Summary
Date Posted: Friday, April 28 2023, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:

Function Programme Development & Quality Supervises Communications Coordinator

Reports to Head of Programme Development & Quality (HoPDQ)
Location Country Office Travel required 30%
Effective Date March 2023 Grade Level 16

Organisation Overview & Role Purpose
Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. However, this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination, and it is girls who are most affected.
Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners in more than 70 countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas, Plan International’s purpose is to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality of girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. 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.
The Technical Adviser - Influencing & Communications is an innovative leader that is able to develop influencing strategies that lead to achievement of our influencing goals as articulated in the Country Strategy. In addition, the role holder designs strategic communication to achieve the same goals.
Technical Adviser - Influencing & Communications is responsible for leading the implementation of Plan International Uganda Influencing Strategy by taking an integrated approach to policy change and influencing with a strong link to campaigning and communications. The position ensures excellence in Plan International’s public and private advocacy in full alignment with the Country Strategy and Plan International’s Global Strategy. S/he works with HoPDQ, Technical Advisors, Programme Area Managers, and Project Managers to develop key advocacy messages, defining effective tactics and strategic partnerships, leveraging our influencing strength to mobilise support and raise awareness in Uganda and also externally with donors.
This role requires creativity and thinking out of the box mindset.

role dimensions:
The Technical Adviser - Influencing & Communications is a member of the Country Management Team and also works directly with the Country Director and HoDPQ to support on strategic-level influencing and communications. The job-holder makes an important contribution to the design of PIU's projects, ensuring that any influencing or communication that is necessary for project success is factored into the plan and budget, and aligning project activities to the Country Strategy. Additionally, the role is responsible for leading high-profile campaigns, which have the potential to change mindsets and behaviour nationwide.
The Technical Adviser - Influencing & Communications masterminds the design of PIU's influencing interventions and must therefore be a skilled strategist, as well as bringing significant technical experience and skill in communications and the psychology of influencing, as well as an understanding of how social and policy change happens and how to systematically engage and influence power holders. S/he is responsible for both the quality and effectiveness (impact) of PIU's external strategic communications.
This position is responsible for managing a departmental budget of up to €40,000 annually. Additionally, the job holder directly influences the influencing & communications components of project budgets.
The key challenge for this position is around the profound difficulty of driving change when mindsets are fixed and vested interests lock people into the status quo. In addition, the job holder must coordinate with staff and partners to deliver against influencing & communications targets, without having line-management authority. This requires the job holder to:
• Have an outstanding ability to think strategically and conceptually, analysing complex, multi-dimensional systems and hypothesizing logical theories of change.
• Review current research findings and identify gaps or new possibilities that will take PIU into previously unexplored areas
• Lead the team to innovate – developing new influencing interventions and utilising MERL approaches to test their effectiveness and adapt or pivot strategies in order to optimise impact, and supporting effective engagement and leadership of children and young people in influencing activities
• Demonstrate highly effective influencing skills both within and outside the organisation engaging and inspiring others to achieve PIU's important goals

Level of contact with children
This position has been classified as “mid contact”: occasional interaction with children

Key result areas:
KRA 1: Thought Leadership & Research
• Act as a thought leader in influencing & communications, contributing to the development and adaptation of new strategies at both organisation and intervention levels:
• Identify research opportunities working with the programme team and MERL Manager to strengthen Plan International’s influencing work and ensure that its evidence based
• Ensure comprehensive mapping of the key stakeholders who can influence the success of PIU's strategy, at national, project and thematic levels; define key influencing opportunities, targets and tactics at district and national levels and align programme and project design to these targets
• Work closely with Technical Advisors to ensure Plan International is always well informed of changes in the policy landscape through regular intel gathering, liaising with key UN, Government, NGOs and other interlocutors in the country so that Programmes are fully informed and addressing policy gaps (and gaps between policy & practice)
• Advise the Country Leadership Team (CLT) and Country Management Team (CMT) on key advocacy issues, such as developing position papers, managing potential communication risks and leading on a range of cross-organizational priorities and strategies
• Create relationships, systems and pathways to ensure that our influencing work is well integrated into the organisation at all levels so that we can fully realise our potential for campaigning, quality learning and impact reporting

KRA 2: Intervention Design
• Lead the implementation and adaptation of the Influencing and Strategic Communication Strategy and corporate communication for Plan International Uganda, ensuring compliance with organisational branding and communications guidelines:
• Through line management of the Communications Coordinator, ensure PIU complies with Plan International Branding Guidelines and with donor visibility requirements
• Play a proactive role in the development of project concepts and high-quality project proposals; support the integration of influencing & communications into proposals for all technical areas - Gender & Inclusion, Early Childhood Development, Education, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, Protection from Violence
• Support the development of detailed implementation plans and budgets; ensure that there is clarity over what activities will be managed by the PD&Q team, and what will be managed by the Programme Implementation team
• In collaboration with MERL and Project Managers, devise effective monitoring frameworks that will support quality assurance of influencing / communications interventions and yield important insights on how to change mindsets and behaviours for the benefit of vulnerable children and youth (especially girls)
• Lead the development of the annual plan and budget for the Influencing & Communications team, with objectives and operational plans to deliver Plan’s strategies

