Gender and WEE Officer at Propcom Mai-karfi

Propcom Mai-karfi, a six-year project which works to improve the livelihoods of Nigeria’s rural poor through targeted market initiatives. Propcom Mai-karfi aims to increase the incomes of 500,000 poor Nigerians; half of them by enhancing employment opportunities and improving productivity in selected agricultural and other rural markets in northern Nigeria.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Gender and WEE Officer

Location: Abuja

Purpose

• To contribute to and enhance the integration of gender and women’s economic empowerment across the Propcom Mai-karfi programme. 
• This will include the embedding of the Propcom Maikarfi’s gender and Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) strategy and framework within all its interventions ensuring the constant identification of gender and WEE implications and issues as well as the use of best practice within markets and, increasingly, its geo-political activities especially in the NE of Nigeria and in the three DFID Partner states.

Scope of Work

• The Programme aims to provide economic assets directly to women and girls. Propcom Mai-karfi is helping to achieve this by helping to raise the income of poor women and poor men through agriculture and rural development.
• The gender aspect of the work will ensure that emphasis is placed on working through a holistic WEE approach and with markets where there is potential for women to sustainably increase their income.

The Gender and WEE Officer will be required to:

• Contribute to the development and implementation of the programme’s gender strategy, take the lead, where possible, in working with private sector partners and women’s groups in selected markets,
• Provide gender expertise and technical support in other markets, work with Propcom Mai-karfi team members to integrate appropriate and sustainable gender and WEE practices within the programme’s overall approach - including through gender sensitive market diagnosis, interventions and monitoring systems, and maintaining standards for Propcom Mai-karfi’s gender practice and providing guidance to the Senior Market Managers and Market Managers on how to meet them
• The post will be based in Abuja to have full integration into the team management and links to the projects’ leadership. The post will need to ensure extremely regular travel to the field and especially to the nine identified states in the extension.
• The Propcom Mai-karfi personnel work as an integrated team. The Gender and WEE Officer will be expected to contribute to other relevant aspects of the programme including work planning, report writing, DCED audit (if appropriate), annual reviews etc.

Specific Responsibilities
The Gender and WEE Officer will be required to use a variety of gender technical, leadership and management skills, along with desk and field-based research and activities to do the following:

• Guide and monitor the Propcom team in mainstreaming gender and WEE to ensure accountability across the whole programme for the gender and WEE deliverables. This will include support to the Senior Market Managers and his/her teams and Results Measurement teams to develop their gender analysis capacities through specific formal training and on the job mentoring in the field or office;
• Provide gender and WEE support to intervention plans for work in existing markets, to the selection of new markets, and to the design of interventions in these new markets. This will involve the following tasks:
• Review the key programme documents (Technical proposal, Business Case, etc) to understand and improve the gender strategy proposed and to support the Senior Market Managers and Market Managers to operationalise that strategy in their daily work;
• Assess current interventions in various markets, and in collaboration with Market Managers, gather and analyse gender data and conduct gender targeted surveys, focus groups and assessment (where necessary) to provide advice to Senior Market Managers and Market Managers on appropriate approaches that enhance gender impact;
• Assist with developing and implementing interventions in selected new markets; and o Work in collaboration with the Recovery Coordinator, the Senior Market Managers and Market Managers by providing gender and WEE support to the selection of other new markets and to the design of interventions in these new markets
• Link Senior Market Managers and Market Managers with Good/Best Practices in mainstreaming gender and WEE in economic development/market development programmes within Nigeria/Africa, and other relevant global case studies
• Provide expert and technical support/advice to Senior Market Managers and Market Managers on identifying specific markets that target women in northern Nigeria,
• Provide expert and technical support and regular reviews to the Propcom Mai-karfi senior management team on the operationalisation of the programme’s gender strategy
• Work with the Senior Market Managers and his/her teams and the Results Measurement teams on the design of survey tools aimed at ensuring maximum gender impact across all interventions.
• Liaise with the Results Measurement team on the development of tools and indicators aimed at monitoring and evaluating the impacts of implemented gender strategies within all programme interventions and recommend any new strategies based on findings
• With the Recovery Coordinator NE and represent Propcom Mai-karfi’s gender-related work to external audiences, such as DFID, other donors, INGOs and the wider M4P and WEE communities
• Network with government and non-government organisations in Nigeria to learn and exchange information about women’s economic empowerment and to coordinate with other important activities.
• Work with the project communications team members to develop materials that promote Propcom Mai-karfi’s gender-related interventions and that disseminate its learning as widely as possible across a diverse set of media channels
• Provide relevant gender input to the programme’s business plans, annual work plans and annual reports

Working Relationships
The Gender and WEE Officer will report to the Recovery Coordinator North East:

• S/he will be required to work in collaboration with the Recovery Coordinator NE, Deputy Team Leader, the Results Measurement Manager / Director Results, and the Operations Director to realise the gender and WEE purpose of the programme, providing technical expertise and leadership on gender and WEE;
• S/he will provide technical expertise and support to Senior Market Managers, as well as the Market Managers, and specialists across all market teams, working with each in a manner that develops the team’s capacity and responsibility to respond to the gender and WEE needs of their portfolios;
• The Gender and WEE Officer will also be expected to work closely with the Results Measurement team of the programme in the design of all information gathering and progress monitoring tools and indicators for all interventions. S/he will also be expected to establish and maintain good and effective working relationships with other members of the Propcom-Mai-karfi team in particular the programme’s support teams.
• S/he will work closely with the WISE gender team for the duration of their involvement in the programme.

