In Uganda, the PROSPECTS Partnership is being implementation in field locations of Host Communities and Refugees in West Nile and Southern/Western Uganda with a focus on Isingiro, Madio-Okollo, Terego and Arua, respectively. ILO, UNICEF and UNHCR have developed a sub-component within the PROSPECTS Partnership aimed at Advancing Young People’s Engagement and Meaningful Participation. This is part of the joint coordination at the global level, where the ILO portfolio will focus on supporting job intermediation and linking youth to opportunities in the labour market, including by leveraging young groups who serve their communities. A second component focuses on providing technical and financial assistance to young people and organizations led by young people in forced displacement contexts to enable them to develop and lead their own local initiatives though the Youth-to-Youth Fund.

.

Young people in forced displacement contexts, particularly refugees or migrants (regardless of status), face specific legal, policy, and economic constraints that limit their opportunities to realise their rights and access decent work, skills development, and career development opportunities. In reviewing the challenges faced, young people in forced displacement contexts consistently identified a lack of engagement and empowerment opportunities as factors that limit young people’s civic and economic engagement. They clearly express the importance of investing in programming focused on empowerment of young people and the need for meaningful engagement and participation of young people. Young people understand that developing skills, feeling empowered, and being engaged not only open opportunities to influence things that are important to them and take on more leadership responsibilities, but also contribute to self-reliance. This project will contribute to the realisation of two key outcomes ie; PROSPECTS partners’ skills and capacities strengthened to achieve meaningful engagement and participation of young people and; Young people are skilled and empowered to be effective partners and to lead and drive change in their communities and their lives.

The ILO is seeking to hire a National Project Coordinator (NPC) with strengthens in Youth Participation and Communications, and who will be responsible for the delivery of the Youth Participation and communications work of the PROSPECTS Partnership and seeking complementarity with other partners such as UNICEF and UNHCR who are delivery other components of the programme. In particular, the project will be implemented in three refugee settlements: Rhino Camp and Imvepi in the West Nile region, and Nakivale in the Southwest region of Uganda. The project will benefit both refugee and host communities.

Reporting Lines
Under the overall responsibility of the ILO Country Office Director for United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, the National Project Coordinator (Youth Participation and Communications) will directly reportunder the direct supervision and guidance of to the Project Manager of the PROSPECTS Partnership in Uganda and ensure delivery of technical-related outputs. She/He will receive additional technical guidance from the PROSPECTS Regional Technical Specialist, ILO CO DAR, ILO Decent Work Team in Pretoria, and relevant ILO Technical Units in Geneva.

Description of Duties

• Provide technical support to ILO constituents and other national and international partners in strengthening their capacities on issues relating their capacity needs and skills on meaningful engagement and participation of young people with a focus on refugees and host communities as well as facilitating their engagement with youth organizations.
• Support efforts to ensure the meaningful engagement of the ILO in areas of planning, implementation, and follow-up to the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), including, as required by the Project Manager, participation in and contribution to relevant committees, forums and networks relating to communication and, young people’s engagement and participation.
• Initiate and conduct capacity building activities including development of guidance material, development of communications materials and briefs, delivery of training workshops and online training targeting constituents, youth-eld organisations and constituents.
• Provide input and support in the design and operationalization of a competitive Youth-to-youth fund scheme for entrepreneurship and business start-up for refugee and host community youth.
• Initiate design and regular update of the project work plan, both from a Results based management and a financial perspective; alert and provide recommendations on delays and areas of criticality.
• Prepare terms of references for consultants and participate in sourcing and evaluation of local service providers/consultants as appropriate.
• Ensure effective implementation of the project through the provision of inputs, the delivery of outputs, and the planning, monitoring and evaluation of activities. Support efforts for the effective management of funds/budgets allocated to the project.
• Design skilling and empowerment interventions for young people to be effective partners and to lead and drive change in their communities and their lives.
• Support efforts to explore and develop new project opportunities as these may arise through consultations and exchanges with national stakeholders and donor organisations and through close collaboration with the Officer-in-Charge of the ILO Kampala Project Office and in close collaboration with the ILO CO Dar es salaam Resource Mobilisation Focal person.
• Identify, document and disseminate lessons learned and led on knowledge management activities within the ILO and PROSPECTS Partnership and enhance learning on supporting youth engagement and participation and, the access of refugees and host communities to decent work.
• Participate in the preparation and conduct conferences, seminars, workshops, training sessions and consultative meetings. Undertake missions to project sites if required.
• Perform other relevant duties as assigned by the Supervisor and/ or the Country Office Director.

Required qualifications

Education

First level university degree in economics, development, communication, social science, or a related field complemented with demonstrated expertise in international development, youth engagement, communication, migration or forced displacement.

Experience

At least three years of professional experience in delivery of developmental cooperation activities on youth engagement and communication, which includes field experience in implementation of projects with youth, displaced persons and working with multiple partners in Uganda or in the region. Prior and demonstrated experience working in a similar field with Youth-led National and regional Organisations or with other UN agencies is desired.

Familiarity with ILO policies, technical programmes and procedures, including experience working with officials of ministries responsible for labour, youth, education and refugees would be an advantage, as would experience of working in crisis settings.

Languages

Excellent command of English and working knowledge of another language of the duty station.

Competencies

• Proven ability to take ownership of all responsibilities, to act with integrity and transparency by maintaining social, ethical and organisational norms, and to meet all commitments within the prescribed time, cost and quality standards;
• Good drafting and reporting skills.
• Proven ability to document high quality youth articles using various multi-media channels;
• Proven ability to initiate and implement youth-led socio-economic initiatives;
• Ability to implement strategic goals;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Ability to work effectively in a team and excellent interpersonal skills;
• Ability to synthesise research and reach empirically based conclusions on related subjects by understanding both the qualitative and quantitative approaches in social science research;
• Ability to develop and present alternative courses of action, proposals, policy and procedural matters;
• Ability to promote knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write accurate reports, blogs, news articles and to build networks to obtain cooperation with partners, including in the national media;
• Should be open to and able to make changes to accommodate culture and gender differences in order to interact effectively with individuals, including those in displaced contexts;
• Proven capacity to support the implementation of development cooperation programmes and activities with ILO constituents, youth led organisations in forced displacement contexts, media entities and NGOs, including negotiation skills with governments, social partners and other national and international partners and to mobilise the support of international donor agencies and provide quality services;
• Ability to maintain effectiveness when experiencing major changes in work tasks or environment, and to adjust effectively to work within new work structures, processes, requirements, or cultures;
• Excellent computer/information application skills, including word processing, excel, power point etc.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment and to demonstrate gender-sensitive and non-discriminatory behaviour and attitudes.