Practical Action seeks to recruit a
capable and focused Gender Officer to be based in Kisumu, Kenya.
Job Summary: The Gender Officer will
spearhead the delivery of gender and inclusion aspects of the project. S/he
will be expected to support establishment of strategic partnerships with gender
equality focused stakeholders in order to deliver the gender outputs of the
project.
This position reports to the Project
Manager, Transforming Rural Economies for Youth and Livelihoods (TREYL)
Project. The Gender Officer will ensure efficient and effective attainment of
project objectives and goals while also adhering to organizational strategy,
gender policy and gender minimum standards in agriculture.
About Us: We are an international
development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty
can change their world. We help people find solutions to some of the world’s
toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and
persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious,
lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste
management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with
others, so answers that start small can grow big.
We’re a global change-making group.
The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in
Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company
and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply
our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.
Our Aims: We help people find solutions
to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate
change and persistent gender inequality.
Our aims are to:
·
Make agriculture work better for
smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change
and achieve a good standard of living
·
Help more people harness the
transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths
caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
·
Make cities in poorer countries
cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
·
Build disaster resilience into the
lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and
minimizing their impact on lives and livelihoods.
Practical Action in East Africa: In East Africa, Practical Action has a long history of
addressing systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that
transforms their lives, helping communities and government make cities
healthier and safer, making agriculture and markets work better for smallholder
farmers and supporting communities and government to become more resilient. We
use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy services with shapers
of policy and practice to achieve our aims in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and
Tanzania.
About the role: The job holder
will contribute to delivery of Practical Action’s Agriculture change ambition
for the East Africa Regional Office. Practical Action is implementing a
five-year project in East Africa, working initially in Kenya with possible
scale-up in other countries in the region. The objective of the project is to
establish vibrant and inclusive rural economies in East Africa by promoting
agricultural livelihoods for the youth underpinned by agro-ecological
principles and practices. The project aims to break the cycles of low
productivity and increasing rural poverty, through a holistic and gendered
approach which will enable young men and women to increase their income through
agri-business.
The overall objective of the project
is to achieve a vibrant & inclusive rural economy for young women and men
that does not degrade the environment. The project further targets to increase
incomes of young men and women at individual and household level and increase
the number of young men and women engaged in environmentally sustainable
agribusinesses.
Practical Action is looking for a
Gender Officer who will spearhead the delivery of gender and inclusion aspects
of the project. S/he will be expected to support establishment of strategic
partnerships with gender equality focused stakeholders in order to deliver the
gender outputs of the project.
The role is accountable to the
Project Manager, Transforming Rural Economies for Youth and Livelihoods (TREYL)
Project and ensures efficient and effective attainment of project objectives
and goals while also adhering to organizational strategy, gender policy and
gender minimum standards in agriculture.
Scope
Job Title: Gender Officer
Reporting to: Project Manager
Unit: Transforming Rural Economies
for Youth and Livelihoods (TREYL) Project
Direct reports: None
Matrix reporting: None
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Grade: 5
Travel requirements: Within
Project Sites
Accountabilities
Achieving Change Ambitions
·
Contribute to Practical Action’s
strategic direction and scope for contributing to change in the agriculture
sector, using a systems approach to analyze and integrate social, cultural,
political and economic factors especially from a gender and inclusion perspective.
·
Ensure that Practical Action’s work
in gender and agriculture draws on learning and innovation from work in the
field, other partners and the wider Practical Action organization and are
shared effectively
·
Support the development of the
agriculture change ambition, in particular in articulating gender and inclusion
issues
·
Monitor, capture and report on the
project’s contribution towards achievement of gender and inclusion targets in
the change ambition on a quarterly and annual basis and work with colleagues to
develop and implement plans for course adjustment where necessary.
Strengthening Profile, Generating
Funding and Managing Relationships
·
Support establishment and nurture
both public and private sector and support decision-making responsibility
through provision of appropriate leadership in women economic
empowerment/livelihoods, financial inclusion and micro enterprise development
aimed at inclusive project growth.
