The Organization

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

Title Project Assistant
Functional Area Programs
Reports to Project Officer
Location Bertoua, Batouri, Yokadouma, Garoua Boulai, Meiganga or Touboro Travel required Frequent
Effective Date FY23 Grade B1 

Plan International is an independent non-profit humanitarian and development organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.
We believe in the power and potential of every child. However, these are often repressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. Moreover, girls are the most affected.
Working with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we fight for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges faced by girls and all vulnerable children.
We thus support the rights of children from birth until they reach adulthood. In addition, we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We bring about change in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.
We’ve been building powerful partnerships for children for over 75 years and are now active in over 70 countries.

Role :
The Program Assistant will support actions for optimal access of refugees to inclusive quality education, in a protective environment that promotes children’s rights and equality for the girl child. This will be done in line with the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), which calls on States and relevant stakeholders to contribute resources and expertise to expand and improve the quality and inclusiveness of national education and protection systems to facilitate access of refugee children and youth and host communities to quality primary, secondary and inclusive multi-sector services.

In development contexts, the Education and Protection Assistant will be expected to provide strategic and technical advice to Plan International senior management and partners on how development interventions support the goal of inclusion in national education and protection systems.

The incumbent provides sound and timely technical guidance to Plan International senior management and partners, including on the design and scope of Plan International’s responses in education, protection, catalyzes the engagement of other humanitarian and development actors, supports resource mobilization efforts, including with the private sector, and monitors the response. He has close contacts with internal and external stakeholders such as community-based organizations (OBCCs), civil society organizations (CSOs), government counterparts, United Nations agencies, donors.
Role Dimensions
Area of ​​Responsibility – Eastern Programs Implementation Office
Direct report: Program Officer.
Facilitate the implementation of programs in the field
Supervise the work of Community Agents and Community Relays in the field.

Duties and responsibilities include:

It is precisely about:

– Contribute to the development and/or implementation and monitoring of the Global Refugee Education Strategy and its adaptation at country level.
– Work with partners to advocate for refugees’ access to local public schools and lobby for the inclusion of refugees, as a specific group in government policies and plans related to education.
– Support and monitor education projects and programs for refugees implemented by Plan International, its project partners and other actors.
– Work closely with Community Assistants, Agents and Relays to identify priority education issues and key data requirements for program planning and monitoring to ensure that Plan International minimum standards and international standards are respected.
– Provide guidance to address education challenges and gaps in collaboration with local education authorities and other appropriate stakeholders taking into account the particular needs of women, men, boys and girls as well as vulnerable groups in accordance with the Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) policy.
– Prepare regular sectoral reports and submit documents for the preparation of periodic project monitoring reports, as required by the regional office.
– Ensure adequate and accurate reporting, updates and timely briefings to the Project Coordinator.
– Provide technical advice and guidance on education issues to external and internal interlocutors, target people of all ages and genders.
– Facilitate the identification of refugee children in need of civil status.
– Ensure that good practices are identified, documented and widely disseminated.
– Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to support local authorities to strengthen education management information system (EMIS) regarding refugees, education and support national education management information systems ( EMIS) to disaggregate data by international protection status.
– Represent Plan International in education and protection and other locally relevant coordination meetings.
– In collaboration with the education authorities, the partner and other relevant stakeholders at the local level, contribute to the strengthening of the management of education and protection data relating to refugee children and young people.
– Ensure that the perspectives, capacities, needs and resources of those concerned are taken into account in the protection strategy, planning processes and plan of operations responding to the specific protection needs of women and men , children, young people and the elderly, people with disabilities, minority groups such as sexual minorities and people living with HIV.
– In operations applying the cluster approach, ensure that the protection cluster covers all assessed and prioritized protection needs of the affected population.
– Coordinate the promotion of the principles and standards of international refugee law ensuring that all sectors and groups fulfill their responsibilities in mainstreaming protection.
– Coordinate the implementation and monitoring of programs ensuring that identified protection needs, including an age, gender and diversity (AGD) approach, are adequately addressed.
– Provide policy guidance and operational support to Plan International and its partners on all protection issues.
– Provide legal advice and guidance on protection issues to internal and external interlocutors; ensure that legal assistance is accessible to persons of concern; liaise with relevant authorities to ensure issuance of personal documents and other relevant documents to persons under their care (civil status documents, in particular birth certificates).
– Assist in the coordinated implementation and monitoring of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all protection/solution activities.
– Ensure that durable solutions through voluntary repatriation, local integration and, where appropriate, resettlement are sought and provided to as many of those affected as possible.
– Ensure that, through direct action and advocacy with larger protection staff, the necessary resources are allocated to enable protection activities to identify and address gaps in protection and assistance.
– Support a process of consultation with local government counterparts, partners and affected individuals to develop and implement integrated strategies that address key protection priorities, including, for example, protection childhood, education and sexual and gender-based violence, as well as approaches to solutions.
– Promote confidence building and conflict resolution among affected populations, authorities and host communities.
– Maintain the protection presence through regular field missions and reports, establishing direct contact with refugees, host communities, local authorities and partners. In operations applying the Humanitarian Cluster System, contribute to ensuring that the Protection Cluster response is based on an AGD-compliant strategy that covers all assessed and prioritized protection needs of affected populations.
– Contribute to the information management component of the protection team which: provides disaggregated data on populations of concern and their issues; researches, collects and disseminates relevant protection information and good practices to improve the delivery of protection and provide technical advice where necessary.
– Ensure that participatory, community protection approaches are included in country strategies.
– Help refugees, host population to develop structures that strengthen their participation and protection.

Minimum qualifications and professional experience required:

Education: Degree in law, international law, political science, education science, social science or related field with a good knowledge of international refugee and human rights law.
Essential professional experience: Minimum 2 years of relevant experience with a higher education degree (equivalent to a Master’s degree), 3 years with an undergraduate degree (equivalent to a bachelor’s degree). Experience in refugee education programs, including education in emergencies; demonstrated work experience in teaching, educational research or educational administration; experience in relevant education systems with a good knowledge of relevant curricula; demonstrated expertise in education programs, community services, community development and organization, social work, counselling; expertise in facilitating training and capacity building, including for refugees.
Essential requirements: knowledge of refugee protection principles and framework; knowledge of INEE standards and guidelines; very good knowledge of education systems, curricula and sector plans.
Desirable Skills
– Knowledge of Plan International and UN refugee policies and procedures.
– Field experience.
– Commitment to help those affected and willingness to cooperate with partners.
– Good analytical skills.
– Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills in a multicultural environment.
– Experience working with refugees (desirable).
– The ability to live and work in the harsh conditions of developing countries is essential.
Fluency in English and French is essential.

Closing date
Please note that the closing date for this profile announcement is January 16, 2023 (midnight, Cameroon time).

Location: Bertoua, Batouri, Yokadouma, Garoua Boulai, Meiganga or Touboro  

Closing Date: 01/16/23

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organizational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organization, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.