Application Deadline: June 08, 2022

Individual Consultancy Open Competitive Selection

This is an exciting time to join the British Council team in Ethiopia and an opportunity to make a significant contribution to evolving the role of civil society in supporting Ethiopia’s development. The British Council has been leading an ambitious long term civil society support programme, to manage the delivery of strategic grant support and impactful capacity building activities to enable development of a professional civil society base, able to effectively collaborate with government to meet the needs of the most marginalised people in Ethiopia.

The Civil Society Support Programme 2 (CSSP2) is a £16.7 million capacity development programme designed to support Ethiopia’s civil society and its contribution to the country’s national development, poverty reduction and advancement of good governance. The programme has a strong emphasis on ‘hard-to-reach’ civil society and citizens, through regionally led programming and right based approach. CSSP2 is led by the British Council in consortium with Pact and Social Development Direct, and is supported by multiple donors (Ireland, Sweden, and Norway) led by the FCDO. CSSP2 is delivered mainly through a central programme office and a regional hubs. The programme works to build effective relationships that foster collaboration between civil society actors, citizens, and the government to support hard to reach communities and often overlooked development issues. Ultimately, government, CSO and public trust and confidence in each other will help to create an enabling environment in which there is increasing space for constructive dialogue and requisite action on issues of concern.

CSSP2 is an adaptive and flexible programme operating in a progressing and evolving context: socially and politically, and for the Ethiopian civil society sector in particular. With recent developments in the country including the approval for the revised CSO law, CSSP2 is in a unique position of opportunity to adapt programming in response to the changes in the context, and advance in an innovative direction. The context demands CSSP2 to be dynamic in nature, drawing in and ultimately building on lessons and best practice from the first and second phases of the programme, along with experiences of the British Council’s, and consortium organisations’ experience of civil society strengthening programming in Ethiopia and across the globe (and where appropriate, considering international learning and good practice). This point in time presents opportunity for the changing civil society space in Ethiopia, and for CSSP2 to play an impactful role in supporting the organisations working towards a more inclusive and effective civil society, building better relations, with an enhanced culture of collaboration and dialogue. To this effect, CSSP2 adopts mutually reinforcing strategies and framed its investment around three strategic themes for better impact, Gender Transformation, Young People and Citizen State Engagement. The issue of youth is one of the three strategic themes for which the programme is now seeking skilled Youth Lead to provide technical and thought leadership on its engagement with young people and with key stakeholders.

SCOPE OF WORK

The Youth Lead (YL) is sought to provide need-based technical leadership and strategic vision for CSSP2 on its support to and engagement with young people both at partner and programme level. The Youth Lead is responsible for developing youth engagement strategy and provide technical support and advise on the design and implementation of interventions on youth issues. S/he will review and analyze relevant background documents on youth issues for better programming and evidence-based engagement. The role holder is also responsible to capture and document lessons and learnings from Programme’s investments on the issues of young people and will lead on the facilitation of learning and evidence-based engagement with government and other stakeholders. 

Role purpose

To lead the Young People Thematic area of the program. The YP Lead will be responsible for helping the programme to support its CSO partners working on YP thematic areas and improve its engagement with government and other relevant stakeholders. 

Main accountabilities

The following are key roles and responsibilities of the Youth Lead:

Technical Leadership

• Articulate and lead vision, direction and priorities for programmatic activities in the thematic area (young people) based on understanding of context;
• Undertake systematic context analysis and review relevant background documents and policies and come up with key findings and actionable recommendations for informed programming and influencing youth development policies and programmes.
• Revise/update conceptually sound and contextually relevant youth engagement strategy for CSSP2.
• Support and conduct a stakeholder analysis of current youth players (both state and non-state actors) for engagement on various issues of concern to the youth.
• Motivate and support partners in participatory methods to involve young people in identifying potential advocacy issues and having them at the advocacy agenda
• Advise partners on technical issues and design of interventions and activities that address the strategic needs of young people;
• Ensure that gender, disability, youth participation are fully considered and are reflected in all CSSP2 partners implementation under Young People thematic area
• Advise the programme management on strategic and policy issues and participate in relevant advisory and/or working groups with counterparts, donor partners, government representatives, and other local stakeholders;
• Build capacity and provide real-time technical assistance to partner CSOs to design and deliver effective youth engagement interventions;
• Provide technical assistance to CSO partners and Hub Offices through on-site and virtual platforms as appropriate
• Document processes and achievements to ensure technical best practices are captured and disseminated;
• Produce written reports on programme activities related to interventions on young people, capturing the impacts of activities;
• Keep abreast of emerging issues relevant to youth engagement that can be incorporated into programming and decision making;
• Review and provide input into project work plans, paying special attention to youth components of technical activities and operations.
• Discuss youth issues and priorities with senior management, other technical staff and other programme stakeholders.
• Follow up youth focused indicators of the CSSP2’s M&E plan for a high-quality delivery .
• Support CSSP and its partners to map out critical issues for youth engagement, particularly in relation to youth engagement and participation in peace building and strengthening social cohesion. 

Coordination and Integration

• Ensure the effective coordination of youth component with other strategic themes of the programme and delivered in a whole programme approach. 
• Contribute to cross country/regional knowledge sharing events – online and face to face on youth engagement, movement building etc.
• Identify and build strategic partnerships with relevant actors and programmes and create avenues for programme coordination and learning.

Key relationships

Internal: The position holder will report to the CSSP2 Deputy Team Leader; and maintains close working relationships with Team Leader other Thematic Leads, SMT, and Regional Hub staff.

External: The YL is also expected to develop and maintain external relationships with relevant stakeholder and programmes, consortium partner staff, consultants, grant partners, FCDO programme staff and other donor representatives.  

Role type

• Advisory, Policy & Expertise
• Business Delivery

Duration: Until June 2023

Reports to: Deputy Team Leader, Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP II)

TERMS OF CONTRACT

Terms of contract will be on consultancy basis. The contract will be for eleven (11) months from date of signing contract (July 2022– May 2023). Payment rate is to be agreed based on negotiation, considering the experience of the candidate in relation role requirement. 

Job Requirements

Role requirements

• Master’s degree in a relevant field, such as population studies, sociology, anthropology, policy analysis, development studies , economics and youth employment/livelihoods.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience on youth development related programmes in the civil society sector and international organisations in Ethiopia.’
• Experience in innovative and constructive youth engagement strategies in development, good governance and peace building.
• Deep understanding of social change and its drivers in Ethiopian context.
• Ability to analyse and understand the political context, especially in connection with youth issues in Ethiopia.
• Ability to create and maintain good interpersonal and professional relationships with internal colleagues and programme stakeholders.
• Creative and solution-oriented
• Demonstrated ability to manage and oversee multiple complex tasks simultaneously.
• Fluency in English and one or more of local languages spoken in Ethiopia

British Council core skills

• Communicating and Influencing (level 3) - Is creative and adaptable in communications: Able to use a range of non-standard and creative approaches to inform, and persuade others, extending beyond logical argument to influence decisions and actions in a way which is inclusive and engaging.
• Managing projects (Level 3) – Leads smaller projects: Analyses requirements with the stakeholders, defining the specification with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing, and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects.
• Planning and organising (level 2) - Plans ahead: Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people.
• Managing accounts and partnerships (level 2) - Works with stakeholders and partners: Communicates regularly with diverse stakeholders, customers and/or partners to build mutual understanding and trust.

British Council behaviors

• Connecting with others. Actively appreciating the needs and concerns of myself and others (More Demanding)
• Working together. Ensuring that others benefit as well as me (More Demanding)
• Making it happen. Challenging myself and others to deliver and measure better results (More demanding)
• Creating shared Purpose: Creating energy and clarity so that people want to work purposefully together (More demanding)

How to Apply

Please submit your CV and response to Dessalegn, Mussie (Ethiopia) Mussie.Dessalegn@britishcouncil.org with Gebrye.Kefelew <Gebrye.Kefelew@et.britishcouncil.org>in copy. The email subject should be clearly indicated as ‘Youth Lead Consultant’.

For more detail click below: Consultant response guide.docx

The submission deadline is June 8 2022 (5.00 p.m. Ethiopia time).