A CALL FOR APPLICATION: Human Resource Officer | ALIGN – Advancing Local Innovations For Adolescent Health & Nutrition

Position Title: Human Resource Officer | ALIGN – Advancing Local Innovations for Adolescent Health & Nutrition

Contract Type:Consultancy

Duration: 14 months

Eligibility and Geographic Scope : Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe (with occasional travel to target countries)

Reports To: Project Manager – ALIGN at The Youth Café

Mode of Engagement: Hybrid/online

Project: ALIGN – Advancing Local Innovations for Adolescent Health & Nutrition

Collaborates With: Finance and Admin Officer, Consortium Partners, CSOs, YLOs, and donor representatives

About the Project

ALIGN is an initiative funded by the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) and administered by the World Bank. The project aims to improve adolescent health and nutrition outcomes by empowering local civil society organisations (CSOs) and youth-led organisations (YLOs) to adapt, scale, and integrate proven, community-driven innovations into national health systems across up to 12 African countries.

The project is implemented by a two-member consortium. Action Against Hunger USA (ACF USA) serves as Prime Recipient and leads overall programme management and fiduciary responsibility. The Youth Café (TYC) is the youth-focused implementing partner responsible for youth engagement, sub-grant portfolio management, community-of-practice facilitation, and evidence-based advocacy. The Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) serves as the technical knowledge and research partner. Together, the consortium bridges the gap between local civil society innovation and national-level systems change in adolescent health and nutrition.

Project Components

Component 1: Strengthening CSO and YLO Capacities for Networking and Enabling Pathways to Scale

This component strengthens the organisational and technical capacity of CSOs and YLOs to co-design, expand, and integrate high-quality adolescent health and nutrition innovations into public systems. Delivers Technical Support Packages covering baseline capacity assessments, tailored technical assistance and mentorship in programme design and grant management, policy dialogue facilitation, and the establishment of youth engagement mechanisms such as youth councils and social listening channels. It establishes and manages a Cross-Country Community of Practice that connects local innovators with technical experts, policymakers, and partners through peer learning platforms, stakeholder convenings, structured knowledge exchange, and the documentation and dissemination of lessons on scaling and health system integration.

Component 2 :Supporting CSOs and YLOs to Effectively Engage Government Entities in Adolescent Health and Nutrition

This component provides sub-grants to eligible CSOs and YLOs across up to 12 countries to scale proven adolescent health and nutrition innovations. It covers all grant management and administration activities including the development of an Operational Manual, formation of a technical selection committee, targeted country-level outreach to attract strong applicants, sub-grantee selection, and compliance and fiduciary management. It focuses on sub-project implementation by supporting CSOs to identify and scale promising interventions, conduct sensitisation workshops, execute awareness and communications campaigns, and carry out periodic adaptive sub-project reviews.


Component 3 : Generating Evidence and Influencing Policy

This component builds a robust evidence base and uses it to drive policy change and sustainable scale. Work Stream 3.1 covers operational research and M&E: conducting mixed-method studies on performance and cost-effectiveness, strengthening CSO and YLO monitoring systems, and piloting adolescent feedback mechanisms such as SMS polling and social listening. Work Stream 3.2 covers knowledge management and advocacy: documenting successful co-design models, producing policy briefs and academic papers, and engaging with national and global decision-making forums to advocate for policy integration and financing.

The Youth Café's Role in ALIGN

As a consortium partner, The Youth Café leads youth engagement, sub-grant portfolio management, Community of Practice facilitation, and evidence-based advocacy across the project. TYC is specifically responsible for ensuring that adolescent voices and youth-led innovations are at the centre of the project's policy influence and systems integration work. TYC's ALIGN team is based in Nairobi with responsibility for country-level coordination across all target countries.

Staff recruited under ALIGN will operate within TYC's administrative and programmatic structure, in close coordination with ACF USA and ENN. All positions are governed by TYC's human resources policies, the World Bank's Environmental and Social Framework requirements, and the safeguarding and labour standards set out in the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP). Each staff member assigned to ALIGN is expected to support TYC's designated Environmental and Social Focal Point and to uphold TYC's and ACF USA's safeguarding, anti-discrimination, and gender equality policies throughout implementation.

Note to Applicants

The position for which you are applying is part of The Youth Café's ALIGN project team. This background document is a standard introduction provided with all ALIGN Terms of Reference and should be read together with the specific position description that follows. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate in their application how their experience relates to the project's three-component structure and to TYC's specific implementation responsibilities as described above.

 Key Responsibilities

  1. Recruitment, Onboarding, and Contracting

  • Lead end-to-end recruitment for all ALIGN staff and consultant positions, including drafting and refining job descriptions and Terms of Reference, managing advertisements, screening applications, and coordinating interviews.

  • Ensure all hiring processes are transparent, inclusive, and merit-based, consistent with TYC's Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Policy, ESCP labour standards, and donor requirements.

  • Prepare and finalise employment contracts and consultant agreements for each appointment, ensuring all required terms, including ESCP obligations, safeguarding clauses, and donor compliance provisions are reflected.

  • Manage the full induction and onboarding process for every new staff member, covering ALIGN's structure, TYC's institutional policies, safeguarding requirements, and ESCP standards.

