Youth Engagement Assistant |Pending on Donor Approval

Important Notice

This position is pending donor approval. Recruitment and appointment will be subject to confirmation of project funding.

1. Position Information

Organization: Aid Gate Organization (AGO)
Project: Strengthening Child Protection and Well-being, Adolescent Participation, and Leadership Skills Development
Position title: Youth Engagement Assistant
Number of positions: Two (2)
Duty stations: Anbar and Salah Al-Din governorates
Contract duration: 12 months
Contract type: Full-time
Reports to: Project Manager/Designated Youth Engagement Supervisor
Coordinates with: Protection, MEAL, community-engagement, digital-learning, training, logistics, and finance personnel

2. Organizational Background

Aid Gate Organization (AGO) is an independent Iraqi non-governmental organization working with vulnerable and conflict-affected communities. AGO implements humanitarian and development programmes in child protection, MHPSS, rehabilitation and reintegration, youth empowerment, social cohesion, livelihoods, and community resilience.

AGO works closely with government institutions, civil society organizations, communities, and specialized service providers to strengthen sustainable, inclusive, and locally led services.

3. Project Background

AGO intends to implement an integrated child-protection and adolescent-development programme in Anbar and Salah Al-Din. The programme will improve access to protection and family-support services while enabling adolescents and young people to participate actively in their communities and develop skills that strengthen resilience, inclusion, leadership, and future opportunities.

The programme will support youth-led civic, social, digital, and advocacy initiatives; youth leadership and project-design workshops; digital-learning opportunities; and professional-learning courses.

Activities will prioritize safe and meaningful participation by girls, boys, young women, young men, persons with disabilities, returnees, displaced people, and young people experiencing stigma, exclusion, or other barriers.

4. Position Purpose

The Youth Engagement Assistant will support the safe, inclusive, meaningful, and youth-led participation of adolescents and young people in community initiatives, leadership activities, digital learning, and professional-development opportunities.

The Assistant will mobilize participants, facilitate consultations and workshops, coach youth groups, support the design and implementation of youth-led initiatives, monitor progress, maintain accurate documentation, and ensure compliance with safeguarding, financial, accountability, and programme requirements.

The postholder must ensure that young people retain meaningful ownership of their initiatives while receiving the technical, operational, and safeguarding support required for safe and responsible implementation.

5. Key Duties and Responsibilities

5.1 Youth mobilization and outreach

• Conduct safe and inclusive outreach to adolescents and young people in targeted communities.
• Explain programme objectives, eligibility criteria, activities, participant responsibilities, selection processes, and available support.
• Apply approved participant-selection criteria consistently, transparently, and without discrimination.
• Promote equitable participation by girls, young women, persons with disabilities, returnees, displaced young people, and marginalized groups.
• Coordinate outreach with relevant community structures, youth centres, schools, local authorities, and service providers.
• Identify barriers related to safety, disability, transportation, digital access, social norms, family approval, language, or timing.
• Recommend practical and reasonable measures to improve accessibility and participation.
• Avoid making promises regarding grants, employment, training, financial assistance, or other opportunities that AGO cannot guarantee.
• Maintain accurate and confidential participant-registration and outreach records.

5.2 Meaningful adolescent and youth participation

• Facilitate youth consultations to identify priorities, interests, concerns, and opportunities.
• Ensure young people participate meaningfully in decisions affecting programme activities and youth-led initiatives.
• Use age-appropriate, gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, and culturally sensitive facilitation methods.
• Establish safe participation agreements covering respectful behaviour, inclusion, confidentiality, safeguarding, and non-discrimination.
• Create an environment in which participants can express ideas safely without fear of ridicule, pressure, retaliation, or political manipulation.
• Ensure that adults and community representatives support rather than dominate youth decision-making.
• Adapt participation methods for young people with different literacy levels and communication needs.
• Promote cooperation, positive peer relationships, dialogue, leadership, and social cohesion.
• Ensure participation remains voluntary and that adolescents are not pressured to engage in activities that create safety or protection risks.

