JBC BLOG & NETWORK: Girls Connect Training and Technical Support to Role Models AT About Girl Effect

About Girl Effect

Girl Effect began as a movement to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, by unleashing the full potential of adolescent girls. Championed by the NIKE Foundation in collaboration with multiple partners, we set out to get the world to stop seeing girls as part of a global poverty problem and to see them instead as co-creators of new solutions. We created a movement and helped put girls at the centre of the agenda; the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals focus on girls like never before.

In September 2015, Girl Effect became an independent new organisation focused on driving measurable change in girls' lives, with continued support from the NIKE Foundation and multiple partners. With a new CEO from the global creative industry and an ambitious strategy, Girl Effect is pioneering a branded approach to social norm change for adolescent girls living in poverty. By creating a new normal for girls, the intergenerational cycle of poverty can be disrupted.

Our mission? To change the world for girls, so that girls can change the world.

What We Do

We build brands, media platforms, mobile interactivity and networks, that engage girls and key influencers in their lives to effect social norm change; breaking down barriers that prevent girls from accessing the services and develop the skills they need to progress. By doing this, we enable girls to have a voice in determining their future and to make choices that have a direct impact in unleashing their full potential.

It’s a fresh approach to development, but one that is gaining ground and has captured the interest of investors and collaborators from every sector.

Based in London, we have highly regarded brand platforms in Ethiopia and Rwanda, and ambitious plans to launch new brands in Malawi, Nigeria, Indonesia and India by 2017. In partnership with Facebook, we also have a mobile interactive platform, Girl Effect Mobile, live in over 40 countries in 24 languages that we complement with in-person opportunities for girls to meet, network and learn new skills.

POSITION : Girls Connect Training and Technical Support to Role Models

About Girls Connect

Girl Effect has recently entered into an exciting partnership with global technology company, iSON, to develop and pilot an innovative IVR platform where girls in northern Nigeria will access inspiring audio content and subsequently will be connected with a female role model to talk through questions they may have, receive support in understanding how they could overcome obstacles they face and ideas for how to apply this new knowledge to their lives.

A successful 4 week pilot was conducted from July to August 2016 with girls aged 15-19 living in Kano state. In September 2016, Girl Effect entered Phase 3 of development and will iterate the model before another round of testing for approximately 8 weeks in early 2017. Our ambition is for Girls Connect to be launched at scale in 2017 after several rounds of prototyping and testing.

Context of the role

An integral aspect of the Girls Connect project is the role models girls connect with to talk about and make sense of the content they’ve listened to. One key learning from Phase 2 was the level of capacity-building and ongoing technical support required to enable the role models to hold quality conversations with girls. Girl Effect is therefore seeking to recruit a consultant with vast experience on gender, girl centered programming and child protection/safeguarding to provide technical and mentoring support to the role models throughout Phase 3 of Girls Connect. The consultant will be required to provide technical and mentoring support to Girls Connect role models including training before testing goes lives, ongoing mentoring and capacity-building during the 8 week live test, weekly review/quality assurance, liaising with iSON’s quality assurance advisor, spot check a percentage of recorded role models conversations and provide feedback to role models, refresher training as required as well as general coordination support.

The consultant will be required to be a local gender or girl focused organization or individual based in Ibadan (where the call center and the role models are based) and will be required to work on a full-time basis for the duration of Phase 3 (5 months) with possible renewal of contract for the following phases.

Key deliverables

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the Gender and Girl Networks teams in Nigeria and London to effectively deliver the requirements below. The details of the deliverables will be refined with the successful candidate, along with an agreed list of outputs and work plan for completion. The deliverables include:

1. Training and technical support

Deliver trainings for role models (and possibly iSON quality assurance team members) on gender concepts, child protection/safeguarding, communication and other ‘soft skills’ for working with girls. The plan is expected to outline initial training before Girls Connect goes live as well as regular touch points of engagement and refresher training during the live testing.
Develop and deliver trainings for role models on becoming familiar with the audio content and story lines, and how to best use the script and guidelines provided to guide their interactions with girls. This includes mock conversations and testing prior to going live.
Work in collaboration with iSON’s quality assurance team to oversee quality assurance of role models by listening to a sample of recorded conversations. Assessments of the calls should actioned by providing feedback to the role models on their interactions with girls on a regular basis and reporting potential risks of abuse to role models by the user or by role models to the user, or where role models are working outside the remit of their scripts.
Work closely with iSON and Girl Effect to ensure role model deliverables and ability to respond effectively to girls’ concerns are within the remit of Girls Connect objective
Conduct weekly face-to-face mentoring sessions with role models providing refresher training as required. The focus of refresher training and mentoring sessions should be based off the issues role models identifying needing additional support on and issues identified during the quality assurance process.
Provide ad hoc mentoring support to role models as requested, ensuring that they are mentally, emotionally and technically prepared to carry out their assignments.
If role models drop out at any point of Phase 3, support Girl Effect and iSON with recruiting and training new role models if required.

2. Development and management of project technical tools

Develop a training manual for role models with specific modules on gender, child protection/ safeguarding and skills required when working with girls. The manual should build on existing training modules used for Phase 2.
Regular tracking/updating of quality assurance tool with accompanying status updates on progress of role models as well as reporting potential risks
Identify and develop additional tools as needed to support the work of role models

3. General support and coordination

Develop weekly status updates on role model performance and share with Girl Effect gender teams and the iSON quality assurance advisor
Organise meetings, calls and trainings with iSON key contact as required
Develop a report on role model performance at the end of Phase 3 including recommendations on how to strengthen the role model structure.
Support to the monitoring and evaluation work of Phase 3 as required
Ensure that lessons learned and role models’ perspective are incorporated in the review of trainings, guidelines, scripts and project design for the current and following phases of Girls Connect
Mapping of programmes/certifications that exist for the professional development of role models
Hold weekly feedback meetings with Girl Effect Nigeria

Expected results/outcomes

The below expected results/outcomes will be finalised in collaboration with the selected consultant

Successful development of training manual mentoring tools
At least 2 trainings (pre-going live and refresher) with role models for the duration of phase 3
Weekly mentoring sessions (group and individual as required) during the 8 week live testing
Regular review of role model recorded calls with girls and feedback sessions organized with role models
Weekly status report highlighting each role model performance, potential risks, any abuse recorded during the role model/ girl interaction and any other ‘issue’ related to role model performance and well being
Effective coordination and support provided to ensure the emotional well being of role models through regular and effective communication, regular feedback sessions (individually and group), responding to ad hoc and/or last minute support requests and tracking their progress against deliverables.
Successful communication amongst iSON and Girl Effect.

The successful individual or team should display the following skills and experience:

Very good experience in implementing gender and/or girl centered programming
Very good understanding of the northern Nigerian girl context
Experience working on child protection and safeguarding issues
Experience in developing and delivering capacity building trainings and mentoring programs
Familiarity with development projects using digital technologies is preferable
Excellent organisational skills.
Fluent in written and spoken English and Hausa.
High attention to detail.
Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to develop strong relationships with partners
Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines.
Adaptable - able to work in complex, unfamiliar and changing environments.
Good experience working with and adhering to donors or INGO compliance
Ability to adhere to strict confidentiality and handling of sensitive information
Good project management and coordination of projects or programmes in international development, including project development, implementation, partner relationships and communication.

Application requirements

Please apply with a capacity statement highlighting your area of experience and expertise with particular focus on the key criteria above. For teams, the capacity statement should also detail each team member’s area of expertise and the specific deliverable they will be responsible for.

Please also provide the following: