Gender, Youth & Social Inclusion Officer - 2 Posts (Maralal) at Mercy Corps

General Position Summary

The Gender Inclusion & Social Change officer will be responsible for implementing the gender and social dimensions’ interventions of malnutrition, food security and resilience. S/he will ensure effective and efficient roll out of planned gender/social change activities through day to day coordination at the county level. Under the overall guidance of the Gender, Youth and Social Lead S/he will support the implementation of gender transformative approaches as captured in the gender strategy.

Through research and learning activities, that are designed and executed in close collaboration with county government, civil society, private sector, and communities themselves, there is an inherent need to understand the opportunities and challenges that are unique to women, youth and adolescents in Samburu so that programming can be adapted. The Gender Inclusion & Social Change Officer will support and action our understanding of the complex causality of persistent acute malnutrition as it relates to the varied needs of women, men, girls, and boys in Samburu County. To ensure the gender and social dimensions of food security and resilience are effectively addressed across all activities and components, the Gender Inclusion & Social Change Officer will work with the team and coordinate closely with partners to fulfill gender and social change goals of the program.

Key Responsibilities

Program management

• Oversee Gender, inclusion, and social inclusion/dynamic activities in central Wamba west and North subcounty in Samburu County for direct mercy corps direct implementation and subgrantee local implementing partners activities.
• Supports the Gender, Youth and Social inclusion coordinator in contextually translating the vision for Nawiri’s approach when it comes to the integration of gender, youth, and social dynamics.
• Support the development, integration and mainstreaming of Nawiri’s Gender Strategy with a view to strengthen gender responsiveness and gender transformational approaches in all programmatic interventions, with a nutrition lens.
• Ensure high quality and timeliness on deliverables against intended objectives and targets.
• Ensure broad-based county co-creation mechanism towards the development of a contextually relevant Structural and Social Behavior change strategy to guide effective integration in key sectors such as nutrition, health, water systems, and governance - throughout the program’s cycle.
• Contribute to and support the development of detailed implementation plans of gender and social change interventions.
• Support field research, learning and implementation of adolescent and youth interventions ensuring the adoption of mechanisms and approaches that enhance agency and leadership of adolescents and youth with a view to challenge intergenerational cycles of poverty and persistent acute malnutrition.
• Provide oversight to the gender/social change program components at the central sub - county level, including undertaking field visits to oversee implementation and generate field visit reports.
• Support in the monitoring of project activities to ensure they are inclusive and support reflection and adaptation to improve inclusion as required.
• Work with the M&L team to ensure effective gender differentiated data is both captured and documented.
• Identify and support documentation of best practices and use them to profile the impact of local level gender /social change approaches and promote lesson sharing.
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in gender integration for the program staff and partner organizations.
• Represent the project to internal and external partners including the county government and other project partners and key stakeholders on relevant gender/ social change information.
• Other duties, as required.

Team management

• Create and maintain a work environment where mutual respect among team members prevails and where the pursuit of individual and collective excellence is valued.
• Supervise assistants and short term consultants and enumerators in various field activities in gender, youth, social dynamics scope to deliver on time and quality, from time to time.
• Promote individual accountability and commitment by clearly and regularly communicating and providing constructive feedback.
• Support field level collaborative efforts and learning to drive overall effectiveness and coherence of program operational strategies.
• Work collaboratively with all consortium partner staff in delivering a cohesive, integrated, gender and youth responsive program.
• Effectively communicate the program's best practices and learning to the County and development stakeholders

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Personal learning and development

• Develop and implement a learning and development plan for yourself to ensure continuous improvement and growth in line with your performance goals and Mercy Corps commitment to organizational learning that allow as you to dedicate 5% of your working time to learning.

Adherence to Policies and Procedures

• Personal conduct should always be professional and respecting local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
• Accountability To Participants - Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to program participants and to international standards guiding international development work, while actively engaging ecosystem as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Diversity and Inclusion - responsibility to create a positive culture and to safeguard equity, inclusion, dignity, and respect for all. Each employee is expected to be a role model for others and ensure alignment with MC diversity and Inclusion values.

Knowledge and Experience

• Degree in Social Sciences, Gender and development studies or other relevant discipline.
• Hands on experience with NAWIRI Programming under Gender program in Samburu.
• Experience in training in gender and youth responsive interventions.
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in gender integration that ensure proper cross-sectoral/integrated approach.
• Familiarity with principles and approaches in gender transformative approaches and understanding of programs addressing persistent acute malnutrition.
• Demonstrated coordination, teamwork and planning skills with proven ability to function effectively programs/projects in both the public and NGO sectors.

Success factors/ essential skills:

• Initiative-taker, multi-tasker, and able to work effectively and respectfully with local government, private sector, civil society and donors.
• Demonstrated experience in setting up and managing systems and procedures as well as experience in building team commitment toward the achievement of program objectives.
• Team-player with positive attitude to problem solving and conflict resolution. Focused on team building and capacity-building of program staff and will be able to apply creative solutions to program quality.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected events impacting program operations.