Technical Lead - Humanitarian Effectiveness

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.

Role Purpose

This role exists to provide overall leadership and management of interventions for girls, boys, and young people in humanitarian crisis. The role ensures holistic humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus programming and influencing using principled and locally led humanitarian action. It covers responsibilities spanning child and youth-centered disaster risk identification, mitigation, assessments, response, and monitoring. The role also covers planning and coordination of recovery interventions at the country and Program Area levels in line with Plan’s Country Strategy, policies, procedures and practices.

Dimensions of the Role

The Technical Lead: Humanitarian Effectiveness reports to the Director of Programme Strategy, and has no direct reports in line with the current structure. Depending on the grant funded portfolio of humanitarian projects, they may supervise technical specialist staff under Education/ Child Protection/ Sexual reproductive health and Rights/ Gender in Emergencies etc. They may also have matrix relationships with project staff on resilience, disaster risk reduction, and climate change projects. The incumbent works closely with Programme Area Managers (PAM), Director of Programme Implementation, Technical Programme Leads, and Humanitarian Project Managers or Coordinators to implement the programme at Area level and within projects. Interaction occurs regularly and monthly. They may have financial authority delegated to them by the Country Director to manage specific emergencies as the case may be.

Accountabilities

1. Strategic Design
   1. Translate the Global Strategy and Country Strategy for humanitarian programming and influencing in Malawi into simple strategic manuals to increase staff understanding and facilitate its implementation
   2. Develop a long-term vision and strategic planning to scale up the quality, pace, size and reach of our humanitarian action
   3. Develop quality project concept papers and proposals, and leverage flexible income to respond early and quickly in a new emergency while engaging donors
   4. Work with the Director of Programme Strategy to manage the formulation, organisation and delivery of high-level influencing
   5. Plan and manage people, logistic and financial resources in consultation and cooperation with relevant functional support teams
   6. Ensure compliance with relevant policies, guidelines and agreements of Government, multilateral and bilateral agencies and donors
      1. Programming & Influencing
         1. Oversee the collection of evidence and best practices to support advocacy and influencing efforts
         2. Influence the strengthening or development of national level policies, procedures, and governance frameworks with particular focus on girls’ rights
         3. Work with the Malawi government on preparedness initiatives that influence their social protection framework (such as safety nets) to benefit girls and young women, who are often the most at risk in crises
         4. Design emergency response and recovery plans for Malawi area of operations and update regularly
         5. Deploy as Emergency Response Manager for rapid onset emergencies and lead Emergency Response Teams as needed for initial stage of assessment and response
         6. Monitor risk maps in-country and update/inform the country leadership team (CLT) of new trends.
         7. Advise CLT on phase-in in new areas, where child rights are violated and girls are increasingly vulnerable.
         8. Support leadership to develop Ready to Respond plans, and mainstream disaster risk management (DRM) into various procedures
         9. Guide integration of relevant aspects of disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery in thematic country programmes to promote coherence
         10. Build relations with all departments, ensure coordination with national DRM systems, and participate actively in inter-agency coordination spaces
         11. Conduct rapid needs & gender assessments and provide technical information on emergencies
             1. Networking and Resource Development
                1. Document disaster preparedness, response and outcomes
                2. Represent Plan International at international platforms, and with national and district representatives, highlighting key issues of concern impacting on children, youth, and in particular on girls
                3. Engage with relevant humanitarian fora and clusters, ensuring appropriate information is provided on a timely basis
                4. Maintain and develop in-country relations with institutional donors
                5. Identify opportunities to establish strategic partnerships with other humanitarian agencies
                6. Establish and maintain emergency/ disasters technical support contacts and networks including communications
                   1. Establish and implement standards of accountability and learning