·
Contribute to the development of
proposals in agriculture ensuring that they integrate gender and social
inclusion, align with the gender minimum standards and contribute to our change
ambitions.
·
Support effective lesson learning,
information management and sharing on gender and inclusion both internally and
externally in close collaboration with the Communication team in line with the
project objectives.
·
Develop and maintain professional
links with development agencies, government bodies, county governments,
technical and economic specialists, universities and other professional institutions.
·
Seek opportunities to develop
synergies with like-minded organisations in order to deliver project outputs
·
Contribute to visibility/positioning
of Practical Action on gender and inclusion in agriculture including
representation at the county level
·
Collaborate efficiently and
effectively with partners for learning and adoption of innovative gendered
interventions to improve project delivery.
Delivering Performance and Quality
Project Implementation, Reporting and
Learning
The Gender Officer will be expected
to:
·
Support the project team to
mainstream gender sensitive and gender transformative approaches in their daily
activities.
·
Establish a system of community
champions to implement Gender Action learning systems methodology
·
Facilitate community level champions
to undertake household level dialogue sessions for joint visioning, action
planning and implementation.
·
Identify and support women
Agri-entrepreneurs to take Agroecology technologies and incorporate circular
economy in their business models.
·
Facilitate sensitization of service
providers e.g. extension service providers to be sensitive to the needs of both
men and women in provision of services
·
Empower women to meaningfully
participate in participatory market systems development process for selected
value chains.
·
Create linkages between women in
agribusiness and technology providers for time and labor saving and output
market actors
·
Establish a system to build the
agency of women Agri- entrepreneurs in selected value chains
·
Facilitate women Agri-entrepreneurs
to access technical assistance and finance for their enterprise expansion.
·
Engage the County Government in
strategy/policy and planning processes that aims to create an enabling
environment for both men and women
·
Work with MEL team to ensure
collection of routine and periodic gender and sex-disaggregated data to monitor
gender outcomes and to support the project learning agenda.
·
Represent Practical Action in
technical co-ordination, support and advocacy with other agencies for support
in inclusive youth livelihoods programming.
·
Contribute to production of
content/knowledge products in collaboration with the Communications, M&E
and Knowledge team as part of the broader programme influencing agenda.
·
Support the timely and accurate
preparation of activity budgets, donor reports and other internal reports as
required, specifically ensuring gender and inclusion aspects are well captured.
Person Profile
To be successful in the role, the
ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:
Experience & Knowledge
·
Bachelor’s degree in social sciences
(Gender studies, Sociology, Rural development or related studies from a
reputable University.
Essential
·
At least 4 years’ field and technical
working experience with three years in the gender and development field or
relevant working experience in NGOs
·
An excellent understanding of gender
issues in development and women economic empowerment
·
Good understanding of the
institutional frameworks pertaining to gender, agriculture and poverty in Kenya
·
Good lobbying and advocacy skills and
ability to negotiate and network with broad range of stakeholders including
youth
·
Good networking, team building and
alliance building skills
·
Proficient in communicating with
different stakeholders including women in rural communities, county and
national government representatives, other stakeholders at national level etc.
·
Good experience in integrating gender
and diversity and sensitivity to gender and diversity issues
·
Good communication, facilitation,
training and representation skills
·
Ability to work with, support and
influence others
·
Good writing, speaking and typing
skill in English is mandatory.
·
Good knowledge and application of the
Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) methodology in agriculture will be an
added advantage
Desirable
·
Experience working with multi-faceted
teams both directly and remotely providing timely support when required.
·
In coordination with government,
donors, partners and multilateral agencies coupled with excellent networking
and communications skills.
·
Working knowledge of the private
sector in agriculture markets in Kenya
As an experienced professional, you
will have at least 4 years’ field and technical working experience, with three
years in the gender and development field or relevant working experience in
NGOs.
In return, you will get an
opportunity to work for an organization that is making a positive difference to
the lives of people worldwide, a friendly and supportive culture, working with
values driven and highly engaged colleagues – these are just some of the
reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.
In addition, we offer the following
benefits:
·
Work week of 35 hours
·
25 days’ annual leave, in addition to
public holidays.