5.3 Youth leadership and project-design workshops

• Support the planning and delivery of youth leadership and project-design workshops.
• Facilitate sessions on leadership, teamwork, problem identification, objective setting, activity planning, stakeholder mapping, budgeting, risk assessment, monitoring, and reporting.
• Help youth groups translate community priorities into practical and achievable initiative plans.
• Support participants to define responsibilities, timelines, resource requirements, inclusion measures, safeguarding actions, and success indicators.
• Use practical exercises, group work, simulations, presentations, and peer feedback.
• Coordinate workshop schedules, venues, participant communication, materials, accessibility, and logistical requirements.
• Maintain attendance, assessment, feedback, and workshop-reporting records.
• Identify participants requiring additional coaching or support and follow up appropriately.

5.4 Design of youth-led initiatives

• Coach youth groups to develop clear and realistic initiative proposals.
• Ensure proposals include a defined problem, objective, target group, activities, implementation schedule, responsibilities, budget, risks, mitigation measures, and monitoring approach.
• Support youth groups to ensure initiatives are inclusive, conflict-sensitive, environmentally responsible, and responsive to community needs.
• Review proposals for feasibility, safety, neutrality, accessibility, safeguarding, and compliance with programme requirements.
• Ensure proposed initiatives do not promote political parties, armed actors, religious discrimination, hate speech, violence, harmful practices, or community division.
• Support youth groups to revise proposals based on technical, operational, financial, or safeguarding feedback.
• Submit completed initiative plans for formal review and approval before implementation.
• Ensure youth groups understand that no activity or expenditure may begin before receiving written authorization.

5.5 Implementation of youth-led initiatives

• Provide regular coaching and follow-up to youth groups during implementation.
• Support groups to organize activities, coordinate responsibilities, engage stakeholders, and manage approved resources.
• Ensure activities follow approved plans, budgets, timelines, safeguarding measures, and visibility requirements.
• Conduct monitoring visits and document progress, participation, achievements, challenges, risks, and agreed actions.
• Support youth groups to maintain activity, attendance, financial, procurement, distribution, and supporting records.
• Immediately report significant changes, delays, budget concerns, safety risks, conflicts, or suspected misuse of resources.
• Ensure changes to approved activities or budgets receive authorization before implementation.
• Prevent the use of programme funds for personal benefit, political purposes, unapproved purchases, or harmful activities.
• Help youth groups resolve operational challenges while maintaining youth ownership.
• Verify completion of initiatives and support the preparation of final initiative reports.

5.6 Financial and resource accountability

• Explain approved financial, procurement, documentation, and resource-management requirements to youth groups.
• Support groups to prepare realistic and eligible budgets.
• Ensure planned expenditure is directly linked to approved activities.
• Coordinate with finance and logistics personnel regarding procurement, payments, advances, quotations, receipts, and documentation.
• Verify that required supporting documents are collected and submitted on time.
• Monitor programme-provided materials and equipment and maintain accurate records.
• Immediately report missing documents, suspected fraud, conflicts of interest, unofficial payments, or misuse of programme resources.
• Never approve expenditure or procurement beyond formally delegated authority.
• Ensure youth groups understand that programme resources may not be distributed as personal cash benefits unless specifically approved.
• Support transparent communication with participants regarding available resources and programme limitations.

5.7 Community engagement and social cohesion

• Support youth groups to engage communities, local authorities, schools, service providers, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Promote respectful dialogue, cooperation, inclusion, and positive social norms.
• Support initiatives addressing social cohesion, community participation, GBV prevention, disability inclusion, digital awareness, and positive engagement.
• Identify potential tensions, sensitivities, exclusion risks, or unintended negative consequences.
• Apply conflict-sensitive and do-no-harm approaches throughout community engagement.
• Ensure activities do not stigmatize returnees, displaced people, survivors, minority groups, or other vulnerable populations.
• Encourage constructive intergenerational engagement while protecting meaningful youth participation.
• Report community resistance, misinformation, threats, backlash, or safety concerns to the supervisor.

5.8 Digital engagement and online safety

• Support youth activities involving digital awareness, online participation, or digital content.
• Promote safe, respectful, responsible, and ethical use of digital platforms.
• Raise awareness of online privacy, misinformation, cyberbullying, harmful content, digital exploitation, and online harassment.
• Ensure programme-related digital content does not expose children or participants to protection, reputational, or privacy risks.
• Obtain required approval and informed consent before publishing photographs, videos, quotations, or identifying information.
• Never publish or share sensitive participant information through personal accounts or unauthorized platforms.
• Monitor programme-related online engagement within the limits of the position and report harmful or inappropriate content.
• Ensure youth groups do not use programme platforms for political campaigning, hate speech, discrimination, harassment, or incitement.

