Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Specialist

Global Communities is an international NGO with deep roots in over 30 countries across the world covering the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In Ethiopia, Global Communities’ current main project is the Resilience in Pastoral Areas (RIPA) South - a five-year project funded by USAID Feed the Future and implemented by Global Communities. RIPA South is designed to improve the resilience capacities of households, markets, and governance institutions across 16 target Woredas of Oromia (Borana and East Borana), Somali (Dawa and Liben) and South Ethiopia (South Omo Zone) regions, collectively contributing to enhanced food security and inclusive economic growth for over 107,533 households.

Job Summary

A Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Specialist is needed for the USAID-funded RIPA South project. This position will lead all RIPA South consortium efforts on gender equality and social inclusion. The work will start by refining strategies in a participatory process with RIPA South consortium partners and component leads to ensure gender, women’s empowerment and youth priorities are integrated into all technical sectors included under the project. 

The Specialist will collect data on GESI related RIPA achievements and outcomes by component areas, submitting progress updates and contributing to donor reporting, document good practices and success stories and developed a GESI field guide for RIPA resilience activities (tools for conducting a GESI analysis, outline of a GESI strategy in pastoral areas). The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Specialist will identify opportunities and risks and devise suitable strategies to address these in consultation with the component leads and by developing specific strategies and implementation plans. Strategies for gender, women’s empowerment and youth engagement will be developed to respond to the specific conditions in the respective implementation areas. 

The Specialist will provide training and capacity building for RIPA South staff on GESI indicators and contribute to the RIPA learning agenda. The Specialist will manage the start-up, implementation and monitoring of learning questions and other aspects of gender, youth and social accountability. The Specialist will oversee all Gender Equality and Social Inclusion related aspects of the project, participate in all Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning events, respond to identified issues and make timely adjustments to implementation strategies. The Specialist will support the overall development and implementation of the project working closely with all technical advisors and project teams.

 RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

Strategy design, planning and implementation.

• Leads the development and implementation of evidence based, realistic and effective gender, women empowerment, and youth engagement strategies for all technical sectors under the RIPA South project including resiliency, nutrition, ToPs, DRM, WE WASH and community mobilisation/social accountability.
• Inputs into problem identification, causal and problem analysis and activity development, i.e. focusing on gender analysis, women empowerment and youth engagement aspects of the RIPA South project.
• Participates in RIPA SOUTH detailed implementation planning (DIP), and annual reviews, to ensure that gender equality and social inclusion considerations are integrated into  project planning processes and are implemented throughout the life of the project. 
• Establishes all necessary relationships with partners and government to ensure that gender equality and social inclusion issues can be shared. 
• Coordinate, supervise and partner engagement processes for gender equality and social inclusion implementation.
• The Specialist will utilize project MEL data to document GESI lessons learned and best practices for future programming.
• % of Time:  50%

Staff training and coaching 

• In support of sustainability of project results, the specialist will design GESI technical guidance documents for technical component handover to Government staff and conduct sensitization sessions before the close of the project. 
• Develops and implements follow-up, engagement and coaching plans to build staff capacity and to increase their level of expertise and skills and their commitment to apply strategies.  
• Provides ongoing backstopping and technical support to staff
• % of Time:  20%

Learning, Policy implementation  

• Support the documentation of learnings in the area of GESI in consultation with the responsible staffs and units.
• Disseminates learning and ensures all staff are updated on gender equality and social inclusion issues.
• Together with the GLOBAL COMMUNITIES’ HQ staff, supports efforts to measure the impact and document lessons learned and best practices from RIPA SOUTH
• Produces gender equality and social inclusion related aspects of reporting for USAID for all regular and incidental reports.
• % of Time:  20%

 Others

• Participates in all major activities of the RIPA SOUTH project.
• Responds to requests for additional capacity building support.
• Participate in the design of the project and ensure that the experience and lessons related with GESI from RIPA South is considered.
• Being a member of GC GESI Community of Practice and contribute to learn from, connect with, and present to other GESI colleagues around the organization. 
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• % of Time: 10% 

CONTACTS/KEY RELATIONSHIPS  

• The Specialist will work directly with the RIPA South Consortium management team. The Specialist will have direct relationships with focal persons in all RIPA SOUTH consortium partners and Field Offices including the WE team. 
• The Specialist will manage Government contact, including relationships with Mo WYCA.

WORKING CONDITIONS AND LEVEL OF TRAVEL REQUIRED. 

• This position is located in Addis Ababa, with up to 20 % field travel. 

Numberof positions: 1

Duration of Contract: 6 months (Renewable depending on the budget availability)

Department: RIPA South/DRM/

Reports to: Chief of Party

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, with some level of field visit to the project sites

QUALIFICATIONS (KNOW HOW)

EDUCATION/TRAINING REQUERD

•  B.A. degree in Social Science or equivalent combination of education and work experience. desired
•  M.A. degree in Development Studies or equivalent

EXPERIENCE REQUERD:

•  5-7 years of work experience in development related areas, conversant with adult learning and training of trainers methodologies, practical experience in women and youth programming
• 3-5 years of work experience in gender analysis, training and mainstreaming. 
• Prior experience working in Ethiopia.
• Desired: Gender related NGO experience.

TECHNICAL SKILLS REQUERD :

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies.
• Analytical, training/facilitation skills.
• Sensitivity to different aspects of diversity (cultural, religious, disability) and firm belief in teamwork
• Computer skills (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint);
• Desired:
•  Quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills.

COMPETENCIES 

• Coaching, initiating action, communicating with impact, innovation, planning and organizing, building partnership, facilitating change, adaptability.