Gender Transformative Programming Manager at Mercy Corps

Description

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Gender Inclusive and Transformative Service Development for Women Smallholders

• Take leading role in developing program learning in best practices and innovation in digitally enabled financial services for women, leveraging and augmenting the Gender Transformative Toolkit, to ensure that the full program team across all countries are informed and working optimally toward gender targets 40%;
• Support the external learning, impact evaluation and communications agendas around gender inclusive/transformative services best practice and innovations for partners and ecosystem players, actively engaging in relevant communities of practice, including FinEquity;
• Conduct ongoing desk review of global best practice in gender inclusive/transformative approaches, as well as ongoing learning meetings with program partners, donors and stakeholders related to gender inclusive/transformative services, working in coordination with the Technical Team, country-based consultants and the MERAL Team.
• Prepare field/partner reports, blogs and other learning outputs for mass communication regarding gender inclusive/transformative aspects of the program.
• Engage in the development of new partnerships, relationship building, and product roadmaps related to gender inclusive/transformative development.
• Provide technical support to develop gender transformative aspects for all engagements across all program countries, liaising directly with the Deputy Program and relevant managers.
• Draw on rapid product iteration approaches and support Country Managers to identify technical consultants as needed in this area and provide support and oversight for consultants as required.
• Assist in development of partner business and work plans with a gender-lens, leveraging the Gender Transformative Toolkit related to gender inclusive/transformative elements, reviewing research, operational manuals, product and technology specifications and financial statements to do so.  
• Engage with program partners to ensure that adequate marketing strategies and resources are in place to drive active adoptions and use of service by women, including go to market plan, market entry & scaling, customer acquisition branding, incentive & commission structures, advertising, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Support the initiative to identify alternative data sources to drive the gender inclusive development and expansion of products and services, including conducting research, identifying, and selecting prospective data partners and framing and implementing pilot tests of alternative data with partners.
• Work with relevant team members to structure and implement market assessments to drive meaningful financial product and service development for women, including agricultural value chain payments.
• Ensure that market assessments focus on the “pain points” and market segmentation of women small holder farmers and to guide product and service development and overcome the barriers for the small holder farmers so they can increase their access, usage and utility of services.
• Work with the Sprout team to ensure that the evolving global public good platform is gender inclusive.
• Support the work of the MERAL Director around implementation of the learning agenda and relevant learning outputs and impact studies.

Program Representation and Stakeholder Engagement:

• Serve as a representative for the program in matters related to gender inclusive/transformative services for SHF.
• Proactively engage with program stakeholders to inform coordination and collaboration.
• Develop and maintain relationships with service providers related to gender inclusive/transformative approaches and link relationship management to country management.
• Engage in internal Mercy Corps communities of practice on gender as it relates to financial services, climate, market systems, etc. and share information actively about AgriFin programming, learning and results.
• Actively support program planning, fundraising and reporting efforts related to gender inclusive/transformative delivery for SHF.
• Provide partnership recommendations on gender both within and outside Mercy Corps programming.
• Lead in designing, implementing, and coordinating communications and knowledge management campaigns and activities, including social media, information dissemination, tools, and learning events on gender and women’s empowerment issues in gender programming.
• Ensure that programming works within Mercy Corps’ M4P rubric for inclusive service delivery.
• Provide technical leadership within the team in gender inclusive/transformative approaches, including regular trips to the radial offices to support Country Managers and Program Officers to build their capacity.

 Organizational Learning 

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities they serve – we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

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.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:

Direct supervision of country-based consultants across gender activities, as agreed with Deputy Program Director

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO:  Deputy Program Director

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Technical teams, MERAL team, Country Managers and Program Officers, Consultants, Finance and Operations staff. 

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• MA/S or equivalent in gender, finance, business, international development, accounting, or related field of study
• At least five years’ experience in gender inclusive/transformative approaches including three years in a management position, ideally with an organization engaged in agriculture, technology, financial services or other direct service provision to smallholder farmers.
• Strong understanding of the application of gender inclusive/transformative approaches in Eastern and Southern Africa and/or India, including commercial banks, MFIs, insurance companies, and others.
• Demonstrated experience in thought leadership related to gender inclusive/transformative approaches
• Demonstrated experience in gender-lens product design and implementation
• Demonstrated experience working in and leading collaborative teams
• Understanding of and experience with improving gender inclusive/transformative approaches for smallholder farmers
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English, including report development, writing, and editing
• Terrific sense of humor and of self
• Strong organizational skills and ability to multi-task across a range of projects
• Experience in Kenya, Ethiopia and/or Nigeria preferred.

SUCCESS FACTORS: The most successful Mercy Corps members possess: a positive, flexible attitude; a

strong commitment to teamwork, impact, and accountability; an entrepreneurial spirit; and a nearly fearless devotion to building a better world.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. 

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our stakeholders and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.