Belgium: Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist

About Plan International Belgium: 

For almost 40 years, Plan International Belgium has been 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 50 to about 65 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 a Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist (CPiE) with a strong background in gender-responsive programming (child protection and GBV) in humanitarian contexts, to support the growth and quality of its grants portfolio, to strengthen our Strategy & Innovation Department and to support the work of the Plan International Federation.

Objective of the Function: 

The CPiE Specialist is responsible for the implementation of the main result areas described below, in order to develop and support the quality Plan International Belgium's project portfolio in the domain child protection in emergencies, and to bring to the organisation cutting-edge expertise in this field.

Main Result Areas of the Function: 

**Technical Expertise:**

The CPiE Specialist takes the lead in strengthening the knowledge and expertise on child protection in emergencies for the whole organisation and on behalf of the whole organisation. The Specialist supports effort in capacity-strengthening of stakeholders. This involves actively participating in strategic forums on behalf of Plan International Belgium and on humanitarian advocacy.

• Be the go-to person for anyone in Plan International Belgium regarding CPiE, including key cross-cutting thematic (e.g. SGBV, worst forms of child marriage, prevention, case-management); actively engages teams on the topics and create discussion spaces to foster interest in the subject;
• Build and maintain relationships with relevant global networks in Belgium and internationally (e.g. link with DG ECHO, NGOs, DGD Humanitaire);
• Participate in global thematic initiatives focusing CPiE and take the leadership to develop technical expertise on specific thematic areas on behalf of Plan International Belgium;
• Support the coordination and be an active member of inter-agency Child Protection coordination mechanisms and the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action;
• Support advocacy teams to develop Plan International expertise on humanitarian advocacy.

Support to Programmes:

The Specialist contributes to the design of humanitarian programmes and provides support to the existing international programme portfolio. They serve as the technical lead in programme steering committees, ensuring that our programmes are technically sound and impactful.

• Programme design: participates in the design of CPiE programmes and project, funded by DG ECHO, DGD Humanitaire and UN Agencies; designs logical frameworks; develops innovative and impactful programmatic approaches;
• Programme support: provides technical support to the existing programme portfolio via steering committees, namely programmes funded by DG ECHO and DGD Humanitarian, or directly through direct support to project teams including a four-country programme across Sahel and the Great Lakes.
• Quality support: promotes the application of best programme practices in CPiE including the roll-out and dissemination of global guidance, and provides technical insights to the development of CPiE MERL tools as per Plan International and the sector’s Standards.

Knowledge: As a technical lead, the Specialist leads or contributes to generating evidence on what works to protect girls, empower girls and promote protective environments in humanitarian contexts.

• Represents Plan International Belgium in research technical committees and/or takes the lead in designing research projects focusing on protection in humanitarian settings;
• Provide technical support to research initiatives and impact studies that contribute to evidence-based CPiE programming;
• Promotes organisational learning on CPiE through sharing case studies, good practices, lessons learned, for the whole organisation;
• Contributes to programme impact measurement, position papers, opinion papers;
• Contributes to maintain a sound database on key facts and figures regarding Child protection and GBV in humanitarian contexts.

Link with Global Hub/Federation and Deployment:

As part of a large network of Child Protection and GBV Specialists in the Plan International Federation, the Specialist establishes and maintains strong relationships and supports the CPiE work through deployments on Plan International technical roster.

• Be deployed for Plan International Global Hub 50% of their time; this can be decided on short notice to support emergencies and protracted crises;
• Liaison with the CPiE Global network, to support the revision of global tools, frameworks, and to identify priorities in collaboration and strengthening capacity of Country Office teams;
• Be the technical lead for the revision of strategic programme models for Plan International (e.g. Adolescent Girls in Crises Toolkit);
• In collaboration with the global CPiE network, develop advocacy briefs on issues affecting adolescent girls in humanitarian settings.

Required Profile: 

* The candidate must already have a Belgian national registration number and a work permit for Belgium. This function is carried out from Belgium.

Education & Experience:

• Master's degree or equivalent in development, international relations, social sciences, social work
• Minimum 3 years of work experience in child protection, child protection in emergencies, with progressively responsible experience with international organisations focusing on CPiE
• Experience in working on institutional donors-funded projects and programmes;
• Experience in designing, implementing or evaluating gender-transformative programmes is a strong plus
• Significant working experience in a humanitarian crisis; experience working in the Great Lakes and Sahel is a strong plus
• Significant working experience within development and/or humanitarian sector including experience abroad, close to the point of impact of programmes
• Proven track record in supporting CPiE programmes, delivering trainings, designing high-quality CPiE programmes.

Knowledge & Expertise:

• Knowledge and understanding of key programming approaches and minimum standards for Child protection and SGBV in humanitarian action;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to successfully interact with a diverse group of people including over virtual platforms, and to foster the interest of non-specialised audiences on the subject;
• Excellent writing, analytical and communication skills: well-developed conceptual, critical and analytical thinking with the ability to convey complex information in a simple and interesting way;
• Negotiation and representation skills and the ability to work comfortably in a multicultural environment
• Demonstrated ability to produce clear, concise reports, concept notes and other documentation
• Flexible work attitude, with the ability to work independently
• Language: Bilingual in French and English; proficiency in Spanish and Dutch is an asset

Personal Profile & Skills:

Core Competencies: 

• To know the rights of the child, the rights of girls and the theme of gender equality
• Achieving objectives
• Team-player
• 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 colleagues and inspire members of temporary task force for project design
• Establish relationships

What do we offer you?

• A fascinating working environment within both a Belgian and an international context at a prominent international NGO
• The possibility to deploy for the Federation 50% of your time across all humanitarian responses where Plan International intervenes
• 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 competitive salary within the Belgian NGO sector (indicative range value between 3150 euros and 3900 euros gross) with extra-legal benefits (13th month of salary, double holiday allowance, group insurance, hospitalisation insurance, meal vouchers, free public transport between home and work, telework allowance)
• Plan International Belgium is located in the heart of Brussels, right next to the Brussels-Central railway station. We are partly working via telework, when not in deployment. To understand better where the deployments could take place, please visit https://plan-international.org/

How to Apply: 

Then we would like to hear from you! Please send your CV and cover letter to job@planinternational.be with reference "CPiE Specialist", before 10th August 2023.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a written test; interviews will follow with selected candidates.

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

Equal opportunities are very important to Plan International! We therefore select you on the basis of your qualities and skills, regardless of your age, origin, gender, sexual identity, religion or other criteria unrelated to the position