Youth, Gender And Community Engagement Coordinator

Position Purpose

• The Youth, Gender and Community Engagement Coordinator will ensure that young persons with disabilities, particularly young women, are reached, selected, supported and engaged as rights-holders, leaders and co-creators across IAP. The role will coordinate OPD and community relationships, gender-responsive participation, safeguarding focal-point functions, reasonable accommodation planning, youth feedback and ethical collection of stories of change.

Key Responsibilities

Youth Outreach, Selection and Participation

• Develop and implement inclusive outreach and participation plans with OPDs and country partners across programme locations.
• Coordinate transparent, accessible and documented participant identification and selection processes consistent with approved criteria and targets.
• Maintain participant engagement calendars, contact protocols, attendance and participation records in coordination with delivery and MEL teams.
• Create multiple accessible channels through which youth can shape programme design, delivery, governance, learning and accountability.

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

• Serve as the programme gender focal point and support integration of gender analysis, targets, risk mitigation and responsive actions across workstreams.
• Monitor barriers affecting young women with disabilities and other underserved participants, and recommend practical adaptations to recruitment, scheduling, communication, travel and learning environments.
• Work with women-led and women-with-disabilities organisations to strengthen safe participation, leadership and visibility pathways.
• Support colleagues and partners to apply intersectional, youth-friendly and disability-inclusive approaches.

Safeguarding and Participant Wellbeing

• Serve as a designated programme safeguarding focal point, subject to inABLE’s safeguarding framework, referral protocols and separation-of-duties requirements.
• Coordinate safeguarding orientation, codes of conduct, safe reporting information and refresher sessions for staff, consultants, partners and participants.
• Receive and immediately escalate safeguarding concerns through authorised confidential channels without investigating beyond the role’s mandate.
• Maintain secure, access-controlled safeguarding records and support survivor-centred referrals, incident follow-up and risk mitigation as directed.
• Conduct participant-safety and accessibility risk assessments for training, internships, travel, digital engagement, storytelling and public events.

Accessibility and Reasonable Accommodation

• Coordinate participant-led accommodation assessments and plans covering accessible formats, captioning, sign-language interpretation, connectivity support, personal assistance, transport and venue access.
• Work with Finance, Convening, Skilling and service providers to ensure accommodations are budgeted, delivered on time and reviewed with participants.
• Monitor the accessibility and inclusiveness of virtual and in-person activities and document corrective actions.
• Promote dignity, choice, confidentiality and informed consent in all support arrangements.

Community and OPD Partnerships

• Maintain respectful working relationships with OPDs, youth-led groups, families or caregivers where appropriate, and community partners.
• Coordinate partner orientation, role clarity, feedback, issue resolution and follow-up related to outreach and participant support.
• Strengthen OPD capacity in inclusive facilitation, safeguarding, gender-responsive engagement, ethical storytelling and basic programme documentation.
• Ensure community feedback and concerns inform programme decisions and are closed through visible response loops.

Youth Voice, Stories and Learning

• Coordinate ethical identification and collection of stories of change, ensuring informed consent, accessible participation and protection from harm or exploitation.
• Support youth speakers, advocates and advisory members to prepare for conference, policy, media and governance engagements.
• Work with MEL and Communications colleagues to gather qualitative evidence without compromising confidentiality or participant ownership.
• Contribute to participation, gender, safeguarding and community-engagement reports and learning reviews.

Education and Professional Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Gender and Development, Community Development, Youth Development, Disability Studies, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology, Public Health, International Development or a related field.
• Recognised training in safeguarding, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, gender equality, psychosocial first aid, case referral or disability inclusion is required or must be obtained upon appointment.
• Training in accessible facilitation, reasonable accommodation, participatory methods or qualitative research is desirable.

Required Experience

• 8–10 years of progressive experience in youth, gender, disability inclusion, community engagement, safeguarding or rights-based programmes.
• Demonstrated experience engaging young persons with disabilities, OPDs and community partners in programme design and delivery.
• Experience as a safeguarding focal point or in implementing safeguarding systems, confidential reporting and referral processes.
• Strong experience in gender-responsive programming and addressing intersectional barriers affecting young women with disabilities.
• Experience coordinating accessible training, events, travel or digital participation across multiple locations.
• Experience with ethical storytelling, informed consent, qualitative data collection or youth advisory mechanisms is desirable.