Plan International recruits a Regional Lake Chad Programme Manager

The Organisation :

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

 

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

 

The Lake Chad Programme :

The protracted crisis in the Lake Chad Basin region remains one of the most severe humanitarian emergencies in the world, affecting the North East of Nigeria, the Far North region of Cameroon, the Lake region of Chad and the Diffa region in Niger. More than 17 million people are living in the affected areas across the four countries. 10.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance to survive, more than 6 million of them are children.

The Lake Chad Programme (LCP) is a joint initiative from Plan International’s Country Offices (COs) in Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, as well as Plan International’s West and Central Africa Hub. It was established to address the crisis in the Lake Chad Basin through an integrated and regional programme approach.

Taking into account the protracted nature of the crisis, a new Lake Chad Programme Strategy (2018 – 2023) was developed and endorsed, outlining Plan International’s bold ambition to transform the life of girls and their families in the Lake Chad Region. It moves beyond a humanitarian vision towards a full spectrum programme, working at the nexus of humanitarian and development efforts to promote children’s rights and gender equality, meeting both immediate humanitarian needs and the longer term developmental deficit.

 

The Opportunity :

The Lake Chad Programme Manager is an integral role to the organisation, responsible for positioning Plan International and its Lake Chad Programme as regional leader for promoting gender equality and protecting girls’ rights in the Lake Chad region and providing strategic leadership to ensure the implementation of the Lake Chad Programme Strategy (2018-2022) across Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. As part of the role you will also lead on a potential extension of the Lake Chad Programme into Chad.

Specifically, in this role you will be responsible for line management of the Lake Chad Unit (6 people) and hold budgetary responsibility for several different programme and portfolio budgets across the 3 countries related to the Lake Chad Programme Unit. As part of your management role you will develop and implement a dedicated Learning agenda, ensuring a specific focus on gender-transformative programming, regional programming as well as full spectrum programming.

As Programme Manager you will also support Country Offices in the operationalisation of the Lake Chad Programme Strategy, working closely with with the Emergency Response Managers (ERMs) and supporting programme integration across the three countries. You will also be required to develop a regional influencing strategy, lead on regional research and advocacy initiatives and drive learning, knowledge management.

In this high profile role you will sit on the Regional Lake Chad Steering Committee and the Regional Lake Chad Oversight Group and be required to represent Plan International in external fora at national, regional and global level.

 

Do you have what it takes?

We are seeking an experienced Humanitarian/development professional with strong humanitarian leadership experience and a general knowledge and understanding of key humanitarian minimum standards including INEE, CPIE, Core Humanitarian, SPHERE and Red Cross/NGO Code of Conduct.

To be successful in this role you will require significant experience of strategic programme management with evidence of success in implementation, including multi-donor programmes.  Experience of organisational representation and engagement with humanitarian donors is also important, as is the ability to build and coordinate relationships with key stakeholders and demonstrable Strong coordination skills with key stakeholders

Knowledge of the Lake Chad region and experience of working within it is desirable but not essential.

Fluency in French and English is essential for this position.

As a global organisation, working across multiple countries around the world, diversity is at the heart of our values of working well together and being inclusive and empowering.  We are fully focused on equality and strongly encourage female leaders to join our team.

Please follow this link for a full role profile and person specification: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aw07gnmwzilrxst/Regional%20Lake%20Chad%20Programme%20Manager%20%20Role%20Profile.pdf?dl=0

Location : This role will ideally be base din Nigeria (Abuja), but could also be based in Cameroon or Niger

Type of Role : Five-year fixed term contract

Grade : Update

Closing Date: Thursday 13th June

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.

Please note that only applications and CVs written in English will be accepted.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy.

As an international child centred community development organisation, Plan International is fully committed to promoting the realisation of children’s rights including their right to protection from violence and abuse. That means we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. We must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

Plan International operates an equal opportunities policy and actively encourages diversity, welcoming applications from all areas of the international community.