The Role

The role of an Integrated Projects Officer (IPO) is to manage projects and sponsorship delivery at the Program Unit (PU), while ensuring a seamless integration and quality of both deliverables in line with the Country Strategy. The role will design, implement monitor and report on progress of project activities and sponsorship production in line with detailed implementation plan and sponsorship annual schedules. The role is intended to manage partnerships (county government, national NGOs, corporate agencies etc.) and sustain a working relationship with sponsored families and local partners to deliver quality and timely sponsorship communications accompanied with a demonstrated participation of sponsored families and benefitting from the diverse projects supported in the PUs.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

Planning, strategy and policy (10%) 

• Ensure sponsorship and program work directly contributes to the outcomes for girls and young women are realised and that girls take lead in advocating for their rights
• Design and implement projects that are gender transformative and aligned to the Country and Global strategies.
• Promote children rights in sponsorship and ensure Plan’s policy on safeguarding the rights of children and young people is adhered to by all associates.
• Build relationship with relevant staff to ensure all logistics and procurement processes are in conformity with Plan policies, procedures and standards
• Oversee sponsor visits as per Plan International policies.
• Facilitate consultation, participation and feedback to the community in relation to Plan programs and policies.

Programme and project design, implementation, reporting and influencing (30%) 

• Promote participation of children, girls and communities in project cycle to explore and challenge gender norms.
• Ensure sponsored families and community participation in the project design, planning and implementation.
• Contribute to resilient responsive interventions through needs assessment analysis and stakeholder engagement.
• Influence stakeholders to address the varied and complex root causes of the issues that impact girls' lives.
• Facilitate access to relevant and accurate information on the projects to sponsored families, government officers and other community stakeholders
• Contribute to gender sensitive responses/intervention through continuous data collection during project implementation.
• Consolidate/write project periodic reports in line with the laid down donor requirements and Plan standard

Working in Partnership and resource mobilisation (10%) 

• Continued participation on flagged business development calls by providing necessary information to qualify proposals.
• Management of partners to effectively support sponsorship processes and program delivery. Track and monitor contractual obligations of all partners. This includes ensuring compliance to child sponsorship commitments and achievement of KPIs.
• Facilitate authentic community led beneficiary targeting processes and reporting on interventions being undertaken.
• Uphold the principles of Building Better Partnerships
• Enhance effective data storage of child sponsorship documents at field level.
• Facilitate consultation, participation and feedback to sponsored families in relation to Plan programs and policies.
• Engage and maintain cordial stakeholder relationships throughout the project cycle for effective project delivery and achievement of sponsorship commitments.
• Maintain a high level of external communication and contact at the community and county levels. This is to facilitate the implementation of the project and sponsorship activities effectively.
• Build and strengthen working relations with local structures (local administration, schools among others) and ensure their participation and support to child sponsorship and other program activities.
• Engage and influence different technical working groups at sub-county level

Quality improvement and standards (15%)

• Deliver timely and quality child sponsorship communications/products as per monthly and quarterly production schedules.
• Operationalise procedures of data quality assurance during collection and submission of child sponsorship communications.
• Ensure each sponsored child is tracked on yearly basis (to check on their wellbeing, education and health) and submit reports on quarterly basis.
• Monitor and evaluate performance of child sponsorship partners as per signed agreements.
• Work with the Program team and the M&E team in documenting project achievements and lessons learnt.
• Facilitate and coordinate joint reflection sessions with sponsored families, communities and other stakeholders to inform programming/improve on quality of interventions.

Financial Responsibility (10%)

• Develop monthly activities and budget plans as per approved work plan and ensure all activities are on track with appropriate scheduling, quality and timelines.
• Monitor expenditures by interventions and ensure compliance with approved budget.
• Review expenditure reports on a monthly basis.

Risk Management (5%)

• Develop risk assessments for all projects & sponsorship and put in place mechanisms to mitigate/manage the risks during the implementation phase.
• Continually manage all safeguarding risks in both program and sponsorship.

Capability building and People Management (10%) 

• Assess local partners’ capacity gaps in delivery of program and sponsorship work and develop capacity building plans for mutual development.
• Internally resources and establish external linkages/referral for capacity development of the local partners
• Build the capacity of local partners, sponsored families and community volunteers on child sponsorship policies and guidelines.
• Work closely with the sponsorship partners to ensure adequately skilled volunteers are recruited and performance managed as per monthly set targets.
• Contribute to documentation and sharing of best practices with all stakeholders

Other duties (5%)

• As assigned by the supervisor

Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) (5%)

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
• Leads the orientation of programme staff to ensure that they are properly inducted on and understands their role in upholding Plan International’s safeguarding and GEI policies;
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in project design, during implementation and as principles applied in day-to-day work of Programme team;
• Ensures that Plan Kenya contributes to Plan International’s global efforts to ensure safeguarding and GEI, including making sure that relevant reporting and data are submitted. 

