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.

Gender Equality Coordinator RISING: Reaching and Enrolling Out of School Children Including Refugee Boys and Girls in Schools in Uganda

Plan International is an independent child rights and humanitarian organisation committed to children living a life free of poverty, violence and injustice. We actively unite children, communities and other people who share our mission to make positive lasting changes in children’s and young people’s lives. We support children to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to claim their rights to a fulfilling life, today and in the future. We place a specific focus on girls and women, who are most often left behind. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 75 years and are now active in more than 70 countries.

The four-year RISING Project is aligned with the Government of Uganda’s Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. RISING Project’s ultimate objective to the enrolment of 100,000 out-of-school children (OOSC), especially girls in marginalized and refugee communities in nine districts of Uganda.

Under the overall guidance of the Project Manager and the National Programme Manager – Education, the Gender Coordinator will ensure a gender transformative approach in the implementation of the Rising project, working with key project stakeholders to challenge negative norms, and behaviors that affect the ability of out of school and refugee girls to accesssafe, inclusive, child-friendly, gender-responsive and quality education and to thrive at school. The Gender Coordinator will ensure that the equal value, rights and agency of girls are reinforced through all project activities.

Dimensions of the Role

The Gender Coordinator will be responsible for planning and implementing gender related activities and interventions in the project in collaboration with the rest of the project team. She/he will manage the associated budget, do procurement planning, develop activity reports both financial and narrative and ensure value for money. She/He will work in collaboration with M&E and CO to lead a gender analysis that will inform and enhance gender transformative implementation of the project. She/He will develop and lead the implementation of training and coaching programs aimed at developing the capacities of team members, partners and main stakeholders for gender transformative programing and the quality delivery of gender equality related activities. She/he will plan and support advocacy and influencing activities working closely with the project team and the Advocacy and Influencing Manager. She/he will work closely with child protection staff to feed into protection risk assessment and to develop effective safeguarding measures and referral mechanisms for the project.

Accountabilities

1. Ensure a gender transformative approach to the implementation of the Rising project.
2. Support preparation and management of annual plans and alignment of project budgets to support the gender transformative aims of the project
3. Support the project team to plan and conduct project studies, including , project Baselines, gender analysis, the monitoring and evaluation tracking system for OOSC, any surveys, as well as the mid and end line evaluations and knowledge management.Develop capacities of the project team to deliver a gender transformative intervention that supports achievement of the project objective.
4. Support the development of gender responsive and inclusive tools that support project planning, implementation and M&E in line with the project objective.
5. Support schools targeted by the project create a gender responsive and inclusive environment that supports girls to enroll, stay and thrive in school.
6. Support communities and other key education stakeholders identify, dialogue and address the root causes of gender inequality and discrimination and the effect these have on girls’ access, transitioning and completion of education.
7. Engage communities, traditional and religious institutions to change social/gender norms attitude and practices that negatively impact on especially girls’ realization of their education rights, with an emphasis on the right to education.
8. Document and share best practices and lessons learned on gender transformative programming throughout implementation.
9. Represent Plan International Uganda at coordination meetings and other fora (gender equality, education, child protection)

Key relationships

• Has a technical reporting to the Gender Specialist at country level
• A  Member of the gender task force
• Work in close collaboration with technical specialists on the project team, including Child Protection, Education and Monitoring and Evaluation to ensure strong complementarity and coordination on technical aspects.
• Maintain a close working collaboration with the Gender Equality Advisor at CNO and seek out opportunities to enhance quality assurance.
• Ensure a collaborative and strong relationship is developed with Strømme Foundation, including structured regular meetings to share processes, lessons learnt and challenges.

Requirements:

Knowledge, experience & Education:

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, Gender or Development Studies
• At least 3 years’ experience in Gender, Development, and implementation of gender equality and/or women and girl’s protection and empowerment programs in a reputable organization
• Understanding of the aims of gender transformative programming, experience of implementation is highly sought.
• Experience in carrying out all aspects of qualitative research (development and piloting of tools, data collection, analysis, writing). Experience of feminist-informed research methodology is desired.
• Demonstrated experience of capacity building and mentoring staff
• Sound knowledge and experience of integrating gender equality and  social inclusion in education
• Sound understanding of child and youth safeguarding approaches and child protection.
• Experience with Educate A Child (EAC) is considered a strong asset

Skills:

• Capacity to work with people of diverse cultures
• Good communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong advocacy and lobbying skills
• Strong analytical skills, especially from a gender and inclusion perspective
• A skilled facilitator with a good grounding in the design of learning objectives and the development of training programmes.
• Gender analysis skills
• Demonstrated skills and experience in proposal development, report writing
• Excellent computer skills (Microsoft office)

Attitude and behaviors:

• Ability to work within a team environment
• Commitment to gender equality and a strong feminist perspective
• Demonstrate behaviours that embrace child-centeredness, community participation, and partnership.
• Willingness to travel frequently to the field

Plan International’s Values in Practice

We are open and accountable

• Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including sponsors and donors.
• Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact

• Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We work well together

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

Physical Environment

• The Gender Project Coordinator will be based in either Nebbi, Lira or Kamuli with frequent travel to other assigned districts.

Level of contact with children

Mid contact: Occasional interaction with children especially whenever in the field

As a Child Centred Development organisation, Plan International Uganda strives to ensure that children are kept safe in all the areas we operate. The organisation further has a Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy that every staff is required to sign. As a result, this position comes with additional responsibilities for safeguarding children and young people:

Additional Responsibilities:

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Child Protection Responsibilities

• Adhere to the Children and Young People Safeguarding (CYPS) Policy, Code of Conduct and reporting any CYPS issues;
• Responsible for the implementation of the CYPS standards as they apply to the area of responsibility plus the development of actions to address identified gaps and monitoring their effectiveness.
• Ensure that all Plan Partners, Visitors, and Associates in the area of responsibility are provided with and have signed and returned a copy of the c policy.  Inform the partners, visitors, and associates that they must comply with the policy in all contacts and communications with children during their visit.
• Ensure that children and families in the area of responsibility are aware of the Children and Young People Safeguarding policy and applicable local procedures so that they know what behaviors they can expect from Plan staff, associates and visitors and whom to report any concerns;
• Ensure that Plan International’s global policies for CYPS and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) 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. the 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.