Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) Officer

Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) Officer

Nepalgunj, NepalFull-time

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is a not-for-profit international development organisation. Founded in the Netherlands nearly 50 years ago, we have built a long-term, local presence in 38 of the poorest countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our global team of local and international advisors work with local partners to equip communities, businesses and organisations with the tools, knowledge and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services – empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development.

SNV is seeking Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI Officer ) for The USAID Paani Program, also known as the पानी परियोजना, is a 5 year, $25 million project in Nepal. Water is the single most important natural resource underpinning Nepal’s economy and livelihoods. The sustainable management of water resources in Nepal depends on addressing climate change and protecting healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. Paani aims to enhance Nepal’s ability to manage water resources for multiple uses and users through climate change adaptation and the conservation of freshwater biodiversity. Paani focuses at the watershed, basin, and national scales. The project has approximately $5 million in grants and activity procurements. Its goal will be reached by meeting the following objectives:

• Reduce threats to freshwater biodiversity in the Karnali, Mahakali, and Rapti river basins.
• Increase the ability of targeted human and ecological communities to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change through improved water management.

Job Description

GESI is one of the crosscutting components, the GESI Officer will work to integrate GESI aspects across all program thematic areas through its 11 strategic approaches under the guidance of Paani GESI Specialist.

The GESI Officer will work under the direct technical supervision of the GESI Specialist and administratively and operationally under the supervision of Field Team Director. The overall responsibilities will be to lead the overall integration of GESI aspects in Paani program, working together with the field team (both technical and operations) and through providing technical support on GESI as well as ensuring conducive working environment for all. The officer will also provide technical support to local partners i.e. Paani grantees in executing GESI responsive interventions. Similarly, s/he will be responsible for facilitating a participatory process in order to identify a targeted GESI strategy and framework at district as well as watershed levels in planning, implementing and monitoring of place based program implementation in close coordination with Field Team Director (FTD), River Basin Team Leaders (RBTLs), Water Management Specialists (WMSs) and M & E/Stakeholder Support Specialist (M&E/SS) in particular. The Officer will closely work with Paani GESI Specialist and field based technical team to develop work plans with clear targets and timeframe including defined roles and responsibilities of each team members to ensure better GESI integration in each strategic approaches and its activities. In addition, s/he will be responsible for facilitating awareness program during Paani and grant partners’ events to promote inclusion of women and marginalized group. The officer will also explore an opportunities to support Paani field team in ensuring meaningful engagement of women and marginalized caste and ethnic groups in different levels of project interventions. In addition, ensures different vulnerabilities, roles and responsibilities of women and marginalized caste and ethnic groups  are timely raised and ensured during the program planning and designing phase of development stakeholders and state governments. Develop GESI knowledge based products and briefing papers as per the program requirement including participation in knowledge sharing and reflection events (internal and external)  to share experiences and learning from GESI perspective.

Roles and Responsibilities :

In close coordination and support of Paani GESI Specialist the incumbent is responsible for the following tasks:

• Support the in-depth GESI Assessment in the field and develop  refine Paani GESI action plan based on assessment results, ensuring proper implementation of  the action plan at the field level
• Support and coordinate with the Paani field team - FTD, RBTLs, WMSs and M&E/SS including  representative members of grant partners to promote equity and inclusion integration into program interventions through identifying power imbalances and understand marginalized groups’ vulnerabilities and interest;
• Provide guidance to technical team on integrating GESI specific requirements in designing, planning and implementing strategic approach specific interventions;
• Support integration of GESI aspects into the M&E system and processes working together with Nepalgunj based Paani M & E/Stakeholder Support Specialist to ensure that gender and inclusivity are reflected in output, outcome and impact level indicators;
• Collect sex, caste and ethnicity and age disaggregated data while performing proactive and recurrent gender analysis throughout program interventions.
• Undertake field visits to monitor and track progress of program activities using qualitative research tools from GESI perspective working together with WMSs and M & E/SS team members.
• Document community concerns and recommendations on how to best overcome identified challenges like engaging men, women, boys and girls from diverse caste/ethnic groups in climate change and biodiversity conservation particularly on aquatic based programming
• Explore and recommend meaningful methods to include men, women, boys and girls from diverse caste/ethnic groups in the program activities through regular interaction with program participants and representatives of grantees.
• Facilitate Paani’s outreach and communication processes engage women, youth groups with low literacy rates and marginalized caste/ethnic groups from the Paani specific sites in collaboration with Paani's communications team and partners.
• Closely working with Paani collaborating partners, the Officer will work in facilitating GESI sensitive processes thereby raising women and marginalized caste/ethnic groups vulnerabilities and demand in planning and policy dialogue discourse such as Multistakeholder Engagement (Entry & Exit) Workshops, round table discussions, town hall meetings, and other public discussion and advocacy events.
• Coordinate GESI related capacity building initiatives as per need and demands of the organization, program team members and different stakeholders for integrating gender equality and social inclusion programmatically and institutionally.
• S/he support to develop and review GESI responsive training curriculum and materials;
• Facilitate regular community consultations, group meetings, events, roundtable discussions and training sessions at  to ensure programming remains gender sensitive and inclusivity are on-track working together with the Paani local partners/grantees.
• Develop and deliver series of on-going key trainings on GESI to the Paani field team including partner staff either through continues learning process or utilizing platforms during partners’ ongoing events.
• Support in developing and delivering series of key trainings on GESI, based on the different gender and power inclusion/exclusion dynamics of each program areas and deliver it to the project beneficiaries.
• Support GESI Specialist in applying tools such as : women leadership skills, engaging men in decision making tools, roles and responsibilities etc.
• Support field program team members to maximize program participation and increase empowerment opportunities for marginalized groups including the Women, Dalits, Janajatis, etc.
• Ensure that activity design maximizes participant engagement from the beginning of the program while managing and mitigating risks of cultural disrespect and gender based violence. 
• Establish current awareness on the importance of GESI programming among target participant groups including village leaders, government officials of municipality, and rural municipality levels including  implementing partner organizations’ members
• Support River Basin Team Leader and Watershed Management Specialist to identify and gather social change stories from the field and produce as GESI learning documents together with GESI Specialist.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Gender Studies, Sociology, or any other relevant discipline
• At least 5 years of experience as development practitioner with 2 years of core experience in GESI
• Track record of experience on GESI capacity development of program staff and partner organizations
• Good knowledge on data gathering and analysis with strong community interaction skills
• Ability to facilitate and synergize the efforts of a multi dynamic and disciplinary team
• Good report writing skills
• Experience of working with Local Partners, Local NGOs, government agencies, Development Partners, Civil Society organisations and integrating them into program implementation
• Fluency in writing and oral communication in Nepali and English
• Strong public speaking skills
• Strong organization and communication skills
• Strong skill on training design and facilitation
• Willingness to travel frequently to remote areas
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Contract Type: Employment

Contract Durataion : up to 16 December 2020

Expected Start Date: As soon as possible

Duty Station : Paani Project Office, Nepalgunj

How to Apply: If you are interested, we invite you to apply  via http://smrtr.io/5nmyzA by uploading your CV and cover letter by 1st April 2018. 

For more information on SNV, please refer to our website: www.snv.org