Vacancy title:
Project Officer - Turkana Youth Climate Innovation Challenge Project

[Type: FULL_TIME, Industry: Nonprofit, and NGO, Category: Social Services & Nonprofit, Business Operations, Management, Education]

Jobs at:
Plan International

Deadline of this Job:
Wednesday, February 18 2026

Duty Station:
Lodwar - Turkana | Turkana

Summary
Date Posted: Thursday, February 12 2026, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

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JOB DETAILS:

THE ORGANISATION

Founded in 1937, Plan International, Inc. ("PII") is a globally recognized non-profit dedicated to advancing children's rights and gender equality in both humanitarian and development contexts. With over 80 years of experience, Plan International addresses the root causes of challenges faced by girls and vulnerable children, working in 70+ countries. The organization collaborates with children, young people, supporters, and partners to create a just world, acknowledging that the potential of every child is often hindered by poverty, violence, exclusion, disasters, and discrimination.

PLAN INTERNATIONAL KENYA

Plan International Kenya (PIK), operational since 1982, focuses on long-term development. Collaborating closely with local communities and governments, PIK implements programs to enhance the well-being of children in areas such as Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Tharaka-Nithi, Siaya, Kwale, Kilifi, Homa Bay, Kisumu, Tana River, Turkana, and Marsabit.

Under the current Country Strategy (July 2021 – June 2026), PIK aims to end teenage pregnancies and gender-based violence against girls. This goal aligns with four strategic objectives:

• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Improve access to SRHR services and information to reduce teenage pregnancies and harmful practices in Kenya.
• Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence: Ensure functional child and girls' rights protection mechanisms to prevent and respond to all forms of violence and abuse.
• Protecting Girls and Young Women in Crisis and Climate Change Adaptation: Minimize the impact of disasters on girls, young women, families, and communities.
• Youth-led and Innovative Partnerships for Job Creation: Build a stronger ecosystem for youth employment and entrepreneurship, particularly for vulnerable young women, fostering job seekers and creators.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The Turkana Youth Climate Innovation Challenge (SCORE II) is a youth-centered initiative implemented under UNICEF’s SCORE II programme. The project aims to strengthen climate resilience, WASH-related innovation, and economic empowerment of young people of Turkana County enabling them to attain sustainable livelihoods.

The initiative supports youth to launch and scale climate-smart and green enterprises through an innovation challenge model that combines capacity development through structured bootcamp, experiential mentorship, and milestone-based seed funding. Implemented across Turkana Central, Loima, Lokiriama, Turkana North, and Kibish sub-counties, the programme prioritizes inclusive participation of young women, youth with disabilities, and marginalized groups in ASAL contexts. Supported businesses will leverage existing water infrastructure rehabilitated by UNICEF, climate-smart agriculture, WASH innovations, waste-to-value approaches, and other adaptive green livelihood models aligned to County and National climate priorities.

Implementation will be undertaken through collaboration with UNICEF, County and National Government relevant departments, private sector actors, youth-led organizations, and community-based partners, ensuring relevance, inclusion, accountability, and sustainability.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Project Officer will ensure the effective, timely, and accountable implementation of the Youth Climate Innovation and Economic Empowerment Project in Turkana County, working closely with UNICEF and key project partners to ensure high-quality delivery across the five project locations. The role will primarily focus on project planning, coordination, and field-level implementation, including youth engagement and mobilization, facilitation of co-creation processes, coordination of innovation challenge activities, and support to bootcamp and incubation interventions. In addition, the Project Officer will provide targeted support to grants-related processes by contributing to the screening and appraisal of youth proposals, supporting milestone-based seed funding processes, and monitoring grant-supported activities to ensure alignment with project objectives. Through ongoing stakeholder engagement, routine field monitoring, and risk management, the role will ensure that youth-led initiatives contribute effectively to climate resilience, WASH innovation, and youth economic empowerment outcomes within Turkana’s 5 project implementation areas.

Working closely with the Programme Manager, technical advisors, and grants and finance teams, the Project Officer will ensure that youth-led enterprises are supported to comply with project and donor requirements, that activities remain aligned to SCORE II objectives, and that learning and results are systematically documented.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

1. Youth Engagement, Co-creation, and Project Implementation (25%)

• Facilitate participatory project planning and co-creation processes with diverse youth groups across the five target sub-counties
• Mobilize and engage young women and men, including youth with disabilities and other marginalized groups, using inclusive and context-appropriate approaches
• Lead the rollout of calls for applications, youth screening, and onboarding processes for the innovation challenge
• Coordinate logistics and field delivery of bootcamps, entrepreneurship clinics, and youth engagement forums
• Ensure project activities reflect Turkana’s humanitarian, climate, and socio-economic context

