Manager - Youth Development

Program Brief

Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the world’s leading agencies working in post-conflict and development contexts, supporting communities in over 40 fragile, failed, and developing states. In this capacity, we work to restore safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted, struggling to endure, and wishing to advance on a path of development.

The IRC has been present in Bangladesh since 2017 and obtained registration with the NGOAB in March 2018. Since the IRC obtained registration in March 2018, it has moved quickly to expand its integrated emergency health and protection response through both direct and partner-based programming focused on primary healthcare, women’s protection and empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, child protection, Protection Rule of Law (PROL) and Education. Recently IRC has also introduced Economic Recovery and Development program.IRC will continue working in both the camps and host community, while meeting the significant needs of both refugee and host populations, as already existing vulnerabilities are compounded with cyclical monsoon and cyclone seasons that impose additional threats to the lives and protection of those refugees as well as vulnerable host populations. IRC will grow over time its geographic coverage within Cox’s Bazar and to other parts of the country, thus expanding its’ networks and partnerships around emergency preparedness and response work, reaching beyond the Rohingya refugees, also targeting the vulnerable host groups in Cox’s Bazar and other parts of Bangladesh.

Purpose of the Role

The Manager - Youth Development will support youth development arm of Economic Recovery and Development program in IRC. Provide technical support in both Rohingya Refugee and Host Community programming in Cox’s Bazar. Under Youth Development, IRC is implementing both social and economic empowerment programs for the youth.IRC has its’ structured Learn to Earn, a business skill development and Learn to Lead a life skill development curriculum are using globally which is contextualized according to the need and the Manager-Youth Development will provide technical and management support to ensure proper delivery. The Manager- Youth Development is expected to deliver the training to partners and support them closely for quality implementation. The Manager – Youth Development will have technical skills on vocational skill development, climate smart agriculture programming, start-up business grant support, market linkage for the youth business. The manager will provide technical support to the partner staff for building facilitation skills to engage youth in civic engagement activities. The Manager-Youth Development will be responsible for ensuring effective coordination with Government Departments, training institutions, private sectors actors, and other partners engaging in youth programming for creating employment opportunity and social development. The Manager is responsible for contributing to program design and development, technical support to interventions; measurement, research and documentation; representation and partnership development, and training, mentoring and organizational learning for implementing youth program partners. The position will directly report to the Senior Manager- Youth Development.Hence, the position will work closely with the partners to identify their capacity needs, provide proper training and orientation, and then support in implementation through shadowing, mentoring, and regular coaching. The position will maintain close coordination with Protection Rule of Law (PROL) and Women Protection and Empowerment (WPE) programs to ensure coordinated and integrated programming in camp and host communities.

Highlights of Key Responsibilities

Technical Quality:

• Support the quality operationalization of the IRC’s youth development interventions in Bangladesh, ensuring that needs and priorities for programming and standards are in line with the context, needs, and gaps on the ground.
• Support technical team in developing strategy, guidelines, and Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) related to Vocational skill development, youth life-skill, youth livelihood development, employment, and community engagement.
• Conduct needs assessment, develop, and implement a capacity-building plan, and provide day-to-day mentoring support, and formal and on-job training support to partner staff.
• Ensure the youth development prevention and response activities are linked with appropriate reporting and referral mechanisms.
• Work closely with young people, understand their needs and facilitate regular consultation, and identify programming ideas for youth development.
• Support implementation of life skills, leadership development, and business skills development and employment creation program in and the host communities.
• Work closely with partners in implementing Technical Vocational and Educational Training (TVET), business skill development activities for youth employment generation in host communities.
• Engage private sectors for building technical skills and job placement skill for creating youth employment opportunity.
• Develop a market linkage strategy for youth to enhance market access for their businesses and support partners in building the capacity of market actors to connect with youth. Work closely with Protection team, particularly the Child Protection team, but also Women’s Protection and Empowerment and Protection & Rules of Law team to ensure successful implementation of integrated programming in camp and host communities.
• Ensure integration and inclusion in program delivery, children and young people of different ages, sex, Person with Disability (PWD) and ability are equally addressed in program implementation.

Program Implementation:

• Work closely with partners to achieve project results and take support from Senior Manager- Youth Development to implement field intervention through partners.
• Regular monitoring of the program and providing necessary supervision support to the team. Monitoring findings are recorded and shared at different platforms (within IRC and partner) for the improvement of program delivery.
• Facilitate training, orientation, and workshop with partners to deliver youth development curriculum and regular follow-up and refreshers to ensure proper knowledge and skills in the implementation team.
• Build capacity of the partner staff and youth to develop business plan, IGA training and support to design community level market base livelihood interventions for the youth.
• Establish linkage with market actors and the youth entrepreneurs for developing business connectivity and creating employment opportunities.
• Support the partner staff and youth to manage Youth Development Center (YDC) or club to transform as a platform serving the community and resolving community conflict.
• Coordination with Protection programs to ensure the projects are bringing a comprehensive impact on the life of the clients.
• Regularly review information and documentation practices to ensure youths’ information is gathered, stored, and shared safely. Ensure confidentiality and that data protection and information-sharing protocols are respected in line with IRC internal standards and inter-agency standards.
• Periodically review training modules and materials and prepare context-specific adaptation plans to implement youth programming in emergency situations.
• Ensure safeguarding policy is understood and followed in program delivery.

Partner Management:

• Work closely with partners, monitor progress, and provide regular support for quality implementation of the program.
• Identify capacity gaps, provide handholding support, and develop capacity-strengthening plans. Coordinate with the technical team for implementation of the plan and monitor progress.
• Attend regular meetings and sharing sessions to develop and monitor implementation plans, track expenditure and compliance, and coordinate with other departments where necessary.
• Review progress reports and data and provide regular feedback and guidance for improvement.

Coordination & Representation:

• Coordinate with Government department (Department of Youth development, Department of Social Welfare, Department of Women Affairs, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) etc. Financial Institutions, training center and private company to increase connectivity of the youth and employment scope.
• Dedicatedly participate and contribute to Youth Technical Working Group and build productive relationships with those actors to better understand the context, needs, and priorities around youth development, and use this to inform or guide the next steps in the short- and longer-term advocacy, collaboration, and cross-sector working.
• Develop and maintain effective coordination and long-term relationships with external parties, representing IRC positions, promoting long-term strategy, and resolving problems/conflicts.

Other Duties:

• Consistently and dedicatedly monitor/assess the safety and security of field teams; promptly report concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaise with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment for the IRC program.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.