Community Engagement Lead

Career Opportunities: Community Engagement Lead (39702)

Requisition ID 39702 – Posted 06/02/2021 – Country (1) – Programme Management

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 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Plan Rwanda’s activities are focused in four areas: Inclusive and Quality Education; Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD); Economic Security and Active Citizenship, and Child Protection. As such, Plan Rwanda is a leader in national civil society and NGO networks and has developed and strengthened strategic relationships with key government ministries.  With extensive local networks and community reach, Plan drives positive change through broad community participation, achieving sustainable results by actively engaging and providing services to individuals, families, communities and governments. Plan International has been working in Rwanda since 2007.

Position Description

Plan is seeking applicants for a Community Engagement Lead for an anticipated USAID/Rwanda Education Activity. The Community Engagement Lead will be responsible for Plan International’s work in mobilizing parents, community actors and school leadership. In order to achieve this objective, the Community Engagement Lead will oversee the capacity building, knowledge and skills of local stakeholders and partner, organizations, alongside relevant Government of Rwanda (GOR) actors to implement contextualized engagement activities to expand and sustain home and community literacy promotion. The Community Engagement Lead will work directly with these key stakeholders to design community engagement and behavior change strategies develop tools, and collaborate effectively with other development partners and stakeholders operating in the areas of literacy promotion, positive parenting, and community engagement to build on existing strengths and maximize results, and especially avoid duplication of programming. The Community Engagement Specialist would also be responsible for oversight of the operational activities around partnership with the local level bodies.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate the design and implementation of the Community Engagement Strategy for the program
• Lead the development of the community engagement tools and resource packages for training local stakeholders and partner
•  organizations, alongside relevant GOR actors. Lead development of a social behavior change strategy and tools for community and parent engagement in early grade reading
• Oversee development of technical guidelines for working with NGOs, CBOs and community-based structures
• Lead community engagement training for partner organizations and key stakeholders
• Facilitate and lead use of community-based strategies to promote after-school activities with the help of community members;

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in education, social work, community development, or related field
• At least 5 years of experience providing community mobilization direction and capacity building for improved educational outcomes; preferably on donor-funded programs
• Experience mobilizing parent support to students’ acquisition of reading skills, in particular students enrolled in early grades of primary education.
• Experience developing training materials for communities in support of primary school reading activities, especially in the assessment of reading skills, and social behavior change communication.
• Ability to interact and build performing relationships with stakeholders especially with school management committees, district councils, organizations, departments and institutions that complement the acquisition of reading skills at the school and community level
• Computer skills and mastery of Microsoft Office suite, especially Word, Excel, and Power Point presentation
• Strong oral and written skills in English required.

Location: Kigali

Reports to: Chief of Party

Grade: D2

Closing Date: 18-02-2021

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.

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.

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