Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Manager - MEDA Ghana

The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Manager at MEDA Ghana will provide managerial oversight over the GESI and nutrition technical specialists. As part of the in-country senior management team, the GESI Manager will collaborate closely with other functional managers of the project and contribute to its overall success.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager, the GESI Manager will lead the project staff in developing GESI strategy and incorporating GESI based approaches to project implementation. The Manager will assist project implementing partners to ensure that they bring a GESI lens to their outreach with community leaders, men, women, and youth in the areas where the project is operating. The Manager will work closely with MEDA’s headquarters based GESI technical specialists.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the development of the GESI strategy to effectively support the overall project goals;
• Provide expert advice, leadership, oversight, and build core capacities of project staff and implementing partners to mainstream GESI into all project interventions;
• Work closely with the Project Manager and other project team members to integrate GESI considerations into annual, semi-annual, quarterly, and monthly implementation plans and reports.

• Facilitate integration of GESI analyses across the design and implementation of all field level activities, including monitoring and evaluation.
• Lead the design of tools for conducting rapid gender analyses in new areas of work and specific value chains before starting implementation in that area.
• Ongoing communication with the project team to ensure staff members stay abreast of the project’s GESI strategy.
• Monitoring of relevant GESI policies and legislation in Ghana as they affect smallholder women farmers, entrepreneurs, and agribusinesses.
• Building of gender equality and social inclusion programming capacity among project staff, local implementing partners and other project stakeholders, including facilitation of the selection of knowledgeable local organizations and individuals to conduct targeted training for local implementing and market partners.
• Establish gender focal points (GFPs) at each of MEDA’s project partners, who will liaise with her or him and with MEDA’s HQ-based GESI Advisor to function as a network responsible for ensuring GESI integration and reporting at the partner level.
• Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of GESI results;
• Identify and disseminate best practice examples of GESI mainstreaming within the project and contribute to the MEDA’s Community of Practice.
• Documentation and reporting – write GESI sections of quarterly, semi-annual, and annual donor reports, produce periodic updates and gender related briefs.
• Support to management – provide advice to management team on gender and youth related issues, concerns, trends, and policies; review country office policies (e.g., HR policy) to make them more GESI sensitive; represent MEDA, on request, at workshops and events.
• Develop contacts with other GESI specialists working in the area as well as women serving organizations focused on GESI issues.

Any other duties and/or requirements as assigned

REQUIREMENTS

Education: Post-graduate qualifications (ideally a master’s degree) in social science preferably in gender and/or youth studies, sociology or other relevant disciplines.

Experience: A minimum of 10 years’ experience working on development issues, of which at least five years focusing on GESI and/or women’s economic empowerment (WEE), including in design, monitoring and evaluation of WEE projects.

Additional Qualifications:

• Appreciation and support of MEDA’s mission, vision, and values.
• Understanding and appreciation of business principles, international development and MEDA’s approach of creating business solutions to poverty.
• Knowledge of gender and youth related issues in Ghana as they relate to value chain development and entrepreneurship.
• Ability to work collaboratively to achieve results.
• Demonstrated ability to mobilize stakeholders into partnerships and alliances, coordinate and facilitate collaborative processes around issues of gender and youth.
• Experience in providing capacity building and training to colleagues and project partners on gender equality and youth issues.
• Fluency in English and any major local language in Northern, Savanna or Upper West regions is an added advantage.