Youth Development Officer USAID Youth Empower Activity

The Youth Development Officer (YDO) will provide technical leadership in the development implementation and integration of best practice activities that increase equitable access and inclusion of underserved youth in learning and civic engagement opportunities specifically. S/he will play a key role in the development of training and capacity strengthening of Activity partners and youthled and youthserving organizations.

Essential functions include but are not limited to the above as well as:

Strategy and Planning

• Supporting the delivery of timely and relevant analytical technical research programmatic and program advice on youth development issues including on gender equality youth development livelihood opportunities and their active participation in community and national governance structures.
• Working closely with the partners and EDC program staff in support of a coordinated and effective integrated programming approach to addressing the social dimensions of youth development initiatives.
• Supporting the work of the partners towards ensuring the needs and contributions of adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) and of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) of all diversities respects and promotes human rights and cultural heritage and contributes to the achievement of gender equality and social inclusion across all sectors.
• Lead and support the development of youth engagement strategies with gender identity livelihood considerations.
• Facilitate youth dialogue sessions with partners youth
• Participate in country teams and provide substantial inputs around social and youth development issues for country partnership strategy work planning and reporting.
• Assist with the development and analysis of community entry and youth assessments and other program tools
• Coordinate with EDC staff partners youth and stakeholders for consistency of approach exchange of experiences and continuous improvement of practices and integration of youth development to the management of projects.
• Coordination with MEL for the mobilization of youth as part of all monitoring evaluation and learning.
• Work with partners and stakeholders to develop and implement youth development initiatives competitions innovations and exchanges
• Aid with the development and implementation of the Youth Ambassador Network
• Facilitate the mobilization screening and coaching a network of Youth Ambassadors to represent all communities and support programming. 

Project Implementation

• Identify opportunities for youth and community projects aimed at operationalizing youth contributions to the sustainable development efforts particularly in the orange blue and green economies
• Liaise with and coordinate with partners the development of materials services and products related to intermediate results
• Provide operational support in incorporating key youth development concerns into programming
• Ensure key technical economic financial and crosscutting considerations are incorporated in specific geographical areas/target communities that youth development is being facilitated
• Provide direct technical training support to ensure that partners and youthled and youthserving organizations develop equitable and inclusive organizational culture and approaches to training mentoring coaching and accompaniment of a diverse range of underserved youth and increase civic education and engagement interventions.
• Be integrally involved in the development of instructor and participant training materials and assessment/feedback tools.
• Facilitate the review and sign off all training materials and work with Activity partners to ensure that intervention designs are gender and conflict sensitive and the principles of do no harm are practiced as part of youth mobilization and retention and community and stakeholder engagement.
• Support the identification of champions and influencers from the orange economy and working with the EDCs and partner communications focal point to strengthen youth agency leadership and greater participation in communities.
• Screen support and work with youth to enable participation in volunteering and active citizenship activities that increase their skills knowledge and confidence
• Support the coordination of field trips youth career activties mentorship sessions and other productive activities.
• Ensure partner compliance of practices protocols and policies for the monitoring of youth in residential and nonresidential components of the program to safeguard wellbeing

Knowledge Sharing

• Contribute to programme strategies work planning and implementation sessions with EDC team partners and stakeholder groupings
• Support the develop and maintenance of suitable youth networks at community and national/alliance levels
• Contribute substantially to activities for advocacy dissemination and knowledge building on Youth developmentt.

In addition to meet the requirements of the Activitys alignment with USAIDs New Partnerships Initiative (NPI) the goal of which is to equip and empower new and underutilized development partners such as youthled and youthserving organizations in Jamaica the Specialist must

• Assist with the provision of mentorship and support to partners and relevant youthled and youthserving organizations in strengthening organizational capacity around equitable and inclusive civic education and engagement as well as their technical approach to do no harm within communities.

Qualifications :

The candidate for the position of Youth Development shall have at a minimum the following qualifications:

Education:

Bachelors degree in social sciences humanities and education or a related field; and project management training or experience.

Skills and Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible and directly relevant experience in similar positions;
• Experience designing managing and implementing activities to promote youth engagement gender equality and/or social and disability inclusion;
• Proven experience coordinating managing and/or collaborating with a range of individuals in diverse contexts including working with community leaders community associations youth organizations and monitoring and evaluation teams; 
• Strong interpersonal skills and excellent oral and written communication skills in English required;
• Strong problemsolving and creative skills a plus;
• Strong proficiency in the use of MS Word Excel PowerPoint tools a plus;
• Experience in developing and facilitating training content;
• Excellent social skills at all levels cultural sensitivity ability to work under pressure and with a team negotiate diplomatically and the ability to work in a multicultural and multidisciplinary work environment including experience working with underserved populations;
• Ability to prepare and conduct presentations;
• Ability to manage trainings and coach others to strengthen capacity; 
• Demonstrated understanding of USAIDs gender and social inclusion policies and strategies;
• Experience working in Jamaica.

Language:

Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in Jamaican Creole strongly preferred.

Additional Information :

EDC is committed to enhancing the diversity of its workforce and ensuring an equitable and highly inclusive work environment. EDC is a smokefree workplace and offers a supportive work environment competitive salary and excellent benefits. Women minorities and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Fulltime