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


• Job Type Full Time


• Qualification BA/BSc/HND


• Experience 3 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 senior gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) officer will ensure an intentional approach to engaging women in peacebuilding work through the program’s multi-level women-led peace structures and enable women and vulnerable groups to participate fully in peace-building activities, including negotiation mediation and community dialogues. She will oversee the activities of Women Peace Councils (including the newly formed WPCs in 17 LGAs in Kogi state) and support the integration of Women Critical Discussion Group and women playing substantive roles into the councils across the six CIPP states.  She/he will work closely with the Gender and Social Inclusion Manager, advocacy coordinator and implementing partners in drafting advocacy and policy briefs and facilitating the meaningful engagement of a critical mass of women in peacebuilding work.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Engages in planning and implementation of women-led conflict mitigation and peacebuilding activities/interventions in line with CIPP’s GESI approach and USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment policy.


• Works closely with the women peace councils and other peace structures to support young and adult women to become active drivers of change and demonstrate commitment towards more equitable and inclusive peacemaking across CIPP states


• Provides regular updates on women-led activities, and timely reports of activities, outputs and outcomes including contributions to quarterly progress and semi-annual donor reports.


• Provision of technical advice and guidance to women peace councils and ARDA-led women’s critical discussion group to enhance the meaningful participation of a critical mass of women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding


• Present regular updates on women-led activities to the GEDSI Manager to ensure coordination, linkages and synergies amongst program, MEL, and communication teams


• Provide support on project-related procurement/administration procedures for GEDSI-related activities


• Ensure effective management of program files, specifically ensuring proper documentation (filing), & maintenance of up-to-date project folders


• Facilitate capacity-building training and activities to strengthen the capacity of the Women Peacebuilding Councils across the six states


• Foster multi-level and interstate learning by facilitating joint activities specifically for the councils across the six states


• Support the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team in establishing and implementing gender-sensitive monitoring, evaluation, learning and reporting systems


• Ensure active and full participation of members of Women Peacebuilding Councils in program activities, including consultation, dialogues, monitoring & evaluation and GEDSI initiatives


• Work as part of GEDSI team to support the Communications Officer in the documentation of successes, lessons learned and best practices and contribute to the production of resource materials addressing the issues of women in peacebuilding


• Support the inclusion and representation of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations across all CIPP program components, including as staff members, project participants, trainers, facilitators, speakers, evaluators, and so forth


• Facilitate community and state-level policy dialogue on women and conflicts, gender and social inclusion, sexual and gender-based violence with government through the Councils and other relevant stakeholders; and


• Support the capacity strengthening of CSOs and government partners towards planning and implementation of project activities on women peacebuilding, gender and social inclusion in conflict management initiatives

Strategy & Vision

• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed.


• Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions & resources to achieve objectives and contribute to countrywide strategy development.


• 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. Supports and liaise with the project team and women peace councils and provides capacity building including training and coaching on GESI 

Influence & Representation

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, development partners, women-led organizations, Ministry of Women Affairs across the six CIPP states


• Communicate effectively and ensure coordination with community peace structures on GEDSI-related issues

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

None

Accountability

Reports Directly to: GESI Manager

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

Knowledge and Experience

• University degree in Gender Studies, Sociology, conflicts, International Development or related field required.


• Minimum of Three (3) years of progressively responsible experience working on gender and social inclusion issues within community and civil society development programs, preferably with USAID or other U.S. Government programs.


• Excellent knowledge of gender and social inclusion issues in Nigeria including social, political, and cultural gender norms and challenges.


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


• Experience in integrating GESI into program activities.


• Experience integrating social inclusion in community participatory engagement or advocacy preferred.


• Experience engaging local stakeholders, including Women groups, CSOs, political leaders, and other local and national government leaders in gender and social inclusion initiatives.


• High level of interpersonal and communication skills.


• Ability to work well in a team environment, as well as work effectively with civil society organizations, donors, project staff, and other beneficiaries.

Success Factors

• The successful Gender and Inclusion Officer will combine exceptional implementation skills and technical skills with a focus on innovative interventions to bring communities together.


• An ideal candidate will be conversant with the challenges inherent in peacebuilding, gender inclusion and will be a self-starter who has led grassroots development efforts.


• The candidate must have ability to mobilize a critical mass of women to participate in peace-building activities


• The candidate must have excellent attention to detail.

In particular, the successful candidate will be willing to travel to locations within North West and North West States 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.