Sahel Region: Gender & Advocacy Specialist

Nov 3, 2019 | Plan International
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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 Opportunity: 

Security incidents in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger continue to increase fast in numbers and in seriousness, causing massive internal displacement of populations in concerned communities, most of whom are girls, boys and women.  More than 1,000 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the year in attacks.  The result is a severe humanitarian crisis in the two countries, already affecting over 10 million people and leading to the displacement of over 300,000 people, especially women and children. Local social services such as education and health care have degraded or become dysfunctional. In Mali, 926 schools have been closed due to insecurity, with over 600 of them in Mopti Region depriving over 170,000 children of their right to basic education.

In Burkina Faso, there were 2,024 schools closed affecting more than 330,000 children at the end of June. Food insecurity is increasing rapidly. Most of the IDPs live in the communities, mainly in congested public buildings or with host families, making hygiene and sanitation a major concern.

In Niger the Diffa region is facing a rapid deterioration of the security situation, leading to a massive displacement towards the urban centre of Diffa and neighbouring villages of 5659 household (25615 people displaced) on 27 hosting sites in need of humanitarian need assistance. The humanitarian community continues to mobilize and provide the first urgent responses to this new internally displaced population.  However, many gaps remain (80% of Gap in shelters, 76% of GAP in NFI and 40% of Gap in food security).

Plan International has a presence of over 40 years in the Mali and Burkina Faso, and over 30 years in Niger, with many of our partner communities affected by these conflicts and protracted insecurity. In addition to its development programs, Plan International has been responding to the emergencies in the three countries, with a focus on education, protection against abuse including Gender-based violence, and provision of Non-food items including dignity kits.

Given the recent escalation of security concerns, the quickly deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger , the proximity, socio-cultural similarities, inter-relation of the situation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and the fact that we have been doing major development programs in the three countries for many decades now, Plan International has decided, in addition to the on-going response programs by each Country Office, to put in place a team charged with implementing a multi-country Sahel Program across Burkina Faso, Mali and the Diffa Region of Niger.  

Responsibilities: 

The Gender and Advocacy Specialist (GAS) coordinates the development and implementation of strategies to deliver quality advocacy and influencing initiatives to Stakeholders on our Gender-Transformative humanitarian as well as development programming. S/he ensures Plan’s Advocacy and influencing initiatives meet highest levels of technical outcomes, produce results for children and youth, and particularly girls, and contribute to the achievement of Plan International’s Sahel Program in Gender transformative influencing and Advocacy. S/he supports the Sahel Program Team in to position the organization as national and regional leader, to mobilize resources and to provide opportunities for partnering, networking, influencing policy and practice.

• Establishes Plan International as an organisation effectively contributing to long-term change making in areas such as law, policy, budget and behaviour in the Sahel.
• As member of the Sahel Program Team, provides technical oversight and support to Sahel Program Team for designing, implementing, and monitoring, evaluating and resourcing gender transformative and influencing initiatives.
• Ensures the specific needs of girls and disabled persons are considered in all development and humanitarian interventions of the Sahel Program
• Collects, finalises and shares appealing stories on the Sahel with local and national media, and the media teams in the different parts of the Plan International Federation
• Leads the development of key advocacy messages, defining effective tactics and partnership strategies, leveraging our influencing strength to mobilise support for change making in the Sahel
• Works closely with the Sahel Program Team and the Country teams to ensure evidence-based influencing and delivered in time.
• Works closely with NOs, the Regional Hub and the Global Hub to ensure appropriate national and international media coverage of the humanitarian and development situation in the Sahel sub-region and the interventions of Plan International to address them.
• Develops and strengthens the Advocacy and Influencing teams and initiatives in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger