United States/Home-based: Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE) Technical Specialist

Plan works for girls’ rights. Harmful barriers like child marriage, human trafficking and gender-based violence are preventing girls and young women from achieving their full potential. Plan, along with government and private partners, fights against harmful gender norms and empowers young people to create positive change in their communities. We have worked in communities for more than 80 years and provide locally-driven programming through 240 offices around the world.

Plan International USA (USNO) is fully committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people from all forms of violence.

This DRM Manager – CPiE Technical Specialist position is responsible for managing the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) funded Strengthening the Capacity of Global Child Protection Humanitarian Actors to Prevent Harm project. This two-year project, ending in September 2024, has two overarching objectives. The first is to field-test the Primary Prevention Framework for Child Protection in Humanitarian, developed by Plan on behalf of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (the Alliance), through piloting in two humanitarian contexts, and the second is to develop and test guidance and tools to generate evidence on the impact and effectiveness of preventive approaches. The selected candidate will be responsible for managing a year-long pilot of the Prevention Framework in two humanitarian contexts, organizing webinars, in cooperation with the Alliance’s Prevention Initiative, to share key lessons learned during piloting with the broader CPHA community, and revising and disseminating the Prevention Framework in cooperation with the Alliance’s Prevention Focal Point. The Project Manager will also develop a monitoring and evaluation guide for prevention programming, to be used alongside pilot activities, and lead an outcome evaluation to measure the effectiveness of the pilot program in addressing risk and protective factors.

This position is based in Plan International USA’s Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Team. The DRM Manager will report to the Child Protection in Emergencies Technical Advisor, with additional support from the Senior Director of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and the Child Protection in Emergencies Global Lead, as needed.

Essential Functions:

Management of BHA-funded Prevention Project:

• Supervise in-country pilots of the Prevention Framework in two contexts in close collaboration with country office Child Protection and MERL staff, including conducting a virtual mid-point monitoring exercise, regular information sharing webinars, and development of two in-depth case studies documenting the piloting process;
• Revise the Prevention Framework, in collaboration with the Alliance’s Prevention Focal Point, based on lessons learned from piloting exercises;
• Organize and lead webinars to disseminate learning from piloting exercise as well as the revised Prevention Framework. Participate in additional Prevention-focused events, as necessary;
• Coordinate and support the development of an M&E Framework, including an M&E plan, methodology, and tools to collected data on and evaluate the outcome of the pilot projects, bringing together the MERL and Child Protection teams in each country office and with support from the Plan USA MERL team;
• Support the MERL team in conducting an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Prevention Framework in contributing to piloting results;
• Develop a M&E addendum to the Prevention Framework using M&E guidance and tools from pilot prevention programs, ensuring review from the Prevention Initiative and AME Working Group of the Alliance
• Support the Prevention Focal Point of the Alliance as well as the Advocacy Working Group in developing and implementing a Prevention Advocacy roadmap;
• As member of Project Management Team, coordinate with the Program Implementation Unit (PIU), Finance, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL), and Compliance colleagues to participate in management of the project grant and award, including:
  • Preparation of timely donor reporting (programmatic and financial) and other deliverables;
  • Coordinate with the MERL team on M&E, reporting, and project learning;
  • Support communications with BHA on project implementation updates;
  • Provide updates to Child Protection in Emergencies Technical Advisor on project progress and any issues (or potential issues) in project implementation or grant management; and
  • Other actions required to support successful grant and award management.

Engagement with Plan’s Global CPiE Programming and Efforts:

• Coordinate with other leads of CPiE global initiatives to ensure harmonization and consistency
• Contribute to strategic planning, expansion of evidence-based practices and guidance to Plan International’s Child Protection Network, as requested by GH CPiE Team

Interagency and Community of Practice Networking and Representation:

• As member of USNO’s and PII’s Child Protection in Emergencies technical cohort, engage with global level coordination and technical fora, including the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, as well as other relevant interagency as needed for the project.

Skills and Competencies:

• Applied knowledge and expertise of the Child Protection Minimum Standards and their role within CPiE programming; knowledge of primary prevention approaches in CPiE programming a plus;
• Knowledge and experience within the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (Alliance CPHA);
• Strong research and analytical skills with experience in participatory and inter-agency approaches;
• Ability to think creatively and to solve complex problems; and
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; advanced knowledge of French a plus.

Education and Experience:

Required:

• At least 5-7 years of progressively responsible experience with international organizations in Child Protection in Emergencies
• Demonstrated expertise in implementing child protection in emergencies prevention and response programming in humanitarian settings.
• University degree in Human Rights, Humanitarian Action, Social Work, Psychology, Social Sciences or related field.
• Senior experience in developing, methods, tools and programs/interventions for the global humanitarian community – including capacity building approaches (training, coaching/mentoring, remote supervision, participatory learning approaches, etc.)
• Experience in grant management, spending and procurement planning, monitoring and reporting, etc. (preferably with US Government donors).
• Experience coordinating a global inter-agency task force or initiative.

Preferred:

• Experience in developing global inter-agency pieces of work and ability to distil various viewpoints into cohesive guidance.
• Familiarity with multi-sector approaches to programming.
• French, Spanish, or Arabic speaking/written skills.
• Previous experience with USAID/BHA (or other USAID), State/PRM, or other US government donors.

Other Duties: 

This job description does not contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time.

Examples of some other duties might include the following:

• Work on other USNO Protection/CPiE-focused DRM projects;
• Engagement and coordination with other PII/GH-led CPiE efforts and engagement;
• Provision of Protection/CPiE technical assistance, on a contractual/secondment basis, to other Plan offices (e.g., NOs, COs, RHs, or GH); and
• Voluntary emergency deployments (as CPiE technical resource/support).