World Education, a division of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc (JSI/WE) is seeking a Youth Employment Specialist for the anticipated USAID Ghana Youth Activity, a program aimed at improving the socioeconomic status of youth in northern Ghana through youth-led and youth-serving organizations.

Job Description

• The program will focus on generating cross-sectoral engagement and positive youth development (PYD) outcomes, allowing youth to make better life decisions and influence policy.
• The Positive Youth Development Technical Advisor will work closely with government agencies, vocational training associations, and a network of youth-led/serving organizations to develop and implement the overall program’s youth development strategy and design evidence-based interventions to successfully engage youth, women and vulnerable populations in program activities.
• In addition to providing technical guidance and leadership, s/he will foster effective partnerships, representation and outreach with key stakeholders: federal government ministries, regional government bodies, relevant civic organizations and NGOs to coordinate program activities, ensure sustainability, and advance the positive youth development learning agenda.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the mainstreaming of PYD across the program, including supporting staff to understand PYD principles and actively integrate them in their technical, operational, and/or Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) work;
• Coordinate effective partnerships with local youth education and employment institutions, relevant public and private sector partners, civil society and youth-led and youth-serving organizations that the program should seek to engage with, including organizations serving distinct groups of young people and/or with expertise in ethnic inclusion, gender, disability inclusion, and other topics of relevance;
• Implement Gender and Youth Social Inclusion-focused research, including analyses, assessments, and other learning studies to better understand barriers to and entry points for positive youth development with technical teams;
• Design activities that target diverse groups of youth, including age- and developmentally-appropriate activities, and activities that are responsive to and target marginalized youth groups (e.g., young women, youth with disabilities, and Fulbe youth, etc.);
• Strengthen the capacity staff, partners, and stakeholders to integrate gender equity, PYD, and other social inclusion considerations into intervention design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation;
• Develop evidence-based gender and youth strategies with program staff and partners to ensure effective integration and mainstreaming of PYD and gender and social inclusion including alignment with the requirements of USAID’s gender and youth policies and strategies;
• Provide support and technical advice to technical and MEL staff on strategies for youth engagement in design, implementation, and MEL;
• Review and provide input to project work plans, with attention to gender, youth and social inclusion dimensions of technical activities and operations;
• Support the MEL team in reviewing indicators, setting targets, planning for data collection, analysis, and reporting, and setting learning priorities around PYD and gender and social inclusion results;
• Contribute to quarterly and annual project reporting and internal documentation as required;
• Disseminate lessons learned among program staff and stakeholders.

Qualification Required & Experience

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, youth development, international studies, sociology or social sciences required. Master’s degree or equivalent preferred;
• At least 5-7 years of consecutive proven work experience in international youth development, gender and social inclusion and/or integrated cross-sectoral programs or similar donor support initiatives in related areas, including management positions, USAID experience preferred;
• Familiarity with USAID’s Positive Youth Development Framework, including gender and youth policies, and do no harm approach;.
• Solid contextual knowledge of barriers to youth development in Ghana (i.e. issues impacting youth employment opportunities, the non-formal education system, access to healthcare and barriers to practicing healthy behaviors, mechanisms for youth civic engagement etc.);
• Demonstrated experience conducting gender and/or youth analysis, including qualitative data collection;
• Proven interpersonal skills with ability to build personal relationships with staff, donor partners, and government stakeholders at all levels in a culturally sensitive manner;
• Program/project management experience working with rural, underserved populations in conflict-affected areas;
• Demonstrated experience developing youth engagement strategies and approaches, and building the capacity of staff and partners to operationalize these;
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of capacity building and professional development in a developing country, preferably in Ghana or West Africa. Experience working in northern Ghana is highly desired;
• Effective oral and written communication skills to make formal and informal; presentations and compose professional and analytical reports and program documents in English.

Salary commensurate with experience.

Location: Accra