Programme Officer - Youth Employment and Empowerment at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Programme Officer Youth Employment and Empowerment

Job Code: 20000640
Location: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Grade: P4
Department: Human Development and Social Affairs
Status: Permanent
Directorate: EYSDC
Division: Youth Policy and Programmes Implementation
Line Supervisor: PPO Youth Policy and Programmes Implementation

Role Overview

• Under the supervision of the PPO Youth Policy and Programmes Implementation the incumbent shall assist in identifying, designing, proposing, and implementing policies and programmes for the general development and empowerment of youth across the region, including through collaborations with partners and other national, regional, and international youth and youth-promoting bodies and authorities.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and implement ECOWAS programmes and policies concerning youth employment and empowerment.
• Analyze the social environment and make proposals for the implementation of ECOWAS youth employment and empowerment policies and programmes.
• Evaluate the implications of the major trends in social and cultural development (both at regional and international levels) and propose appropriate policies and areas of intervention for youth employment and empowerment within the ECOWAS region.
• Implement an advocacy programme in various sectors of youth empowerment.
• Conduct policy and programme dialogue with ECOWAS member States on youth development and empowerment.
• Interface with, and canvass for funding from international development partners on matters relating to youth development, entrepreneurship, and youth employability in West Africa.
• Develop youth employment and empowerment policies and programmes for the Community, including policies and programmes for the development and promotion of youth entrepreneurship.
• Liaise and organize meetings with partners and other organizations to develop partnerships and implement programmes for youth empowerment.
• Represent the Centre in internal and external meetings as may be required.
• Initiate and implementing budgets for Programme Sectors under his/her purview.
• Organize programmes and activities to develop and strengthen capacities of Member States in the implementation of ECOWAS regional initiatives on youth employment and empowerment.
• Implement the ECOWAS policy and programmes on youth employment.
• Collaborate and establish partnerships with experts in the field of youth employment and empowerment.
• Coordinate knowledge and experiences gained are analyzed and incorporated into the youth development programmes of the Centre or other such initiatives.
• Perform any other tasks as may be assigned by the line supervisor and the Director.

Requirements

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Business Administration, Public Administration or in a similar discipline from a university of recognized standing.
• 7 years of progressively responsible experience in youth and sports development with a gender awareness perspective
• Knowledge of the rules prescribed by ECOWAS Treaty and others legal instruments of the Community.
• Ability to implement programmes for building the capacity of youth towards self-employment and entrepreneurship and their post-training insertion, and for the general development and empowerment of youth across the region.

Age Limit:

• Be below 50 years old. This provision does not apply to internal candidates.

Ecowas Key Competencies:

• Ability to get groups to work together cooperatively, by enlisting active involvement, creating a climate for respect and openness, and applying effective techniques for group facilitation, explore their potentials, motivate them, and guide them.
• Organizes and leads cross-divisional work group in developing creative solutions to address problems and or leads a small group of entry level professionals and administrative support staff.
• Well-developed on-the-job training techniques paired with excellent coaching and mentoring skills; knowledge of new staff orientation approaches to facilitate understanding of the position and organization.
• Ability to assign work to employees and provides timely and consistent feedback regarding technical proficiency and effectiveness.
• Knowledge of project management at the level usually acquired from a certification in Project Management (e.g. Prince2 or Project Management Professional PMP).
• Ability to consider the impact of a shift in programmatic direction to the needs of internal and external client.
• Ability to promote and consider staff feedback to streamline processes in order to meet deadlines of relevance to client expectations; ability to consistently maintain composure and direction in high- pressure situations.
• Well-developed problem solving, mediation and conflict resolution skills to address discrepancies, complaints, bottle necks, time constraints affecting quality and quantity of client services.
• Ability to anticipate growing client needs and expectations to continuously improve quality, and timelines and service delivery, addressing client questions in a timely manner.
• Ability to communicate openly with clients/stakeholders, keeping them informed of progress and issues requiring attention/resolutions.
• Excellent judgement and ability to implement programmatic changes in a manner that ensures a bias-free work environment and fair and equitable application to new rules/regulations.
• Demonstrated experience and ability to adhere to policies, goals, objectives, and principles of valuing diversity in performing everyday duties and responsibilities; promoting/modeling behaviors that demonstrate tolerance and understanding of various cultures.
• Ability to build value from leveraging diverse capabilities and inputs from various cultures, staff and clients.
• Ability to seek out best practices to make organizational decisions of relevance to diversity management, ensuring that project and program activities identify vulnerable areas and contain systemic checks.
• Excellent knowledge of ECOWAS institutions and how the different organs relate to each other, particularly as it relates to own work sector/programs.
• Broad knowledge of ECOWAS legal framework with a sound knowledge of approaches to policy and program development as well as project management normally acquired through certification.
• Well-developed knowledge of the rules, processes, and procedures of ECOWAS, of pertinence to tasks related to own position.
• Broad knowledge of member states trends, indicators, challenges, and opportunities as it relates to sector/programme assigned to own position.
• Creativity and flexibility to deviate from traditional methods in developing new procedures, processes, and tools, using technology to simplify methods and approaches whenever possible.
• Ability to reevaluate current procedures and suggest improvements to ensure an effective, streamlined process.
• Ability to gather and summarize information to predict stakeholder views on a new policy/programme; and excellent analytical skills to assess external policies and trends when reviewing policy/programme options, pros, cons, and recommendations.
• Ability to synthesize complex information gathered from a variety of external sources and disseminates it to others in a logical.
• Ability to apply appropriate methodology to discover or identify policy issues and resource concerns.
• Ability to evaluate, incorporate, and communicate the latest developments in specialty area (i.e. in specific sector or program area) using institution/agency guidelines and criteria.
• Well-developed interpersonal, negotiation, networking, and presentation skills with proven abilities to influence, explain complex information and demonstrate empathy and open-mindedness.
• Ability to demonstrate operational proficiency in the use of computer in communicating using technology tools such as email, word processing, excel, powerpoint, collaborative software, graphic software.
• Ability to convey information clearly and concisely in a succinct and organized manner through both writing and verbal means, either with electronic or print media.
• Fluency in one of the three ECOWAS official languages (English, French & Portuguese)
• Good knowledge of internal planning cycles and ability to contribute to the development and to implement Community-wide or institution policy by determining target audience, building coalitions with the appropriate population, and monitor progress.
• Ability to considers external circumstances, factors and trends when organizing project activities to ensure the best outcomes.
• Ability to review process outcomes, correspondence, reports, and policy documents to develop sound and achievable plans.
• Ability to conduct meetings with staff, stakeholders, colleagues, and others to ascertain of organizational, program and/or project needs, adjusting plans and activities accordingly.
• Ability to adjust project plans based on input from staff and stakeholders and/or ability to design and implements guidelines, tools, and templates to accommodate new or revised programmes and services.

Annual Salary
UA46,539.98 / USD73,430.77.

Application Closing Date
15th May, 2024.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their correctly filled Application Form, Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a Motivation letter to: [email protected] using the Job Title as the subject of the mail.

Click here to download the application form (Docx.)

Note

• Female applications are encouraged.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
• Applications initially submitted with only the CV remain acceptable.