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Qualifications/ experience essential: 

• A Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences or Development Studies.
• At least 3 years’ experience in project management in various thematic areas/child sponsorship programming and disaster risk management.
• Demonstrable experience designing and managing gender transformative projects
• At least 2 years’ experience managing partners
• Hold personal values, ethics and attitudes which are in alignment with the principles of the Plan’s
• Motorcycle riding skills and experience

The Role

The Learning and Knowledge Management (LKM) specialist will employ traditional and digital learning approaches to develop and implement innovative, creative and effective ways to capture and share technical knowledge, leverage good practices, and improve the effectiveness of development programs initiated and implemented by Plan International, Kenya. The LKM Specialist will be responsible for a wide variety of activities related to identifying, managing, packaging, and disseminating key information to advance technical practice and provide program teams with the tools they need to conduct better development work. Specifically, the LKM Specialist will lead and support learning events, produce resources and guidance, and facilitate ongoing content development and engagement. The LKM Specialist will champion office-wide integration of practices that support knowledge capture and transfer, collaboration, learning and knowledge sharing, and adaptive management so that the knowledge and experience acquired from projects are shared and applied more intentionally and strategically by staff, partners, and other relevant stakeholders.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

LKM Design, technical oversight, management and leadership (30%)

• Develops a fully operational knowledge management system in which relevant data information and knowledge on programmes and projects in general, are systematically acquired, continuously upgraded and disseminated internally and externally to counterparts’ partners, donors, media and other stakeholders as appropriate.
•  Develop, refine and implement a robust learning agenda/framework for continuous learning, learning questions at design stage, collaborating and adapting for project staff, partners, donors, and other interested stakeholders.
•  Coordinate stock-taking exercises such as pause-and-reflect sessions, before and after-action reviews and opportunities to give and receive stakeholder feedback.
• Oversee the compilation and dissemination of information from both quantitative and qualitative data on successful and promising approaches, lessons learned and other program results to local, national and regional-level intergovernmental bodies, donors, partners and other stakeholders.
• Ensures that PIK staff and partners have an up-to-date easy-to-access database of lessons learned and best practices in the areas of innovation, programme planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation  
• Establishes a system to ensure there is effective sharing of knowledge, learning and collaboration within Plan’s existing and new networks
• Support Plan networks with effective use of LKM tools and techniques specifically designed for them i.e. communities of practice, learning reviews, peer assists, knowledge cafes, after action reviews (AARs), storytelling, blogs etc.
• Manages knowledge sharing events – in collaboration with MERL staff and other program teams for the successful execution of knowledge sharing events including monthly seminars/webinars, workshops, conferences, and peer learning sessions
• Designs, Implements, documents and shares learning – ensure requirements, lessons learned, and best practices for products, events, and other knowledge management activities are clear and documented
• Collaborate with Program/Grant Managers, Technical Specialists, Digital team and other internal stakeholders to find creative ways to publish and disseminate research results, recognizing that it is critical to ensure this data is accessible and reaching a broad stakeholder base.
• Oversees capacity building and support for internal knowledge acquisition, management and sharing including relevant communities of practice, staff, consultants and key partners on all aspects of knowledge management
• Facilitates dissemination of organizational and technical knowledge and learning content at various stages of employee lifecycle through knowledge repositories, resource kits, webinars, learning exchanges, etc.
• Creates a systemised approach for guiding on going analyses needed to address observed gaps and for identifying opportunities for innovation and policymaking/adjustments drawing on data and information from evaluations/ baselines/ researches carried out by PIK; and lessons learned and best practices from partners.  

