Youth Engagement and Participatory Research Specialist Full-Time

VSO is the world’s leading development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty. We are unique in the way we bring people together to share their skills and experience, generate insights and ideas and, most of all, take action against poverty and exclusion. It’s a highly effective approach that works, and today is helping millions of people in some of the world’s poorest communities lift themselves out of poverty.

Role overview

The purpose of the Youth Led Participatory Research is to understand how young people are engaged in programmes, organizational operations and governance, and also to inform decision making on youth related matters. This will serve as part of evidence gathering on best practices on youth engagement, exploring further opportunities, enablers and barriers for meaningful youth engagement within VSO and in community, regional, national, continental and global levels, and to facilitate development of VSO’s Youth Engagement framework and articulation of youth contribution to VSO’s Global Engagement Framework.

The Youth Engagement and participatory Research Specialist will work directly with the country programme team, M&E focal person and youth volunteers, guided by Global Youth Engagement Officer and Global Youth Engagement manager, and in collaboration with Knowledge for Impact team, Programme Development team and Engagement and Partnership team.

Skills, qualifications and experience

Essential

• Educated at Masters Level in social sciences, research for social sciences or equivalent;
• Minimum 3+ years’ experience in Youth participatory action research and community advocacy with and by young people;
• Sound knowledge of the current participatory research approaches and methodologies;
• Experience in youth coaching and mentoring;
• Experience and knowledge in Positive Youth Development Framework;
• Experience working with/training low capacity teams/grass root organisations;
• Excellent documentation and report writing skills;
• Skills in the application and use of various data analysis tools, SPSS, Epi-data;
• Good training and facilitation skills;
• Proven planning, organizational and systems management competencies.

Personal Qualities

• Ability to work with minimum supervision;
• Strong interpersonal skills and suitable character to work in a slow-paced environment which can be bureaucratic (requiring patience and tenacity);
• Conceptual and analytical thinker;
• Ability to adjust and adapt easily to a new environment, culture and situation; address multiple challenges in the workplace and be able to work with minimal supervision;
• A team player able to work alongside their local colleagues in a spirit of partnership;
• Proactive, supportive and accommodative

Allowance

As a VSO volunteer, you will be sharing your skills with local communities on a full time basis. VSO will cover your travel, vaccinations, accommodation, and medical insurance costs, along with a local living allowance which will be paid in local currency. This allowance meets reasonable living expenses in country, but will not be enough to send money home. You will also receive some financial support to contribute to your on-going expenses at home.

Accommodation

VSO works with some of the poorest communities in the world which means accommodation varies and will be basic.

Some background about VSO

Much has changed since VSO started 60 years ago. We’ve gone from being a UK charity to a truly global development organisation. In 2016/2017 alone, we worked with over 7,000 volunteers from all over the world and from all backgrounds to deliver services that had an impact on the lives of almost 2.6 million people in the 24 countries where we work. Our programmes focus on the areas of health, education and livelihoods, with an increasing emphasis on resilience building, social accountability, gender and social inclusion. We believe progress is only possible when we work together and that strong partnerships are crucial to delivering positive change. That’s why we work with over 500 partner organisations, from local and national governments, to businesses, NGOs, funders, charities and community groups. Currently, over 30% of our people are recruited from within the country in which they work, and we continue to grow the share of community and national volunteers involved in our programmes. We also send increasing numbers of volunteers from one developing country to another. However, our vision has remained the same; to build a world without poverty.

If you’re interested in applying for this role, please download the job description for more information.

To submit your application, click on ‘Make an application’ and complete all relevant fields on the online application form.