Youth Innovation Champion (YIC) – 105 Positions

Position Title: Youth Innovation Champion (YIC)
Department/Program: Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)
Reports to: Advisor ll, Youth and Gender
Duty Stations: Somali (10), Afar (10), Gambela (10), Benishangul‑Gumuz (10), Harar (5), Dire Dawa (5), Oromia (10), Sidama (5), Central Ethiopia (5), Sheger City (5), Addis Ababa (10), Dessie (5), Bahir Dar (5), Tigray (10)
Contract Duration: Activity‑based engagement, dependent on the availability of activities

Position Summary

Youth Innovation Champions (YICs) are members of PSI/Ethiopia’s Youth Councils, adolescents and young people aged 18–24, who contribute to the co‑design, development, and implementation of broader SRH programs for communities. YICs provide critical insights, represent youth perspectives, and strengthen the relevance and responsiveness of PSI’s adolescent and youth health interventions.

YICs will work closely under the supervision of the Advisor, Gender and Youth, engaging in program design, community engagement, insight generation, and youth‑centered innovation processes.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Collaborate with PSI teams and stakeholders to identify SRH challenges affecting adolescents, youth, and women provide regular updates, and support technical assistance efforts at regional and woreda levels.
• Work with regional teams and the Youth and Gender Advisor to support the review, adaptation, and implementation of Adolescent and Youth Health (AYH) strategies at all levels.
• Participate in vision‑setting sessions, coordination meetings, and progress review platforms to share updates on youth‑related program areas.
• Support the design of context‑specific approaches for engaging community influencers (religious leaders, clan leaders, traditional birth attendants, etc.) to strengthen AYH awareness and support.
• Amplify the voices and contributions of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) by supporting their participation in program activities.
• Attend trainings on youth engagement techniques and apply learning when interacting with rural adolescents (ages 15–24) to generate insights for program decision‑making.
• Represent youth at awareness‑creation and advocacy events, ensuring the concerns of rural adolescents are heard and reflected.
• Conduct formative research, collect youth insights, and contribute to synthesis and prototyping phases of innovation processes.
• Provide constructive feedback on prototypes and support stakeholder discussions on feasibility, adaptation, and user feedback.
• Interpret the perspectives and lived experiences of rural adolescents to inform human‑centered design efforts.
• Prepare reports for each engagement using PSI’s youth designer reporting format.
• Engage and collaborate with youth champion groups to deepen understanding of youth needs in rural communities.
• Contribute to learning documentation and share insights generated through program activities.
• Support the recruitment of additional Youth Innovation Champions (YICs) in regions where SRH programs are implemented.

Key Result Areas

• Active participation in trainings, learning sessions, and program events.
• Effective youth‑centered facilitation and engagement across community and program platforms.
• Strong advocacy and representation of youth perspectives in key forums and decision‑making spaces.
• Generation, analysis, and synthesis of youth insights to inform program design and improvements.
• Contribution to prototype development, testing, feedback integration, and implementation.
• Support research, learning documentation, and reporting.
• Strengthened youth engagement within community structures and SBCC activities.
• Support digital and social media initiatives, including YIC capacity building on content creation.
• Participation in Quality Improvement (QI) processes to identify service gaps and recommend improvements for adolescents and youths.

• Aged 18–23 years
• Fluent in the local language of the region for which you are applying (Somali, Afar, Gambela, Tigray, Benishangul‑Gumuz, Harar, Dire Dawa, Oromia, Sidama, Central Ethiopia, Sheger City, Addis Ababa, Dessie, or Bahir Dar).
• Currently residing in the region you are applying for, with strong familiarity with the local cultural context.
• Completed Grade 10 or Grade 12; university/college students or recent graduates are encouraged to apply.
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in youth clubs or extracurricular activities.
• Strong communication skills and motivation to contribute to youth‑centered SRH programming.
• Ability to translate between English and Amharic is preferred.