Project Associate - Young Cities & YouthCAN

• Organisation: Institute for Strategic Dialogue
• Reporting To: Project Manager
• Contract: FTC to February 2022 with possibility of extension
• Location: London, UK
• Preferred Start Date; March 2020
• Salary Bracket: £25,000 - £28,000 depending in experience

ISD is looking for an exceptional individual to work on our YouthCAN and Young Cities programmes as a Project Associate based in London.

Founded in 2015, the Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN) is one of ISD’s longest running programmes and works across the globe to empower young activists to challenge hate, prevent extremism and promote peace. We enable youth to find their voice and take action to help build a more peaceful world through the provision of training, support and resources. YouthCAN’s goal is to further the role of young people in P/CVE at all levels by ensuring that young people have the knowledge, skills and confidence to act effectively, as well as the opportunity to engage meaningfully at all levels both as partners and as leaders.]

Young Cities is a joint effort by YouthCAN and one of ISD’s other longest running programmes, the Strong Cities Network (SCN), bringing youth voices to city halls across Lebanon, Kenya, Senegal and the Western Balkans. Young Cities works in partnership with both young people and local government to enhance and support youth-led solutions to community challenges such as hate, polarisation, extremism and violence.

Young people have the insights, ability and creativity to affect change on deeply entrenched community challenges. YouthCAN and Young Cities support and amplify these efforts through local research, capacity-building, seed funding and direct support, giving young people the skills and freedom to develop programming that responds to the needs of their communities. 

Simultaneously, Young Cities works with local government to support city-level youth collaboration and to develop more effective policy that champions youth as key partners in resilience building efforts. By working simultaneously with both groups – youth and local government – our youth programmes foster a shared understanding of local youth issues, facilitates new opportunities for cooperation, and ultimately enhances both groups’ capacity to tackle community-level challenges of hate and polarisation.

Role Purpose

The Associate will work as part of the Young Cities and YouthCAN teams to deliver project activities predominantly with youth, but also local government stakeholders. This includes organising workshops, helping deliver project communications and social media presence, and providing research support. This is a global-facing role, and the Associate will engage with stakeholders across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Australia and the Western Balkans. There is an opportunity to develop a larger focus on engagement in the Western Balkans, depending on language skills of the applicant. 

Responsibilities

1. Event organization: Assist the successful delivery of Young Cities and YouthCAN project activities in multiple regions

• Contributing to defining objectives and setting the agenda for events
• Helping drive recruitment and managing attendance
• Liaising with event venues and organisers
• Maintaining contact with external speakers
• Preparing collaterals and materials for events
• Coordination and participation on the day of the event as required
• Conducting desk-based research as required

2. Support project communications, including the projects’ social media and online presence

• Support the Youth Coordinator in managing the websites for YouthCAN and Young Cities
• Help manage YouthCAN‘s social media pages and drive engagement
• Help manage YouthCAN’s online community of more than 1,500 young activists globally
• Curate and help create engaging and relevant content that can support and inspire activists
• Liaise with YouthCAN’s activists in Lebanon, Kenya, Senegal, Pakistan, Australia and the Western Balkans to provide content for YouthCAN’s social media highlighting their work  

3. Support the development of youth-led and co-created campaigns and initiatives

• Support strategic development of locally-tailored policy advice and youth-led campaigns and initiatives in Kenya, Lebanon, Senegal, Pakistan, Australia and the Western Balkans
• Support coordination of small grants and project delivery, including stakeholder management with youth and local government as required
• Support delivery of tailored training sessions for youth groups
• Conduct research into local-level approaches, policies and programmes

4. Project administration

• Assist Managers and Coordinators in the administration of projects, including contributing to the Project Operations Document
• Support tracking of budget expenditure
• Contribute to reporting processes

What success looks like

• Contribute to the organization of at least 4 events per year
• Increase following and engagement on social media pages and in online activist community
• Productive working relationships developed in multi-regional environment
• Developed expertise in youth, peace and security-related issues 
• Positive 360 feedback from team colleagues

