Regional Gender Advisor, East Africa at Aga Khan Foundation

Job Description

AKF is seeking an experienced Regional Gender Advisor to provide technical expertise, leadership and guidance for the Foundations for Education and Empowerment (F4EE) in Africa, a new partnership program co-funded by Global Affairs Canada and Aga Khan Foundation. The programme has three components: Foundations for Learning (F4L), Advancing Gender Equality through Civil Society (AGECS) and Advancing Canadian Champions for Development (ACCD). The Regional Gender Advisor will provide support to F4L and AGECS components.

The F4EE Regional Gender Advisor will be based at AKF’s regional office for East Africa in Nairobi. The post will report to AKF’s Head of Innovations and Strategy in East Africa, with a technical reporting line to AKF’s Global Advisor for Civil Society and Gender. The position will include regional travel of up to 40% per year to project countries.

Project Background

F4EE will be active in five countries (Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda) and will improve education systems at the pre-primary and primary levels, in addition to strengthening women’s empowerment, and gender equality. F4EE will strengthen the delivery of quality, gender-responsive, and inclusive pre-primary and primary education, and other social development services, and reduce gender and social barriers to the utilization and uptake of education and other sustainable development services.

1. Foundations for Learning (F4L) will train and equip students, teachers, school leaders, families, communities and civil society organisations, and government leaders with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to promote more gender responsive and pluralist quality education systems in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. F4L will work at the system level to address many of the challenges currently faced within East Africa’s education systems in delivering quality, gender responsive education to all girls and boys.
2. Advancing Gender Equality through Civil Society (AGECS) will cover Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Madagascar. AGECS will promote gender equality by providing capacity strengthening for CSOs working on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including targeted support to women’s organisations. AGECS will improve the ability of CSOs to respond directly to the challenges facing women in civic spaces; and work with post-secondary institutions to support them with providing learning opportunities for both men and women, including by revising and developing gender responsive curricula and training educators to promote gender equality in their classrooms.

Responsibilities

The Regional Gender Advisor will ensure integration of gender equality in all aspects of F4EE program planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning. The Regional Gender Advisor will achieve this through providing technical inputs, technical oversight and capacity building. The Regional Gender Advisor will support all relevant F4EE project staff and all implementing partners to ensure the programme meets or exceeds the intended impact on gender equality and responds to donor and AKF requirements.

The Regional Gender Advisor will work closely with the F4EE Grant and Finance Managers, Partnerships Team and Global Program Team and members of the various AKDN implementing agencies in each of the F4EE countries, ensuring that all deliverables meet the standards and expectations of Global Affairs Canada.

Required Qualifications and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree in international development, social sciences especially gender studies, and/or other relevant disciplines.
• Additional educational background in education/early childhood development is an asset.

Experience:

• Minimum of ten years of experience in sectoral gender equality and gender transformative programming and implementation in governance, civil society, education, and early childhood development programmes (including significant experience in capacity building on gender mainstreaming);Knowledge of gender equality issues and effective interventions, particularly in relation to education, early childhood development, civil society and women’s rights organisations;
• At least five years’ field experience in developing countries, preferably in Eastern or Southern Africa.
• Specialised experience on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the regional context, and demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and/or reporting gender analysis for development programmes;
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate multi-country and/or multi-agency teams and assignments in a collaborative manner, remotely across digital platforms;
• Experience conducting qualitative and/or quantitative research and knowledge of research methods, gender sensitive and ethical approaches;
• Demonstrated capacity to respect and safeguard vulnerable populations;
• Be able to travel to F4EE countries.

Competencies:

• Ability to work well in teams and particularly teams that span across multiple geographies.
• Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge through training, capacity building and mentoring.
• Capacity to work independently, take initiative and manage a variety of activities simultaneously while meeting strict reporting deadlines and keeping colleagues and senior managers well informed.
• Ability to facilitate collaborative and participatory processes with partners and stakeholders.
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal and problem-solving skills in a cross-cultural context
• Excellent written and oral communications skills in English; ability to work in local languages relevant to the countries of project implementation is an asset