·
A pension scheme that new employees
join immediately on employment – employer contributes 12.5% of gross salary.
Employee contribution is voluntary
·
Life assurance (5x annual salary).
How to Apply
Interested candidates are invited to
submit their application letter and CV to recruitment@practicalaction.or.ke
with subject line “Gender Officer – Kisumu, Kenya” so as to reach Practical
Action on or before Friday 14th February 2020.
TREYL Baseline Consultant in Kisumu, Kenya
Practical Action has an exciting
opportunity for a Consultant (Individual / Firm) in Kisumu, Kenya.
The Consultant will have an overall
responsibility of conducting a baseline assessment under Practical Action
Eastern Africa’s Transforming Rural Economies and Youths Livelihood (TREYL).
TREYL is a five year project
Agriculture project working initially in Kenya’s Kisumu and Homabay counties
with a possible scale up in other countries in the region.
The project aims at breaking the
cycles of low productivity and increasing rural poverty, through a holistic and
gendered approach which will enable young men and women to increase their
income through Agri-business.
The baseline assessment is primarily
intended to establish a robust account of the current situation in targeted
communities in relation to the project objectives.
It will focus on increased engagement
of young people in Agri-business as a viable livelihood option, increased in
farm productivity from Agro-ecological practices and strengthened enabling
environment.
The Consultant will report to the
Project Manager – TREYL with technical oversight by the M&E team.
The project team will also accord
him/her day to day support during the assignment for young men and women to
engage in agribusiness.
The
key tasks for this consultancy will be to:
·
Develop a detailed baseline survey
proposal/inception report clearly demonstrating full understanding of the TOR,
and proposed methodology and relevant instruments to achieve the objectives of
evaluation.
·
Develop relevant tools for data
collection.
·
Conduct desk review of program
documents including proposal, and other relevant literature
·
With the support of Practical Action,
the consultants will identify and interview key stakeholders including
representatives from the County government
·
Field work: The survey will involve
field visits to a sample of households, government and private stakeholders
this will involve meetings, interviews or focused group discussions with main
actors who will be involved in the project. The use of participatory tools for
data collection and analysis is highly recommended. These will be discussed and
agreed upon between the consulting firm and Practical Action.
·
Conduct a comparative analysis of the
findings and present preliminary findings to Practical Action for review.
·
Finalize the baseline survey report.
The consulting firm will prepare a 1st draft of the evaluation and subsequently
a final version of the report taking into consideration feedback provided on
the first draft.
Interested
individuals / entities should have:
·
Extensive and demonstrated experience
in the use of mixed methods approaches (integrating quantitative and
qualitative data), statistical analysis and interpretation of results;
·
Experience using digital data
collection methods, for example, Open Data Kit.
·
Holds an MSc or MA (preferably PhD)
in agriculture, rural economic development or related field.
·
Demonstrated ability to lead and
coordinate a multi-disciplinary team in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
activities;
·
Excellent communication skills – both
interpersonal and written. Example reports will be requested.
CLICK HERE for a detailed Terms of
Reference.
How
to Apply:
A consulting entity that meets the
above requirements and is available within the time limit indicated above
should submit the below items at recruitment@practicalaction.or.ke with subject
line “Baseline Assessment for Transforming Rural Economies and Youth Livelihoods
Project ” so as to reach Practical Action on or before 10th February 2020.
·
Proposal and capability statement
with clear methodological approach (technical proposal) including expected
timelines
·
Detailed financial proposal in Kenyan
Shillings: If the evaluation team consists of several members, the professional
fees should not be a mere daily rate, but it should be based on clearly shown
time allocation by each member of the team to the various evaluation
activities.
·
Evidence of experience in similar work.
·
Annexed to the proposal should be CVs
of the evaluators outlining previous evaluation experiences and accomplishment
At Practical Action, we treat all
applications for employment on their merits and do not take into consideration
any factors that are not relevant to the job such as disability, race, age,
religion, gender, gender reassignment or sexual orientation.
We are committed to safeguarding and
protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be
subject to pre-employment checks.
The successful applicant must have
the pre-existing right to both live and work in Kenya.