Community Engagement and Youth Officer

Last Updated: February 2025

Ipas is a nonprofit organization that works with local, national and global partners, to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a focus on ensuring that high-quality safe abortion and contraceptive information and services are available, accessible and acceptable to women and girls. 

Position Purpose

The Community Engagement Associate will assist the Community Engagement and Youth Advisor in building a relationship that enables community stakeholders to work together to address issues and promote well-being to achieve positive health impact and outcomes.

Summary of Responsibilities

Organizational Leadership and Strategy:

• Contribute to the strategic design processes and the development of technical strategies for community access projects using proven Project Management Principles. 

Financial and Risk Management:  

• Develop timelines, budgets, and work plans in collaboration with Community engagement advisor and in-country team for community access interventions. In compliance with Ipas DRC’s policies, get the timesheet, absence report, procurement, and spend authorization done in WORKDAY.
• Ensure compliance with internal control and audit compliance including adherence to the Protection Policy.
•  Attend audit meetings as requested.

Program, technical, or functional content of the job

• Lead in the design and implementation of local-level Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) strategies to support local partnerships, activities, and materials;
• Lead in Mapping of Community Based and other Civil Society Organizations and develop strategies to engage them to promote women’s SRHR;
• Collaborate/liaison with health system unit, policy unit, RME unit and partners at provincial/district level/field to implement, supervise and support and document community engagement strategies/interventions.
• Develop linkages with Community Based and other Civil Society Organizations, institutions working on the same agenda to promote knowledge, skills, and social support so women can exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.
• Lead in the design of curriculum and Facilitate capacity building programs for partner NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) to increase knowledge, skills and abilities of women and community members to access Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)
• Ensures that all training and orientation materials are contextualized and include content that is applicable to different community groups.
• Support evidence-driven documentation and learning sharing using qualitative and quantitative tools from the field, in-country and global TEX collective to support documentation of best practices and organizational learning. 
• Coordinate with local level, district level, and province community partners to ensure the Safe Abortion program is integrated in their annual plan.
•  Foster the implementation of youth-centered and disability-inclusive community engagement activities at the national level, district level and province level.
• Provide training and orientation to Partner NGO to build their capacity in SRHR, Social Behavior Change Communication, abortion stigma reduction.
• Support the review of monthly, quarterly, and annual, CE Unit program and financial documents for internal compliance, and donor reporting requirements.
• Undertake regular field monitoring visits to review program progress, workplan implementation and to support the community and PNGOs in their activities.
• Review activity reports and Terra Forms and submit to RM&E unit for entry into Terra system.
• Collect best practices, case studies and documents for integration in the donor reports.
• Be in regular contact and communication with the direct supervisor and other colleagues through email and skype calls.
• Share lesson learned, success stories and Unit achievement and experience with Communication team, DRC program, Ipas network and externally with other organizations and fora.
• Timely response to emails sent by internal and external colleagues and stakeholders’ Corporate social responsibility.
• Willingness to perform other duties as assigned by the organization.

Resource mobilization: responsibilities for promoting, and growing Ipas work through fund raising, project design, proposal preparation, liaison with donors, etc.

• Support the development of proposals at the country level and assist the Community Engagement unit activity implementation involving different stakeholders.

Communications & representation: note internal collaboration responsibilities, and external representation, note level of representation, with vendors, consultants, partners, government officials, donors, professional conferences.

• Collaborate with communication Unit for the Publication of IEC and BCC materials related to SRHR and SAS for dissemination at local level.
• Represent Ipas DRC in meetings/events related to community engagement and other external stakeholders Financials and Workday
• Provide guidance to the PNGOs on effective implementation of program and financial management in accordance with Ipas DRC policies and monitor the financial reports budget vs expenses.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor's or master’s degree in social sciences and project management,
• Ability to build positive relationships with communities and networks (both internal and external), community partnerships, professional organizations, government, and other stakeholders.
• Strong facilitation and positive collaboration skills to participate on projects and committees with colleagues across Ipas and local community agencies.
• Highly developed change management skills to identify support needed to achieve objectives.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• The ability to balance multiple priorities and communicate with all levels of the organization.
• Proven effectiveness at project management to assist in directing and managing all aspects of a project.
• Demonstrate a willingness to work hard to achieve the highest quality results.
• Develops and maintains accurate and complete files for projects and programs; continues to monitor for integrity and completeness.
• Demonstrated experience interfacing with the public and stakeholder groups.
• A deep commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially abortion and contraception access
• Professional-level fluency in both French and English (speaking, reading, and writing)
• Demonstrated capacity and commitment to good stewardship of funds, including strong skills in work planning, budgeting, financial monitoring, and data-driven problem solving.
• Proven ability to build positive working relationships with diverse internal teams and external partners.

Education

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in social science or related field
• 3 years’ experience, preferably in a similar role with community groups and populations
• Experience working in an equity-focused program including youth, gender and humanitarian and fragile context.
• Must have the ability to work with different community populations, including adolescents and women's groups, especially in the areas of communication and training.
• Must have knowledge of community structures and entry points, including organizations and coalitions.
• Fluency in French and English

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven skill and knowledge of Microsoft Office, specifically advanced excel.
• Professional level proficiency in French and English (speaking, reading, and writing)

Working environment:

• Ability to travel up to 20% domestically (with occasional regional or global trips if applicable)

Ipas is strongly committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and inequity.  We recruit, employ, train, promote, and compensate our personnel without regard to race, age, sex, religion, national origin, color, creed, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, veteran status, military service, disability, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristic protected by law or outlined by Ipas policy.