Banyan Global is a woman-owned small business and international development consulting firm committed to improving livelihoods through market approaches for a broad and lasting impact. The firm is headquartered in Washington, DC with staff working in several developing countries. Banyan Global operates seamlessly within six practice areas: gender, youth, finance and investment, enterprise development, health, and evaluation and learning.

Banyan Global’s Ethiopia Value Chain Activity (VCA) is currently recruiting four (4) Regional Youth Specialists to be embedded in each of the four regions where the project currently works. The regions are Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and the Southern Nations Nationalities and People Region (SNNPR). The Youth Specialists will work in conjunction with the Regional Gender Specialists and serve as key resources for the conceptualization, development and implementation of youth-focused strategies and activities. The Youth Specialists will work directly with local partners in youth-focused activity design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and promote networking and alliance building of youth associations and youth champions with relevant project stakeholders. The Youth Development Specialists will take the lead in providing technical assistance in the design and implementation of program initiatives and activities that prepare youth for gainful employment and entrepreneurship, improved youth engagement and participation, and expanded youth-access to inputs and critical information. The Youth Specialists report to the Senior Gender & Youth Specialist with indirect reporting to the Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership to ensure that project activities address youth priorities and considerations, and that project activities specifically address the needs of young women and men.
• Ensure that youth are integrated and mainstreamed across the program, including project design, implementation and monitoring, operations, as well as in staff training materials, policies and procedures.
• Pursue opportunities to promote the equitable and professional development of youth in assisted firms, associations, and institutions.
• Review and provide input to project work plans, with attention to youth-focused dimensions of technical activities and operations and ensure youth issues and priorities are considered by project senior management and other technical specialists.
• Conduct youth analyses and research on norms and constraints in project locations in Ethiopia.
• Provide strategic technical guidance and training when appropriate on youth integration and participation to key personnel, project staff, government ministries, and project partners and stakeholders.
• Engage available and active youth networks or establish new ones as appropriate.
• Design and facilitate trainings for staff, stakeholders, and project clients to ensure that the project assesses and accounts for youth priorities and aspirations in all project interventions.
• Develop appropriate youth-focused resources and tools for project staff.
• Maintain an up-to-date and thorough understanding of youth-related issues as they pertain to project components and priorities.
• Facilitate experiential sharing and learning sessions every six months around the challenges and opportunities faced by staff in the field and in their own lives as related to youth development at regional level.
• Ensure all activities lead to the project’s youth indicators.
• Contribute to the project’s quarterly, biannual and annual reports by highlighting successes, challenges, lessons learned and opportunities in youth programming within the project.
• Collect case studies.
• Document best practices and establish a mechanism for continual sharing of this information.
• Contribute to the project’s evidence base through a variety of knowledge management products such as impact and success stories.

Salary commensurate with background and experience. Banyan Global is an equal opportunity employer.

Qualifications

• Ethiopian nationality.
• Fluency in English, Amharic, and at least one local language from SNNPR are mandatory.
• University degree (Master’s Degree desirable) in international development or another related field.
• Five or more years of experience working on youth integration initiatives. Experience with positive youth development approaches preferred.
• MUST HAVE experience designing and facilitating trainings on youth development issues and youth integration processes and techniques. Experience in value chains, food security, agriculture, and nutrition preferred.
• Experience providing mentorship and guidance for youth required.
• Familiarity with regional youth networks and associations preferred.
• Strong negotiations and communications skills, and effective report-writing skills in English.
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation skills, including experience with the selection and monitoring of effective positive youth development indicators.
• Capacity to be original and creative in designing and executing strategies to integrate positive youth development considerations into all aspects of project implementation.
• Experience working on USAID and/or other international donor-funded development programs.