Person Specification

Essential:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent relevant work experience (such as conflict studies, peacebuilding, international development)
• Previous experience in project or programme delivery, with proven ability to meet deadlines and contribute to team project work
• Previous experience with communications and social media management 
• Clear, fluent and concise oral and written communication
• Highly organized with the ability to be flexible, multi-task and respond proactively in a fast-paced environment
• Highly IT literate, with willingness and ability to quickly learn new online tools and content management systems
• Online and offline research skills
• Intercultural and interpersonal awareness
• Willingness to travel internationally

Desirable

• Masters degree from reputable university
• Previous experience with youth-led peacebuilding work and/or general youth engagement projects and passion for working with youth
• Previous experience with projects building resilience against hate, violence and polarization
• Skilled writer for public audience
• Experience working with international stakeholders
• Ability to work well independently and in a team
• Fluency in Macedonian, Albanian, or Serbo-Croatian highly desirable.
• Fluency in Arabic, Swahili, Urdu or French desirable.
• Previous work experience and/or living in the Western Balkans, West and/or East Africa or Middle East desirable.

How to Apply

If you would like to apply for this position, please submit a one-page cover letter and up-tp-date CV (no more than two pages) by Friday 31st January, 5pm UK time.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted and applications without a covering letter will not be considered. All applicants who are invited to interview will be asked to produce evidence of their right to work in the UK.

Interviews will be held between 6th-7th February 2020 in London.

ISD reserves the right to assess any applications throughout the application process and may conduct interviews earlier than the closing date of the vacancy as stated above.

Starting Salary:  £41,607 - £43,271 per annum

Position Description

The post holder is a member of the Emergency Response Group (ERG) working as a member of the ERG Management Team and wider group staff on the vision, direction and delivery of our humanitarian mandate. The post holder will ensure capacity to respond quickly and effectively to new, ongoing emergencies and longer-term pieces of work in support the Global Operations and Support Team (GOST) and the three Regional Teams (Africa, Middle East and Asia, Latin & Central America) in the International Development Group (IDG).  The post holder will be responsible for managing Emergency Response Team (ERT), planning, reporting of staff deployments and cost recovery. Support will also be provided across the wider organisation and in support of Caritas, key partners and strategic alliances. The post holder will also be regularly deployed to undertake keys pieces of work, to support county and regional teams. 

The post holder is a member and Team Leader of CAFOD’s Emergency Response Team (ERT). The role will oversee the day to day and strategic management of the ERT. This role will provide both programme and operations support and management capacity to strengthen CAFOD’s ability to support countries in crisis. The role will help to ensure that countries that experience both sudden onset emergencies and chronic humanitarian situations have the capacity to develop and implement programmes that integrate recovery into on-going development efforts. The ERT ensures that high quality personnel are deployed quickly and effectively in response to new and ongoing emergencies and to provide additional support to Country Programs to continue to deliver quality programming. The post holder will be responsible for planning and deploying the pool of emergency response staff covering multiple and complex tasks. The position reports to the Head of the Emergency Response Group.

Key Responsibilities

Coordination of CAFOD’s Emergency Response Team

• Manage CAFOD’s ERT global response capacity, ensuring capacities are effectively utilised and deployed to support Global Operations and Support Team (GOST) across programmes (this will most often involve shared management during deployments of staff).
• Coordinate the activities of the emergency response team staff, through strategic work- planning, supportive supervision, and regular monitoring
• Guide the Emergency Response Team to ensure timely and quality delivery of its outputs as per the Terms of Reference from requesting countries
• Coordinate closely with CAFOD International Programmes and other relevant departments ensuring that the Emergency Response Team outputs are fully aligned with and build on the mandates, plans and experience of other parts of CAFOD.
• Work with the relevant staff from Caritas sister agencies to ensure that CAFOD has the necessary capacity to meet the management, logistical and technical requirements of any humanitarian programme it undertakes.
• Management of relevant staffing, grant and costs budgets
• Managing and reporting against cost recovery targets.

Support and technical assistance

• Overseeing the provision of support to GOST and IDG Regional Teams to work with and alongside partners before, during and after a crisis. 
• As required providing short- and long-term technical assistance in the areas of programme management, WASH, protection/SADI.
• Providing ‘’surge’ ERT support to gap fill and better support IDG as required and where required cover shortfalls in capacity.
• Work in support of the Humanitarian Capacity Strengthening team
• Providing support and technical leadership in the areas of CASH, WASH, Protection and humanitarian innovation

Emergency Response and Programme Quality

• Lead, participate in and undertake missions, as required, for emergency assessment of areas affected by, or recovering from crises; programme design and planning; monitoring and evaluation, or accountability and protection mainstreaming support to CAFOD projects and programmes
• Provide strategic staffing to country offices to increase programme management support
• Deploy, if requested, through a CI mechanism, to a CI sister agency

Strategy and Planning

• Develop and manage CAFOD’s corporate, cross-organisation deployable capacity which will draw on skills and capacities from across the organisation to support capacity strengthening of partners
• Utilise and continuously improve the models of sharing capacities with Sciaf, Trocaire, Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Australia, Caritas Norway and other Caritas agencies as appropriate

People Management

• Hold responsibility for the overall management of the ERT comprising of nine staff and reporting to the Head of the Emergency Response Group.
• Manage staff in the UK and various international locations, in accordance with CAFOD’s people management approach, and support their continual learning to ensure CAFOD can respond effectively to emergencies.
• Provide leadership and support to those within direct line of responsibility; acting as a sounding board and holding them to account in areas under their responsibility, including their own line management responsibilities.
• Enable and empower managers and staff within the region to achieve the maximum possible with the available resources, ensuring CAFOD’s organisational outcomes and management standards are achieved.

Representation

• Work with Head of Emergency Response Group (ERG) and where necessary deputise on areas of external strategic engagement.
• Ensure that CAFOD’s distinctive approach, rooted in the Catholic Community in England and Wales, is represented externally. In particular, the post holder will pro-actively engage where appropriate with UK and European networks and manage key areas of engagement (e.g. Caritas, ALNAP, Start Network).
• Engage with counterparts in civil society organisations (particularly sister agencies), to promote humanitarian aid effectiveness, challenge models of working were appropriate, encourage consortia and multi-country approaches and prompt and support country/sub-regional-level initiatives. 

This list of duties and responsibilities is by no means exhaustive and the post holder may be required to undertake other relevant and appropriate duties as required. This job description is subject to regular review and appropriate modification.

Safeguarding for Children and Vulnerable Adults

CAFOD recognises the personal dignity and rights of children and vulnerable adults, towards whom it has a special responsibility and a duty of care and respect.  CAFOD, and all its staff and volunteers, undertake to do all in our power to create a safe environment for children, young people and vulnerable adults and to prevent their physical, sexual or emotional abuse.  CAFOD is committed to acting at all times in the best interests of children and vulnerable adults, seeing these interests as paramount.  Any candidate offered a job with CAFOD will be expected to adhere to CAFOD’s Safeguarding policy and sign CAFOD’s Code of Behaviour as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents. This post involves contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults, or has responsibility for people who will do, and applicants will be subject to specific checks related to safeguarding issues.  If based in the UK the post holder is required to present or obtain a Disclosure from the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service).  If the post is based outside the UK the post holder will be subject to a different checking process. 

Essential CAFOD Core Requirements

Understanding our context

• Actively supports CAFOD’s vision, mission and values and what we aim to achieve
• Commitment to and demonstrated experience of working with humanitarian standards and best practice (Humanitarian Charter, SPHERE and CHS, Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct)

Working together

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Active commitment to promoting inclusion and diversity when interacting with others. Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment
• Excellent staff management and supervisory skills
• Contribute effectively to teamwork: Ability to build strong collaborative relationships across CAFOD and externally. 

Making change happen 

• Excellent analytical and organizational skills
• Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Consistently approaches work with a positive, constructive attitude
• Focuses on impact and results for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills
• Ability to lead and contribute to strategic planning, change processes, results-based management, work planning, and reporting.
• Able to multitask and prioritise a range of activities to assist the effective delivery of programmes in complex environments.

Job-specific competencies

Technical skills and experience

• University degree or equivalent in social sciences, management, international relations, human resources or other development-related field
• Proven expertise and understanding of emergency preparedness and response
• Substantial experience of progressively more responsibility in professional roles in international programmes
• Proven successes in working with partner organisations in the delivery of humanitarian programmes and capacity strengthening
• Able to travel for up to 4 weeks at a time several times a year sometimes at short notice.
• Fluency in English and French, both verbally and in writing. 
• Humanitarian Leadership and Coordination
• High-level interpersonal and communications with the ability to effectively influence and liaise with key stakeholders on behalf of and in line with CAFOD’s principles.
• Ability to quickly establish and maintain effective relationships to achieve results in short-timeframes
• The ability to work autonomously, be proactive and proven ability to work creatively, innovatively and effectively to make decisions with limited direct supervision.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Operating safely in a pressured and changing environment
• Proven experience in implementing security policy/protocols and ability to provide appropriate direction and support to team members in the event of a critical incident
• Demonstrated ability at being flexible and adaptable to changing situations.
• The ability to remain calm while dealing with conflicting priorities and working under pressure.

Desirable Criteria

• Working knowledge of another language will be an asset.

Come and join us and help make a real difference in the lives of the world’s poorest communities.

CAFOD is an equal opportunities employer. Recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. 

Al-Khair Foundation is a UK registered charity working to deliver humanitarian and development projects worldwide. Founded in 2003, Al-Khair provides emergency aid, medical care, education and livelihood support to vulnerable communities in the UK, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and is committed to supporting these groups to become sustainable active citizens in their society. Al-Khair Foundation is a key development partner of choice for Governments, NGOs, donors and civil society in their respective countries.

The CEO’s office works in close cooperation with other Divisions of the organisation, enabling Al-Khair to fulfil its governance and statutory responsibilities and achieve its agreed strategic aims and objectives to ensure the establishment and smooth running of the entire organisation.

The Executive Assistant to the CEO provides a comprehensive organisational, administrative and programme support service to the CEO by proactively overseeing the CEO’s workload and completing tasks as directed by the CEO.

The key responsibilities of this role are to provide support to the CEO in delivering Al-Khair’s overall strategic objectives and to provide administrative services including diary management, booking meetings, planning events, organising travel and preparing travel itineraries and prioritising emails for the CEO.

Working closely with the Senior Leadership Team through regular correspondence, the post-holder will be required to arrange meetings and prepare briefing materials for the CEO; provide coordination on departmental reports and documentation for the Board of Trustees meetings and other meetings with outside partners; coordinate, attend and take minutes for the CEO’s meetings and any other relevant meetings; conduct research/analysis as directed by the CEO; provide administrative support in the delivery of assignments and initiatives on behalf of the CEO’s office, including the production of reports, follow-up on meeting action points and completion of work plans, and implementation of organisational projects and programmes; provide hospitality support to the CEO’s office and Board of Trustees and represent the CEO and the organisation at external events and meetings as required.

For this role, you will need to be educated to degree level or an equivalent qualification. You will have experience of providing secretarial and administrative support for Senior Executives, working within the UK charity sector, along with demonstrable knowledge of key issues in international development.

Candidates interest in the advertised role are required to submit a copy of their CV along with a Covering Letter outlining their suitability for the role via the Apply button.

Closing date: Midnight on Friday 7th February 2020.

Due to the expected high response to this vacancy, we reserve the right to close this campaign once we have a suitable pool of applicants.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome all applications regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, faith or disability. Only candidates with the right to work in the UK will be considered. We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.