2. Knowledge management policies, strategies and practices (20%)

• Provide strategic guidance and leadership to define and oversee the implementation of Plan International Kenya knowledge management and learning (KML) strategy and associated implementation plan.
• Guide capacity building team to strengthen the capacity of institutional partners and stakeholders on knowledge capture, documentation and sharing.
• Define and lead the process to identify, evaluate and document best practices in projects and programmes implemented by Plan International
• Engage stakeholders and communities of practice via knowledge management platforms and communications.
• Implements and supports Plan International’s knowledge management policies, strategies and practices in the Plan Kenya Programs and projects
• Promotes knowledge (both tacit and explicit) as assets to the organization
• Assists project teams to plan and implement best knowledge management practices throughout Plan Kenya.
• Facilitate, monitor, and promote the use and improvement of common knowledge management processes and approaches across the organization
• Supports LKM Policy, Planning Research and Metrics for knowledge management.
• Creates an approach for guiding on-going analyses needed to address observed LKM gaps and for identifying opportunities for innovation, process, procedure and policymaking/adjustments
• Advise and build capacity of internal subject matter experts to capture, curate, and disseminate organizational knowledge.
• Based on analyses, develop concise, user-friendly materials relevant for internal and external audiences to reflect key learning
• Establish and institutionalize a knowledge management system and put in place platforms and processes that support the realization of PIK Knowledge Management related goals.
• Leads in developing protocols for learning and knowledge management in the organization including systems for capturing and developing knowledge from staff and stakeholders/partners from communities that Plan works with
• In collaboration with the project teams, document the ongoing and final learnings and elaborate on capacity briefs and project learning pieces for specific projects;
• Puts together case studies, information, including developing and disseminating in-depth case studies for target flagship projects and innovations that Plan Kenya is implementing

3. Institutional Knowledge Management and Learning Standards (10%)

• Interprets and promotes Plan International KM standards and guidelines, best practices, and state-of-the-art approaches among PIK staff.
• Be the substantive point person for LKM in Plan Kenya
• Provide guidance to Technical Specialists and other staff to identify, manage, package and disseminate key information to advance technical practice in development and effectively share program results and impact with key stakeholder audiences including development practitioners and academic/research partners.
• Develops staff skills for effective LKM so that minimum LKM standards are reached across the Plan Kenya
• Develops a standardised LKM component of the Plan induction and orientation process, and standardised LKM induction tools for all Plan’s key work areas, systems and policies.
• Manage the creation of updated knowledge products that showcase results and impact, to effectively profile PIK through technical branding and thought leadership, and thus, support resource acquisition opportunities and policy influence. This includes, case studies, stories, reports, briefing notes, business-to-business website and other externally facing resources.

4. Support culture of learning and reflection in the organisation (15%)

• Identifies and disseminate examples of good practice in LKM across Plan Kenya according to agreed criteria
• Promotes exchange of learning and reflection with external actors by: (i) making use of external resources; and (ii) inviting external audiences to engage with Plan.
• Identifies and supports a network of LKM champions in Plan Kenya
• Engages partners and learning champions – work with program managers, project partners, and learning champions to expand various Plan Kenya online/in-person learning activities including promoting the use of Planet, collaborating with external partners, and contributing content.

4.  Building systems for ensuring easy access to high-quality and reliable information by staff (15%)

• Strengthen the capacity of critical stakeholders, both in PIK and partners, in knowledge creation, knowledge translation and dissemination through training, coaching, mentoring, and ongoing project support.
• Develops a framework to assist staff to efficiently identify and access data, information and people across Plan Kenya.
• Champions for implementation of the Document Policy to ensure all key shareable documents are effectively tagged, stored and organised, and are more accessible.
• Develops effective document and information retrieval guidelines to support staff in accessing the documents and information they need
• Builds staff capacity on navigation and usability of Planet platform to help staff to access documents more effectively and find it more engaging, effective and reliable information management and collaboration tool.

5. Other duties (5%)

• Take charge of other responsibilities as may be assigned by the supervisor

Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) (5%)

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
• Leads the orientation of programme staff to ensure that they are properly inducted on and understands their role in upholding Plan International’s safeguarding and GEI policies;
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in project design, during implementation and as principles applied in day-to-day work of Programme team;
• Ensures that Plan Kenya contributes to Plan International’s global efforts to ensure safeguarding and GEI, including making sure that relevant reporting and data are submitted. 

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Qualifications/ experience essential:

• At least Bachelors level degree in organizational learning or development assistance such as public, business or development administration, knowledge management, political science, economics, development studies or closely related, inter-disciplinary fields of education in development communication, linguistics, media studies, international development, social science, international relations and related fields
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible, professional experience in organizational or action learning, development, consulting and/or knowledge management
• Excellent written and spoken English, including the ability to write clear and engaging reports
•  Strong demonstrable levels of knowledge of and experience with gender sensitive research design, performance monitoring, impact evaluation, and / or social and environmental research methodologies
• Demonstrated understanding of knowledge management principles and capacity to deliver knowledge management and/or organizational learning activities
• Demonstrated interest in and capacity to deliver knowledge management and/or organizational learning programs
• Ability to link content development and engagement strategies that facilitate timely, useful delivery of information through project learning platforms and activities
• Demonstrated capacity to initiate, coordinate, and facilitate learning among technical staff and stakeholders
• Good analytical skills and the ability to translate complex concepts into clear, understandable ideas.