5.9 Referrals and participant wellbeing

• Observe participants for protection concerns, psychosocial distress, accessibility barriers, or the need for specialized support.
• Provide general information on available child-protection, MHPSS, legal, health, education, disability, and other services.
• Refer concerns through designated and authorized programme personnel.
• Obtain informed consent before sharing personal information or initiating referrals.
• Share only the minimum information necessary for the receiving service to provide support.
• Immediately report urgent safeguarding or safety concerns.
• Receive sensitive disclosures calmly and respectfully without probing or investigating.
• Maintain professional boundaries and avoid taking on case-management or counselling responsibilities beyond the postholder’s competence.

5.10 Accountability to affected populations

• Provide participants with clear and accessible information on programme activities, selection criteria, available support, staff conduct, and participant rights.
• Explain that all services are free of charge and not conditional upon payment, gifts, favours, political affiliation, or personal relationships.
• Inform participants about AGO’s confidential feedback and complaints mechanisms.
• Provide accessible feedback options for young people with disabilities, limited literacy, or restricted digital access.
• Gather participant feedback through discussions, surveys, reflection sessions, and approved monitoring tools.
• Treat all feedback and complaints respectfully and protect complainants from retaliation.
• Inform participants of relevant changes made in response to their feedback.
• Use feedback to improve activity design, accessibility, safety, facilitation, and communication.

5.11 Documentation, monitoring, and reporting

• Maintain accurate participant, attendance, consent, workshop, initiative, monitoring, and referral records.
• Collect and verify initiative plans, budgets, activity reports, supporting documents, photographs, and completion evidence.
• Ensure participant data are disaggregated by sex, age, disability, and location where required.
• Protect personal information and apply confidentiality and data-minimization principles.
• Never store sensitive information on personal devices, private accounts, or unauthorized applications.
• Prepare accurate weekly and monthly progress updates.
• Document achievements, participation, challenges, risks, community feedback, lessons learned, and recommendations.
• Support the collection of approved success stories while protecting participant dignity, privacy, and safety.
• Participate in data-quality checks, monitoring visits, programme reviews, audits, and corrective-action processes.
• Ensure all reported results are supported by appropriate documentation.

5.12 Coordination and teamwork

• Coordinate closely with the Project Manager, protection team, MEAL personnel, trainers, finance, logistics, and community-engagement colleagues.
• Participate in planning meetings, technical sessions, training, supervision, and programme reviews.
• Coordinate with authorized government youth structures, schools, youth centres, community organizations, and service providers.
• Maintain professional and impartial relationships with participants and stakeholders.
• Share operational challenges, emerging risks, participation barriers, and service gaps with the supervisor.
• Contribute to programme learning and adaptive management.
• Perform other relevant duties reasonably assigned within the position’s scope.

5.13 Safeguarding and PSEA

• Comply with AGO’s Child Safeguarding Policy, PSEA Policy, Code of Conduct, confidentiality requirements, and data-protection procedures.
• Immediately report safeguarding concerns, suspected sexual exploitation and abuse, staff misconduct, or imminent safety risks through designated channels.
• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries with adolescents, young people, caregivers, and community members.
• Never communicate privately with children through personal social-media accounts or unauthorized channels.
• Never meet a child in an isolated or unauthorized location.
• Never request or accept money, gifts, services, or favours in exchange for participation, grants, or assistance.
• Never use humiliating, threatening, discriminatory, violent, or harmful language or behaviour.
• Protect participants, complainants, and witnesses from retaliation, stigma, discrimination, and further harm.
• Complete all mandatory safeguarding, PSEA, confidentiality, and code-of-conduct training.

6. Expected Deliverables

• Eligible adolescents and young people are transparently mobilized and enrolled.
• Youth leadership and project-design workshops are completed according to approved plans.
• Youth groups prepare feasible, inclusive, and safeguarding-compliant initiative proposals.
• Approved youth-led initiatives are implemented safely, on time, and within budget.
• Youth groups receive regular coaching, monitoring, and practical support.
• Activity, participant, financial, monitoring, and completion records are accurate and submitted on time.
• Participant feedback and monitoring findings inform programme improvements.
• Programme resources are managed transparently and responsibly.
• Safeguarding, PSEA, confidentiality, accountability, and data-protection requirements are consistently followed.

7. Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in youth development, social sciences, education, community development, communications, business administration, or another relevant field.
• A relevant diploma combined with substantial youth-engagement or community-mobilization experience may be considered.
• Training in youth participation, project design, safeguarding, PSEA, community engagement, social cohesion, or small-grant management is desirable.

8. Required Experience

• At least two years of relevant experience in youth engagement, community mobilization, adolescent participation, social cohesion, life skills, or community initiatives.
• Experience facilitating youth consultations, leadership activities, or project-design workshops.
• Experience coaching youth groups and supporting activity planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting.
• Experience working with displaced, returnee, conflict-affected, or marginalized young people is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with simple budgets, supporting documents, procurement procedures, or small community grants is desirable.
• Knowledge of safe and meaningful youth participation, safeguarding, gender equality, disability inclusion, and conflict-sensitive engagement.
• Experience supporting digital-awareness or youth-led communication activities is an advantage.
• Experience maintaining participant records and preparing programme reports is required.

9. Language and Computer Skills

• Fluency in Arabic is required.
• Working knowledge of English is an advantage.
• Knowledge of relevant local languages is desirable.
• Good computer skills, including email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and digital communication.
• Familiarity with social-media platforms, digital-learning tools, and mobile data-collection applications is an advantage.

10. Core Competencies

• Youth-centred facilitation and communication
• Coaching and mentoring
• Community mobilization and outreach
• Initiative planning and follow-up
• Integrity, accountability, and transparency
• Safeguarding and professional boundaries
• Gender equality and disability inclusion
• Conflict sensitivity and social cohesion
• Digital awareness and responsible communication
• Teamwork and stakeholder coordination
• Accurate documentation and reporting
• Creativity, adaptability, and problem-solving
• Commitment to PSEA, accountability, and do-no-harm principles

11. Working Conditions

• The position is based in Anbar or Salah Al-Din, according to programme needs.
• Regular travel to targeted communities and activity locations will be required.
• Some activities may be conducted during evenings or weekends, subject to approved schedules and safety procedures.
• The position involves direct interaction with adolescents and young people and may involve access to personal information.
• The postholder must comply with AGO’s safety and security procedures during all movements and activities.

12. Performance Evaluation

Performance will be assessed based on:

• Quality and inclusiveness of youth mobilization and participation
• Quality and timeliness of workshops and coaching
• Feasibility and quality of youth-led initiative plans
• Safe and timely completion of approved initiatives
• Accuracy and completeness of programme and financial documentation
• Appropriate management of risks and programme resources
• Participant satisfaction and responsiveness to feedback
• Compliance with safeguarding, PSEA, confidentiality, and accountability requirements
• Effective coordination with colleagues and stakeholders
• Professional conduct and adherence to AGO policies

13. Recruitment Conditions

This position involves direct contact with adolescents and young people and access to participant information. Appointment will be subject to satisfactory identity, qualification, employment-history, and reference checks, as well as other safeguarding checks permitted by applicable law.

The selected candidate must sign and comply with AGO’s Code of Conduct, Child Safeguarding Policy, PSEA Policy, confidentiality and data-protection commitments, anti-fraud requirements, and conflict-of-interest declaration.

Any employment offer will remain conditional upon donor approval, confirmation of project funding, and successful completion of AGO’s recruitment and safeguarding procedures.

14. Equal Opportunity

AGO is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a respectful and inclusive workplace. Qualified women, persons with disabilities, young professionals, and candidates from programme locations are strongly encouraged to apply.

Recruitment decisions will be based on merit, suitability, safeguarding considerations, and programme requirements without discrimination. Reasonable accommodation will be considered throughout the recruitment process and employment.

Interested applicants must apply via the link below

Youth Engagement Assistant

Note:

• Applications not meeting the specified minimum requirements may not be considered.
• The CVs received after the closing date may not be considered.
• Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview that may include a written test of communication and writing skills.
• Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Candidates are encouraged to apply early, as applications may be screened prior to the vacancy deadline.