Essential Qualifications
The Gender and WEE Officer should have:

• An advanced degree (Master's or Doctoral degree) in the field of Social Sciences, Gender, Agricultural Sciences, Food Security or a related field of study or an equivalent combination of studies and experience;
• 5-7 years experience in economic market development, private sector and management in sub Saharan Africa;
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in women’s participation and women’s empowerment programming, (within agricultural market systems would be a distinctive advantage);
• Demonstrated experience with gender integration/mainstreaming in agriculture/market development projects (preferred) or across a variety of sectors gender mainstreaming at a relatively senior level within an institutional context is preferred;
• Experience working directly with women and women’s groups in northern Nigeria is preferred - experience with promoting the inclusion of women and working with or developing women managed or owned businesses within the private sector in Northern Nigeria would be advantageous.
• Previous project implementation and management within an M4P programme would be advantageous.
• Detailed and non-stereotypical understanding of the culture and practices within northern Nigeria with emphasis on the gender dynamics is essential
• Ability to communicate in and understand Hausa is essential
• Ability to communicate in one other major language of the north (Fulbe, Kanuri, etc) would be an advantage

Location of Post:

• The post is domiciled in Abuja however incumbent will be required to make frequent travels within Nigeria and particularly to the northern part of Nigeria.

Competencies
Political Economist:

• Critically analyses institutions using a visual model, objectively allocating roles and functions.
• Can prescribe an agenda to improve the institutional arrangements for the benefit of poor people.
• Rigorously analyses the way power and politics affects markets and poverty; can model the power relations; and can prescribe improvements for the benefit of poor people.
• Collects and arranges complex evidence within an Excel workbook; cost-benefit analysis of economic options; prescription and argument for pro-poor improvements in markets.
• Management - Managing Performance: Contributes to overall programme output delivery by ensuring optimum performance of individual and teams.
• Strategic Thinking: Committing to a course of action to accomplish a long-range goal or vision after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions, facts, available resources, constraints, and organizational values.
• Influencing behavior: Using appropriate interpersonal styles and techniques to gain acceptance of ideas or plans to advance the objectives of the programme

Gender and Women’s Empowerment Analyst:

• Has substantive knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment, and can critically analyse multiple gender and women’s empowerment situations, with an ability to apply a gender lens to economic development and pro-poor growth paradigms.
• Can quickly familiarize and understand differences within specific socio-cultural contexts, and has the ability not only to identify negative social norms as challenges, but can formulate the most appropriate and sustainable approaches for addressing these in a transformative way.

Communication:

• Confidently delivers tailored messages to various audiences using various media and tools. In two way communications asks insightful questions, validates the speaker’s feelings and points, and encourages the speaker; leaves the speaker feeling ‘heard’.
• Reports concisely and proactively with observations, analysis, and implications of the observations on project work and has the ability to present such findings to a variety of stakeholders in a concise and effective manner.

Relationship Builder:

• Quickly develops trusting relationships with others; proactively assesses and manages trust with others.
• Maintains industry, government and corporate networks and consistently forges new business relationships to fit strategic priorities.
• Identifies shared goals and develops effective strategies around those goals; follows-up on connections to catalyze positive relationships.
• Demonstrates neutrality and helps parties come to creative agreements and solutions, while keeping ownership with the parties.

Business Person:

• Understands the idea of the marketing mix (the 5 ‘P’s); can gather market info and give advice on marketing strategy; Advises on building and keeping good customer relations.
• Keeps records in more complex business environments; Advises on basic finances; Identifies and considers the financial risks of decisions; considers the economic value for the markets before making financial decisions.
• Understands how individual businesses work and what drives the decision-making of private sector partners.
• Delivers training workshops; Advises on selecting and recruiting staff; appreciates the importance of incentives for performance

Coach:

• Regularly engages with programme actors and stakeholders to uncover and identify specific needs; builds desire in the coachee to address the needs.
• Offers specific, constructive feedback to others; leaves the coachee feeling empowered to improve; actively seeks out feedback to improve; uses feedback in reviewing intervention strategies.
• Creates buy-in from the coachee to improve; helps develop action plans; provides support, while ensure coachee ownership over the process

Innovator:

• Tests out new ideas on an ongoing basis; failure encourages greater future effort; often demonstrates creative thinking; uses innovative approaches in the execution of work; actively searches for solutions beyond traditional boundaries.
• Makes time to reflect and codify learning; seeks out sources of learning; regularly adjusts actions based on comparing expected results against actual results; makes informed decisions based on lessons learnt from other interventions within the sector.
• Proactively shares both successful and unsuccessful endeavours; actively identifies issues that may hinder effective collaborations and devises means of minimizing these; takes a leadership role in a team

Application Closing Date
26th March, 2018.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV's (maximum of three pages), full details of their 3 referees and a 1 page Covering Letter outlining how their skills and competencies match the requirements of this post to: [email protected] Kindly state the role applied for in the subject of your e-mail.

Note: Applications are encouraged from all those who can clearly demonstrate the required skills and experiences, as well as a passion for development in Nigeria.