• Application Deadline:
• Position: Senior Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Manager


• Job Type Full Time


• Qualification MBA/MSc/MA


• Experience 7 years


• Location Abuja


• Job Field NGO/Non-Profit 
  

Program / Department Summary

This is a five-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Community Initiative to Promote Peace (CIPP). The CIPP program aims to strengthen conflict prevention, mediation and early warning by facilitating community-led analysis and action to prevent, manage, and mitigate conflict and violent extremism. The program will work in twenty-four (24) high-risk local government areas in Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi and Plateau states. Mercy Corps is seeking to recruit an experienced and exceptional individual to support the engagement of women, gender and social inclusion in the implementation of the Community Initiative to Promote Peace (CIPP).

General Position Summary

The Gender, Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Manager will work closely with relevant program and technical leads to ensure the collective delivery of a gender transformative program.  She will oversee the development and implementation of targeted youth and GESI activities and integration effort across CIPP. She will work closely with program teams to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps’ GESI integration minimum standards and ensure that the principles of USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment policy across CIPP

The post holder will ensure that Mercy Corps’ gender transformative and inclusive approach is embedded in CIPP interventions and activities, and the partners generate and use learning to inform necessary adaptation to inform the development of strategies and activities to maximize the impact of intervention. She/he will provide training and technical support to civil society organizations (CSOs), private sector, academics, government institutions and partners towards advancing gender, peace and security, specifically the integration of GESI perspectives and women’s meaningful participation and influence in peace processes and peacebuilding. 

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Provide technical inputs on GESI to ensure that its principles are consistently applied throughout the project cycle and strengthen the impact of GESI mainstreaming in CIPP programming on women and youth groups, CSOs, government and target communities.


• Provides technical advice and capacity building in integrating GESI and women, peace and security priorities across CIPP and ensures GESI responsive budgeting that reflects relevant commitments at the agency and country-level for partners


• Facilitate policy change and act as a technical liaison on GESI and Women, Peace and Security issues with internal and external stakeholders to maximize the impact of CIPP programming in target states


• Works closely with CIPP partners and advocacy coordinator to draft strategy documents, policy briefs, reports and other learning resource materials related to GESI and women, peace and security in Nigeria


• Manage GESI grants focused on institutional capacity building and learning and expenditure of funds to ensure activities are implemented on time, scope and budget


• Lead on quarterly, semi-annual and annual reporting of GESI progress timely report of activities, outputs and outcomes including contributions to quarterly progress and semi-annual donor reports


• Ensures documentation of relevant success stories, best practices, lesson learned and challenges and prepare technical briefs for internal and external audiences, including Mercy Corps country office and HQ and donors to contribute to global knowledge on gender and social inclusion in relation to conflict mitigation and peacebuilding


• Recommend, support the design of, or conduct research and analysis on GESI issues, particularly in relation to conflict management and peacebuilding


• Provide technical inputs on GESI in data collection exercises such as midterm and end-line evaluation and ensure program data is disaggregated (e.g sex, age, ethnicity, disability, location and social status)


• Develop relevant gender & social inclusion programming guidance and tools in collaboration with PAQ team to enable the design and implementation of GESI responsive conflict mitigation and peacebuilding programming that align with both Mercy Corps’ GESI strategy and USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment policy.


• Participate in and contribute to internal and external working groups on issues related to Gender, Peace and Security


• Provide input to manuals, guidelines and any other CIPP’s document to ensure that they adequately address GESI concerns.


• Work with TSU on operationalization of various research conducted by CIPP 

Strategy & Vision

• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed to facilitate gender transformative programming


• Support team members to roll out and adhere to Mercy Corps’ GESI integration minimum standards across CIPP


• Support internal and external communication efforts (articles, case studies, conferences and forums) to highlight Mercy Corps’ GESI work in Nigeria. 


• Contribute to agency-wide GESI integration efforts and communities of practice as appropriate 


• Create and maintain systems ensuring effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.

Team Management

• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.


• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.


• Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach GESI objectives 

Influence & Representation

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.


• Communicate effectively to ensure overall project targets and donor obligations are met.


• Ensure effective coordination with other development and humanitarian actors in program implementation states to promote gender equality and social inclusion


• Represent Mercy Corps’ CIPP in various platforms, networks and coordination forums that promote GESI workstream

Finance & Compliance Management

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to peace and conflict programming.

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.

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 toward 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

• Women Peace Council senior program officer, Youth program officer, and short-term consultants. The GEDSI Manager is responsible to provide technical support to CIPP team members to be able to properly integrate GEDSI concerns during day-to-day activity implementation. 

Accountability

Reports Directly to: Deputy Chief of Party

Works Directly with: Program Manager, Senior Monitoring, evaluation and learning Manager, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, state officers, subgrant and finance department, etc.

Knowledge and Experience

• Master’s degree in International Development, Women’s Studies, Gender or a comparable area of study preferred. Bachelor’s degree with 10 years of experience is also acceptable. 


• 7 years of experience in international development work, with a minimum of 3 years of experience in GESI technical work 


• Excellent knowledge of the status of vulnerable and marginalized populations within Nigeria and their engagement in social, political, and cultural realms


• Experience building capacity of local stakeholders, including CSOs, political leaders, and other local and national government leaders in gender and social inclusion initiatives


• Experience directly implementing programs is required


• Substantial background in GESI and development work including experience conducting GESI analyses, capacity sharing/training, gender and inclusion outcomes 


• Experience working in Nigeria and any other country in West Africa is an asset


• Strong facilitation skills are required 


• Fluency in English and Hausa is required 


• Demonstrated competency with computerized general ledger software


• Advanced computer skills in MS Office programs, particularly Excel


• Prior management experience and strong organizational skills


• Excellent oral and written English skills

Success Factors

The GESI manager will have the ability to work closely with a diverse team of individuals and will be conversant with the challenges inherent in peacebuilding and has an outstanding ability to support innovative programs. The successful candidate will be capable of multi-tasking, rapid decision-making, have initiative, drive and a lot of energy, as well as high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with capacity building. S/he will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level. Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority. She will have a strong commitment to championing innovative gender transformative and resilient approaches that suit the cultural context.

In particular, the successful candidate will be willing to travel to locations within states located in the North West and North Central region of Nigeria and according to the needs of the Mercy Corps program. This will mean sometimes staying and working in stressful environments with very basic living conditions, strictly following security protocols at all times and sometimes working long and irregular hours).

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours.

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.