KRA 3: Strategic Relationship Management
• Strategically plan and implement stakeholder engagement and develop relationships to increase Plan International’s profile amongst target, influential audiences and to reach policy makers:
• Work closely with Technical Advisors and relevant project staff to initiate and build relationships of influence with key stakeholders; maintain regular and structured communication with key stakeholders (government, CSOs, private sector), staff at local, district, national, regional and international levels
• Build strategic partnerships with organisations and key stakeholders that will assist Plan International in meeting its influencing and policy agenda outcomes
• Represent Plan International at national and international level, at all times behaving in line with Plan International's values and Code of Conduct (CoC) to give a faithful representation of the organisation
• Lead the proactive involvement of Plan International in key UN human rights mechanisms processes, especially on CRC and CEDAW; engage with UN agencies and key human rights stakeholders to ensure Plan’s active involvement
• Facilitate media interviews and act as spokesperson when required; provide strategic guidance to Senior Management on critical messaging and talking points

KRA 4: Ensuring Impactful Implementation
• Co-ordinate the development and roll-out the departmental annual work plan; continuously monitor its effectiveness and impact, analysing learning and making adjustments as required:
• Lead the development of an annual Influencing Action Plan activities to coordinate across programmes and projects, and to ensure alignment with the Influencing Strategy and effective and efficient use of resources
• Lead the development of clear and consistent advocacy messages, ensuring that all advocacy messages, and strategic communication is evidence-based, drawn from field experience and assessments, of high quality and effective
• Lead the development of high-quality analysis, policy briefing, recommendations and positions relation to Plan’s influencing priorities
• Together with the HoPDQ, Programme teams and the Communications Coordinator, prepare media briefs as needed; undertake media outreach where necessary
• Work with CLT and CMT to identify potential reputational risks through media tracking and proactively develop appropriate protocol / messages and other risk management strategies

KRA 5: Functional Leadership
• Lead the Influencing & Communications team in a manner that empowers them to deliver high quality, timely, support to the wider organisation:
• Develop and oversee implementation of an annual workplan and budget for the Influencing & Communications Department; manage the finances of the department, ensuring good value for money and compliance with PIU's policies and procedures
• Regularly review the team staffing levels to ensure that required service levels can be realistically delivered, at the same time ensuring that staff are fully occupied and working efficiently; recruit staff or procure consultants as required
• Lead and manage the team towards high standards of performance through clear roles & responsibilities and provision of appropriate support; coordinate effectively with others to ensure high performance within PIU’s matrix operating structure
• Develop and encourage talent through on-going staff development, succession planning, career management; proactively address poor performance through timely constructive feedback, coaching and appropriate corrective action
• Foster an inclusive environment by implementation of policies and ways-of-working that provide for diversity and equal opportunities and utilisation of a leadership style that will drive employee engagement

KRA 6: Safeguarding, Gender Equality & Inclusion
Ensure 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.

Role Requirements:
Qualifications
• A degree in law, international relations, politics or social science; Masters in Human Rights desired
• Qualifications or experience in Development for Communications are desirable
• At least 7 years' professional experience working to influence human rights laws, policies and institutions, preferably with NGOs, intergovernmental organisation or governments.

Leadership Competencies
• Myself as a Leader
• Uses own behaviour to role model the culture change we need, upholding our values and accelerating progress towards gender equality inside PIU, with our partners and in wider society; effectively manages strategic change initiatives.
• Lasting Impact
• Develops and communicates an ambitious vision for enhancing impact, or contributing towards organisational effectiveness; makes timely decisions, even in uncertainty and when information is imperfect.
• Open & Accountable
• Maximises our progress by aligning work priorities and resource deployment in own area with Plan International's wider goals and longer-term direction.
• Work Well Together
• Represents Plan International at national, regional and global levels with all key groups including politicians and the media, building relationships to increase our influence, make new opportunities and manage risks.
• Inclusive & Empowering
• Celebrates success, calls out the contributions of others, and is generous with praise; motivates others by describing how their work effort can (or does) contribute towards achievement of PIUs purpose and strategy.

Skills & Knowledge
• Creates space for reflection and uses external evidence and internal evaluation to identify what and how we need to improve; creates a safe environment for others to challenge self or raise concerns; leads the team to implement changes as a result of what has been learned.
• Critical Business Management Competencies
• Broad and deep understanding of the political, social, financial and cultural drivers of inequality; with practical experience of developing and implementing strategies for change
• Demonstrated expertise in designing and leading the impactful implementation of significant projects; utilising good practice in MERL to set targets and adaptively managing to ensure achievement of results
• Outstanding ability to analyse and interpret complex data-sets, both internal and external, to spot trends and patterns, opportunities and risks, and to inform decisions and action (even when the information is incomplete or ambiguous).
• A deep understanding of how change impacts people and experience of successfully leading significant organisational change initiatives, demonstrating strong communication skills and a track record of empowering others to engage willingly in necessary change.
• Outstanding communication skills with an ability to deeply understand the starting position of an audience and produce compelling written and/or spoken communications that effectively influence others.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with an ability to relate effectively to a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds; proven track record of leading collaborative working relationships and resolving conflicts between parties with differing interests.

Critical Technical Competencies
• Experience of influencing and advocacy work including lobbying, policy development and information provision in humanitarian issues.
• Experience in networking and coordination, planning and implementing campaigns and events that drive influence and stakeholder engagement.
• Excellent skills in advocating towards government officials and understanding of UN and donor operations at country level, including UN human rights reporting mechanisms.
• Superior communication and writing skills with the ability to translate complex issues into a level appropriate for the general population and policy makers.
• Skills in working with children and facilitating child participation is desired



Job Experience:No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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