2. Innovation Challenge, Bootcamp, and Seed Funding Support (20%)

• Appraise and document youth business ideas and proposals in collaboration with technical and grants teams
• Administer milestone-based seed funding, including follow-up on deliverables and use of funds
• Conduct routine field monitoring visits to youth-led enterprises to assess progress, risks, and capacity needs
• Facilitate linkages between youth enterprises and mentors, service providers, private sector actors, and ecosystem partners
• Promote climate-resilient, WASH-related, and water-infrastructure-leveraging business models

3. Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships (15%)

• Map and engage key stakeholders including County Government departments, national agencies, UNICEF SCORE II actors, private sector partners, and CBOs
• Plan and coordinate meetings, learning forums, and alignment workshops at county and sub-county levels
• Strengthen collaboration between youth innovators and relevant technical, financial, and market actors
• Ensure alignment of project activities with Turkana CIDP III, SCORE II objectives, and national youth and climate frameworks

4. Grants, Budget, and Compliance Monitoring (15%)

• Facilitate basic grants monitoring, expenditure tracking, and documentation for youth seed funding
• Work with youth and youth groups to strengthen understanding of grant requirements, compliance, and reporting expectations
• Flag financial, operational, or safeguarding risks early and support corrective actions
• Contribute to donor compliance, audits, and spot checks at project level

5. Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Reporting (10%)

• Support routine data collection, documentation, and tracking of outputs and outcomes
• Contribute to donor and internal narrative reports, case studies, and learning briefs
• Ensure gender and disability disaggregated data collection and ethical MERL practices
• Document lessons learned from youth-led climate and WASH enterprises to inform adaptive programming

6. Gender and Inclusion: (5%)

• Practice Gender and Inclusion by understanding and putting into practice the Value-Based Leadership underpinned by Feminist Leadership principles
• Integrate gender-transformative and disability-inclusive approaches across youth selection, training, and enterprise support by ensuring the project supports 52% Male youth, 48% female and 2% person

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 36

Level of Education: bachelor degree

Job application procedure

Plan International Kenya (PIK), operational since 1982, focuses on long-term development. Collaborating closely with local communities and governments, PIK implements programs to enhance the well-being of children in areas such as Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Tharaka-Nithi, Siaya, Kwale, Kilifi, Homa Bay, Kisumu, Tana River, Turkana, and Marsabit.

Under the current Country Strategy (July 2021 – June 2026), PIK aims to end teenage pregnancies and gender-based violence against girls. This goal aligns with four strategic objectives:

• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Improve access to SRHR services and information to reduce teenage pregnancies and harmful practices in Kenya.
• Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence: Ensure functional child and girls' rights protection mechanisms to prevent and respond to all forms of violence and abuse.
• Protecting Girls and Young Women in Crisis and Climate Change Adaptation: Minimize the impact of disasters on girls, young women, families, and communities.
• Youth-led and Innovative Partnerships for Job Creation: Build a stronger ecosystem for youth employment and entrepreneurship, particularly for vulnerable young women, fostering job seekers and creators.

The Turkana Youth Climate Innovation Challenge (SCORE II) is a youth-centered initiative implemented under UNICEF’s SCORE II programme. The project aims to strengthen climate resilience, WASH-related innovation, and economic empowerment of young people of Turkana County enabling them to attain sustainable livelihoods.

The initiative supports youth to launch and scale climate-smart and green enterprises through an innovation challenge model that combines capacity development through structured bootcamp, experiential mentorship, and milestone-based seed funding. Implemented across Turkana Central, Loima, Lokiriama, Turkana North, and Kibish sub-counties, the programme prioritizes inclusive participation of young women, youth with disabilities, and marginalized groups in ASAL contexts. Supported businesses will leverage existing water infrastructure rehabilitated by UNICEF, climate-smart agriculture, WASH innovations, waste-to-value approaches, and other adaptive green livelihood models aligned to County and National climate priorities.

Implementation will be undertaken through collaboration with UNICEF, County and National Government relevant departments, private sector actors, youth-led organizations, and community-based partners, ensuring relevance, inclusion, accountability, and sustainability.

The Project Officer will ensure the effective, timely, and accountable implementation of the Youth Climate Innovation and Economic Empowerment Project in Turkana County, working closely with UNICEF and key project partners to ensure high-quality delivery across the five project locations. The role will primarily focus on project planning, coordination, and field-level implementation, including youth engagement and mobilization, facilitation of co-creation processes, coordination of innovation challenge activities, and support to bootcamp and incubation interventions. In addition, the Project Officer will provide targeted support to grants-related processes by contributing to the screening and appraisal of youth proposals, supporting milestone-based seed funding processes, and monitoring grant-supported activities to ensure alignment with project objectives. Through ongoing stakeholder engagement, routine field monitoring, and risk management, the role will ensure that youth-led initiatives contribute effectively to climate resilience, WASH innovation, and youth economic empowerment outcomes within Turkana’s 5 project implementation areas.

Working closely with the Programme Manager, technical advisors, and grants and finance teams, the Project Officer will ensure that youth-led enterprises are supported to comply with project and donor requirements, that activities remain aligned to SCORE II objectives, and that learning and results are systematically documented.

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