Technical Advisor II - Gender and Protection Mainstreaming (East Africa based or telecommuter) at Catholic Relief

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues with a focus on larger projects in the area of Gender and Protection mainstreaming in programming in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality, gender-responsive and transformative, inclusive programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ gender programming is across the globe.

This position is open for international telecommuting and nationals of Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide and EARO strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in gender that effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Lead EARO’s regional gender audit in order to contribute to improvements in gender mainstreaming across EARO’s programming and operations.

• Provide gender technical solutions to regional and EARO CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation.

• Support CPs to incorporate principles of protection into the design and implementation of projects, including safe programming approaches that mitigate safeguarding risks.

• Contribute to regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in gender equality, gender integration and   protection mainstreaming in key sectors. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including conducting relevant gender or other social analyses, defining subsequent appropriate gender strategies and gender-responsive and transformative approaches, as relevant. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical gender requirements into CRS’ approach.

• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in gender integration and  protection mainstreaming for programming for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching to CP staff.

• Lead the EARO gender community of practice through regular coaching of key gender staff, online and in-person training and learning initiatives and effective remote communications.

• Contribute to EARO’s gender equality and protection mainstreaming knowledge management and learning through collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects’ gender strategies, assisting with measuring program gender impact, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and research and internal reports.

• Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions. Participate in professional forums in the area gender integration/equality to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

Required Languages - Required fluency in English

Travel - 50% travel (within the East Africa region – Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia)

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: EARO Regional Team (regional technical advisors, DRD/MQ), key gender and safeguarding and protection staff and focal points across EARO CPs, EARO Country Representative, Head of Programs, Head of Operations and relevant Chief of Parties/Project Managers. CRS/HQ staff including HQ-based Gender and Youth Advisors, CRS global Gender Community of Practice, and the Global Ethics’ Safeguarding Unit

External: USAID, government officials, international and local partners.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Gender and Development or related field(s) including international development, development economics, sociology, etc.
• Minimum of five years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in gender equality, gender-based violence, female/girls’ empowerment and   protection mainstreaming.
• Previous experience providing gender technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding, including technical writing, is required.
• Demonstrated expertise with facilitation, capacity strengthening and partnership building through formal and informal training in gender equality and related subject matter (male engagement, women/girls economic empowerment and other gender transformative approaches across sectors.)
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in gender integration. General knowledge of other related disciplines (specifically Protection Mainstreaming, Emergency response, Monitoring and Evaluation and Nutrition/WASH/Food Security and HIV/OVC programming) to ensure proper cross-sectoral/integrated approach.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices. Additional considerations for experience mentoring a remote team of experts/community of practice.
• Experience with programmatic gender analyses, assessments and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, with particular experience in qualitative data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.