Mercy Corps PROGRESS Programme Gender Officer Job in Wajir Kenya

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Mercy Corps PROGRESS Programme Gender Officer Job in Wajir Kenya

Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Driven by local needs, our programs provide communities in the world’s toughest places with the tools and support they need to turn the crises they confront into the opportunities they deserve.
Mercy Corps is looking for committed and dynamic individuals to take up the following position:
Gender Officer, PROGRESS Programme – Wajir
Programme / Department Summary: The PROGRESS Gender Officer will work in collaboration with the PROGRESS Gender Team Leader, Programme Managers and PROGRESS consortium members in the implementation of a proposed multi-year project as part of DFID’s BRACED initiative (Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters).
Mercy Corps anticipates a programme award under BRACED to implement the “Programme for Resilient Systems” (PROGRESS). PROGRESS is a multi-partner consortium poised to deliver a 36-month initiative designed to build absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacity of more than 200,000 individual households in northern Kenya (Wajir County) and northern Uganda (Karamoja).
The Wajir-based Gender Officer will play a key role in project implementation.
General Position Summary:
The PROGRESS Gender Officer will work directly with the Gender Team Leader in Wajir and will be responsible for helping to design and implement the PROGRESS gender strategy in Wajir.
The Gender Officer will help operationalize gender integration throughout the life of PROGRESS and across all technical sectors with the goal of enhancing absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacity for resilience of girls and women and augmenting access to assets, capital and decision-making processes.
The Gender Officer will support the Gender Team Leader and Wajir Programme Manager to support to the Wajir Programme Manager of PROGRESS to develop and implement work plans per sector / practice area with clear targets and timeframes to ensure the greatest possible gender integration into program planning, strategic prioritization and sound implementation.
Programme emphasis will be on the role of girls and women in collective decision making around community and natural resources, and the individual capacity for entrepreneurship and active market engagement including value chain activities around livestock products in the pastoralist context.
In addition the Gender Officer will work with the Gender Team Leader to ensure that PROGRESS team members and consortium partners are actively programming and operating to a high-standard for gender integration into projects for all sectors and practice areas including governance, market systems, gender empowerment, and natural resource management with a focus in water resources management, livestock and rangeland management, climate smart agriculture, and urban issues.
Essential Job Functions:
Technical Capacity

Work with the Gender Team Leader to promote gender integration in to the various sector-based activities of PROGRESS.

When requested by the Gender Team Leader, provide training in leadership and negotiation for girls and women, including for the VSLA groups, and facilitating community-platform debates;

Promote female leadership skills through VSLA component, engaging men in decision making tools etc.

Conduct regular community consultations to ensure programming remains gender sensitive and on-track. Activity Design and Implementation

Assist the Gender Team Leader in implementation and ensuring results in PROGRESS Output 3: reduced inequality and increased empowerment of women, men, boys, and girls.

Conduct field visits to ensure PROGRESS is reaching marginalized groups. Make recommendations and advise field staff in ways they can improve their targeting of key populations segments outlined in the PROGRESS agreement.

Collect sex and age disaggregated data while performing proactive and recurrent gender analysis. Analyze information and advise which groups are being missed (by linking sex and age).

Work with the Gender Advisor to develop curriculum for after school programs to address girls and boys and men-focused group series to build these groups social capital. Help train group facilitators to deliver and practice delivering the curriculum.

Seek community recommendations on how to best overcome identified challenges in addressing gender norms and behaviors and altering them.

Establish current awareness of the importance of gender-sensitive programming among partners and target participant groups including traditional leaders, government officials and youth group participants. Research & Learning Studies

Work with the PROGRESS consortium partners focused on Monitoring and Evaluation and learning and advocacy partners to support and conduct studies as well as learning events in collaboration with the Gender Team Leader. Gender Mainstreaming

Led by the Gender Team Leader, support the development and dissemination of PROGRESS gender research and findings.

Work with the Gender Team Leader to adapt and deliver gender mainstreaming training for Mercy Corps Wajir Field Office, partners and PROGRESS consortium members.

Work with the Gender Team Leader to provide gender technical reviews to program proposals, program tools, internal and external communications as needed Organizational Learning: As part of Mercy Corps’ agency-wide Organizational Learning Initiative, all team members are responsible for spending 5% of their work time in formal and/or non-formal professional learning activities.
Supervisory Responsibility: None
Accountability: Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Reports Directly To: Wajir-based Gender Team Leader
Works Directly With: Gender Team Leader, Wajir-based task teams, consortium partners and technical and support staff from Mercy Corps office in Portland, Oregon and Edinburgh, Scotland.
Knowledge and Experience:

2 years of experience in design and implementation of development programs, preferably with a gender focus

Strong background in gender programming approaches

Bachelor’s degree in relevant subject

Experience conducting research and analysis on gender issues, including involvement with focus groups or research on sensitive issues

Experience working in the sectors of sexual and gender based violence, harmful traditional practices, the role of women in community-led processes, especially around natural resource management and other sensitive gender issues

Experience in the ASALs and working with pastoralist and Muslim-communities preferred

Experience adapting and implementing programmatic tools to address gender issues or to promote positive gender outcomes

Experience working on project monitoring and evaluation is preferred

Experience with training and capacity building of team members and partners is preferred

Experience working in Kenya, especially Northern Kenya

Somali language skills are strongly preferred. Success Factors:
The successful candidate will have the following characteristics:

A strong team player, with good communication and diplomatic skills.

Proven ability to work independently as part of a regional team and with international professionals.

Proven information management skills.

Good organizational skills and ability to work under stress and in austere contexts of remote locations.

Flexible and creative in planning and problem solving.

Attention to detail, ability to follow procedures and meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.

Proven excellence maintaining professional internal and external relationships.

Willingness and ability to work in the Wajir context.

Somalis are encouraged to apply. Interested candidates who meet the above required qualifications and experience should submit applications on or before 5th January 2015, by 4.00pm, containing a cover letter, detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) listing three professional references (including a recent supervisor) to hrkenya@ke.mercycorps.org
The email subject line must clearly quote the job title and location being applied for.
Applications without the right subject heading will be automatically disqualified.
Please do not attach any certificates.
(ONLY qualified candidates who meet all the essential required qualifications will be contacted for interviews)
NB: Mercy Corps does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process.