  • Maintain up-to-date, audit-ready personnel files for all ALIGN staff throughout the project lifecycle, covering contracts, appointment letters, leave records, appraisal documentation, and any disciplinary records.

 2. Performance Management and Staff Welfare

  • Design and implement ALIGN's performance management system, ensuring all staff have clear objectives set at project inception and receive structured mid-year and annual performance appraisals.

  • Support line managers across the ALIGN team in conducting fair, evidence-based performance reviews and in addressing performance concerns in a timely, documented manner.

  • Develop individual professional development plans for all ALIGN staff, identifying growth opportunities within the project and linking to TYC's broader organisational capacity development.

  • Ensure TYC's staff welfare policies are applied consistently across the ALIGN team, including leave management, health and safety provisions, and access to employee support mechanisms.

  • Serve as the first point of contact for staff welfare concerns, managing any conflict resolution or grievance processes confidentially in accordance with TYC's established procedures and ESCP Action A obligations.

3. HR Compliance, Policy Oversight and Labour Standards

  • Ensure TYC's ALIGN HR practices remain fully compliant with Kenyan labour law, all applicable donor HR requirements, and ESCP labour standards throughout the project period.

  •  Review and update ALIGN-specific HR policies as needed, ensuring they remain current and reflect any changes in national law, donor guidance, or organisational policy.

  •  Monitor compliance with ESCP Action A requirements — specifically the maintenance of fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory employment practices — and report on HR compliance status in each quarterly narrative report.

  •  Maintain all HR records in a format that can withstand external audit scrutiny, ensuring accessibility and completeness at all times.

4. Sub-Grantee HR and Safeguarding Capacity Building

  • Design and deliver HR-specific modules within the Component 1, Work Stream 1.1 Technical Support Packages provided to CSOs and YLOs, covering HR policy development, recruitment procedures, performance management, safeguarding implementation, and staff welfare management.

  •  Develop a standardised HR toolkit for sub-grantee use, including HR policy templates aligned with local labour laws across the 12 target countries, safeguarding frameworks meeting GFF and World Bank standards, job description formats, performance appraisal tools, and staff grievance procedures.

  • Distribute the toolkit to all sub-grantees within 60 days of sub-grant execution and provide targeted follow-up support where gaps are identified through the periodic review process.

  • Track sub-grantee uptake and application of HR tools through the Component 2 sub-project monitoring process, reporting on compliance status to the Project Manager quarterly.

5. Consortium HR Coordination and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

  • Serve as TYC's focal point for HR coordination with ACF USA and ENN, sharing HR frameworks, safeguarding standards, and capacity building materials and ensuring consistent HR standards apply to all jointly engaged consultants and CoP facilitators.

  • Monitor workforce diversity across the ALIGN team and sub-grantee portfolio, reporting diversity data and progress in each quarterly HR summary.

  • Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion across all ALIGN HR processes, advising the Project Manager on practical steps to ensure the project team reflects the communities and youth populations ALIGN serves.

  • Contribute HR content to ALIGN consortium reporting in the format and frequency required by ACF USA and the donor, including workforce diversity data, safeguarding compliance updates, and staff development summaries.

Deliverables

  • Recruitment plans and job descriptions for project staff

  • Staff induction and onboarding reports

  • Quarterly performance appraisal documentation

  • Updated HR policies and compliance reports

  • End-of-project HR summary report

  • Sub-grantee HR toolkit (policy templates, safeguarding frameworks, appraisal tools).

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

  • Bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, or a related field.

  •  Minimum 3 years of progressive HR management experience within international development or humanitarian projects.

  • Strong working knowledge of Kenyan labour law and international donor HR compliance frameworks.

  • Demonstrated experience across the full HR cycle: recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and staff welfare.

  • Proven experience developing and delivering HR capacity building support to partner organisations or sub-grantees.

  • Applicants must hold a valid work permit or be legally authorised to work in their country of residence at the time of application. The Youth Café will not sponsor or facilitate work permits for this assignment.

  •  Excellent organisational and communication skills with fluency in English.

Desirable

  • Experience on World Bank-financed projects with direct familiarity with ESCP labour standards and Environmental and Social Framework requirements.

  • Certified Human Resource Professional -Kenya (CHRP-K) or equivalent professional certification.

  •  Experience managing HR across multi-country programmes or supporting sub-grantees operating in multiple national labour law contexts.

  • Proficiency in French, given the project's Francophone country coverage.

 Duration and Compensation

Duration: 14 months

Compensation: Competitive salary aligned with donor budget provisions

Payment Schedule: Monthly, upon submission of deliverables and timesheets

Application Process

Interested candidates should submit:

  • A cover letter of not more than one page setting out your suitability for the role and confirming availability from 1 July 2026.

  • An updated CV of not more than four pages.

  • Contact details for two professional referees. Referees will not be contacted without prior notification to the candidate.

Email applications to: human.resource@theyouthcafe.com   

cc:admin.compliance@theyouthcafe.com

Subject Line: Human Resources Officer – ALIGN Project

Deadline for submission: 30th June 2026

Equal Opportunity

The Youth Café is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion and strongly encourages applications from women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups