Sightsavers implements projects in over 30 countries in Africa and South Asia working to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote the rights of people with disabilities. We are looking for a Technical Advisor to provide technical advice on disability inclusive economic empowerment in new and existing projects.
Location: Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda,
Zimbabwe
Contract: Two-year fixed term contract
Salary: Local
Terms and Conditions apply
About the role
Sightsavers believes that
it is vital for people with disabilities to be empowered and financially
independent. We help people with disabilities gain independence by providing
vocational training and skills. The Technical Advisor Economic Empowerment will
provide technical support on economic empowerment in our programmes within a
cluster of countries, principally (but not exclusively) in East Africa. This
new role comes at an exciting time as we accelerate our work with local and
national partners to support the inclusion of people with disabilities in
economic empowerment programmes. Key duties will include:
- Providing
technical advice and support on disability inclusive economic empowerment
in new and existing projects
- Ensuring
that Sightsavers’ economic empowerment programmes are informed by best
available evidence and good practice, and effectively designed,
implemented, and evaluated
- Strengthening
Sightsavers commitment to disability inclusive, gender equality and the
rights of women within economic empowerment programming
- Contributing
to new funding opportunities, strategic initiatives and fostering
innovative approaches in disability inclusive economic empowerment
- Contributing
to the research, innovation, policy, advocacy, and communications agendas
- Contributing
to the refinement and operationalisation of technical and thematic
toolkits and guidance materials
- Identifying
capacity strengthening requirements of country staff and partners and
facilitate training and other initiatives
- Strengthening
collaboration between other regional development and humanitarian actors
- Undertake
representation of Sightsavers as an expert in disability inclusive, gender
responsive economic empowerment
This is a highly varied
and involved role and the above is not an exhaustive list of duties or required
professional skills. Please see the Job Description for
full details.
About you
To succeed in this role,
you will need to be an analytical thinker with the ability to plan
strategically. You will have excellent leadership, communication, networking
and influencing skills, with the ability to represent the organisation and
build collaboration and develop partnerships with external stakeholders,
especially in consortia.
You will also have:
- A
postgraduate qualification or equivalent experience in a relevant field
(social work/social inclusion, disability studies, economics and public
policy, financial inclusion, social protection, international development
etc.)
- Significant
and demonstrable experience of working in international development in the
region and/or elsewhere
- Good
knowledge of current issues and best practice in economic empowerment, livelihoods,
social protection, and financial inclusion
- Extensive
programming experience of a range of economic empowerment approaches in
developing countries, that address some or all of the following:
livelihoods, training, market-based interventions, inclusive and
responsible supply chain management, poverty reduction strategies and
private sector engagement
- Experience
of designing/managing disability inclusive and gender responsive
programmes designed to facilitate the inclusion of marginalised groups and
promote their empowerment at district, national or international levels,
particularly in economic empowerment
- Experience
in developing and adapting programme guidance tools and other resource
materials
- Experience
in collating, synthesising, and disseminating best practice guidance and
programme learning
- Experience
of supporting capacity strengthening initiatives and programmes with
people with disabilities in low-resource settings
- Willingness
or experience in using participatory methodologies for planning,
evaluation, or research
- An
understanding of, and commitment to, equality of opportunity for people
with disabilities and the inclusion of marginalised groups
- Experience
of representing an organisation and providing an influencing role
- Excellent
oral and writing skills in English
- French
or Portuguese language skills would be an advantage
- The
ability to travel for up to 16 weeks a year (regional and international)
How to Apply
We anticipate that remote
interviews will take place from 14 December 2022 onwards and the evaluation
process will include a written or presentation task.
To apply for this exciting
new opportunity, please complete an application via our recruitment portal. We
are particularly interested in learning of your motivations for applying.
As an equal opportunity
employer, we actively encourage applications from all sections of the
community. Sightsavers is a Disability Confident Leader and qualified people
living with a disability are particularly encouraged to apply.
Sightsavers is an employer
that does not tolerate any form of harassment and has zero tolerance for sexual
exploitation and abuse. All potential candidates will be subjected to rigorous
background checks and controls.
Closing Date: 4 December, 2022