Innovation Project Lead at Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian non-profit organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood, and enable children to prepare for - and respond to - crises and adversity. We believe in the power and potential of every child, but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Innovation Project Lead

Location: Nigeria (The location of this role can be flexible where Plan International has an office* that can employ on behalf of the Global Hub and you have the pre-existing right to work and live )
Type of Role: 12-month Fixed-Term Contract
Functional Area: Girls and Youth Power and Action Hub
Reports to: Global Lead - Youth Movements
Effective Date: As soon as possible
Travel required: Potentially
Grade: 4

Role Purpose

• The Equality Accelerator (EA) Innovation Project Lead is responsible for the success and scaling of the EA project, as well as for promoting innovation, digital inclusion, and feminist youth activist resourcing practices and movement building across Plan International.
• EA is an online platform where young activists can access accessible, sustainable, and democratic funding and non-financial opportunities.
• EA also includes a world-first smart flexible fund model with an inclusive, accessible, transparent application process; an agile, participatory selection process; and automated, youth-friendly reporting.
• This role sits within the Girl Youth and Power Action (GYPA) Hub. The GYPA Hub brings together programmes, influencing, Girls Get Equal/campaigning, youth engagement and youth movements colleagues.
• The Hub’s vision is a world where young people, particularly girls and young women in all their diversity, are active drivers of systemic change, leading feminist movements and campaigns with the support and collaboration of allies across the world.

Dimensions of the Role

• Drive the organisation’s innovative work on feminist resourcing of youth organisations
• Manage Equality Accelerator digital product and project manage, including management of 50,000EUR budget.
• Ensure project sustainability through business model development and raising funds through diverse funding streams.
• Scale upthe project to new contexts.
• Line management of 1 colleague and consultants as needed.
• Maintain and cultivate partnerships with key external actors in the girls’ funding ecosystem.
• Technical expert in operating procedures around youth resourcing.

Accountabilities
Product Owner for the Equality Accelerator (EA) website (25%):

• Lead a team of designers, web developers and QA consultants to ensure EA is maintained, up-to-date and that all bugs, glitches, or content errors are fixed in a timely fashion.
• Design product requirements and manage the product backlog.
• Regularly conduct user research of the platform, ensuring that there is meaningful engagement on the website. Lead on data-driven approaches to decision making, pivoting website priorities, and implementing new design features as needed.
• Coordinate the development of new features or languages as EA to scaled to new contexts or as the need is identified.
• Ensure our data policy is up-to-date and in line with local and international regulations.

Coordinate the implementation of EA (the website and the funding mechanism) across Plan International (35%):

• Overall project management for EA including strategic planning, creating and implementing project road maps as well as budget management and forecasting.
• Line manage Youth Funding Project Officer.
• Coordinate with EA focal points to create work plans, budgets, and collaboration agreements.
• Facilitate team learning spaces and ensure all local teams have the relevant training and resources to implement EA in their contexts.
• Coordinating funding rounds.
• Lead the M&E for the EA project embedded in innovation principles, ensuring a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Adapt EA’s model in line with learnings.

Support Sustaining and Scaling the EA project internally and externally to Plan International (25%):

• Lead on strategy development for EA, following best practices on scaling digital products.
• Working closely with the GYPA Hub to fundraise for the EA project and more broadly for direct funding for activists. Identify other opportunities for resource mobilisation.
• Identify and implement opportunities to expand EA to new regions and contexts.
• Explore, develop, and test a range of business models for the sustainability of the EA.
• Identify partnerships with external funders to support and resource local youth movements (potentially using the EA model). 

Promote innovation, digital inclusion, youth-friendly feminist resourcing and movement building across the organisation (15%):

• Contribute to the development and rollout of a youthresourcing approach across the organisation.
• Participate actively in relevant working groups and spaces including the GYPA Hub and the Youth Enabling Procedures Task Force.
• Position and market the EA within and outside of the organisation as a cutting edge and best practice approach to youth resourcing.

• Draw out insights and practical lessons from COs/RHs on youth resourcing to share best practice and inform PI’s internal and external positioning on youth resourcing.
• Foster a culture of innovation at all levels of EA implementation including capacity building for EA focal points.
• Coordinate exchange with other innovation & digital products and teams across Plan.
• Participate in relevant girl funding and innovation/digital external spaces. 
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility.
• This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures

Key Relationships:

• TheGYPA Hub
• Brazil EA Project Lead
• Guatemala EA Project Lead
• Germany EA Project Lead
• WACAH Hub: Youth Challenge Fund Lead, Youth Engagement Lead and Officer
• Global Hub, Innovation & Digital Team; Innovation Focal Point
• Global Hub, Impact Lab
• Global Hub, Partnerships team
• Country Offices and Regional Hubs
• External partners, including youth organisations.

Technical Expertise, Skills and Knowledge
Essential:

• Extensive experience in managing complex projects in international settings
• Some experience developing inclusive digital products, particularly in contexts with low digital literacy and ICT infrastructure.
• Experience in business model development andpartnerships.
• Proven track record in identifying opportunities to scale solutions.
• Ability to influence in a global organisation and across diverse contexts.
• Some experience as a Product Owner
• Experience designing product requirements and managing product backlog, using a range of product management tools
• Experience with human-centred design, innovation and data-driven development
• Ability to manage and maintain an up-to-date budget and develop future financial projections.
• Demonstrated interest in working on gender and feminism and principles of feminist leadership and social justice.

Desirable

• Youth activism/movements – Experience working with feminist movements, young activists and/or community-based organisations
• A strong knowledge of agile principles and processes (i.e., Scrum and/or Kanban as well as Jira/Trello)
• Experience within the social enterprise and entrepreneurship sector.
• Experience in innovative and diverse funding solutions.
• Experience with design tools like Figma
• Experience with quality assurance processes
• Experience scaling digital products to different contexts and working with local expertise to implement
• Knowledge of English and one additional language including:French, Spanish, Portuguese or Arabic a plus
• M&E experience and lean data collection

Plan International’s Values in Practice
We are open and accountable:

• We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organisation by being open, honest and transparent.
• We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others, while doing what we say we will do.

We strive for lasting impact:

• We strive to achieve significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people, and to secure equality for girls.
• We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused and innovative.

We work well together:

• We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organisation, including our sponsors and donors.
• We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals.
• We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams, across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities and our partners.

We are inclusive and empowering:

• We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge inequality in our programmes and our workplace.
• We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.
• We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential.

Physical Environment:

• Home working and typical office environment.

Level of contact with children:

• Mid contact: Occasional interaction with children

Application Closing Date
9th February, 2023.