Job Description

JOB TITLE: Gender and Social Inclusion Officer
TEAM/PROGRAMME: EU, Nigeria LOCATION Jigawa with periodic visits to Kano GRADE 4 POST TYPE: National

CHILD SAFEGUARDING: Level 4 - The responsibilities of this post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children and young people.

As part of these responsibilities the post holder will support the establishment of child safeguarding systems, promote a culture of keeping children safe, and ensure that potential harm to children (by our own staff and/or as a result of how we do our work) is identified and addressed on an ongoing basis. The post holder should report and respond to interventions as determined by position related responsibilities identified in the Child Safeguarding Policy.

Save the Children International (SCI) is a leading independent international organization creating lasting change for children in need around the world. SCI works in over 120 countries globally, including Nigeria, helping children to survive, learn, and be protected. We are working with the government to improve children’s education, health, nutrition, protection, and economic opportunities, and in times of acute crisis, mobilizing rapid life-saving assistance to help the children to recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters.

Save the Children International in consortium with Plan International have been selected EU project of over an 18-month period, to implement education and youth empowerment in North-West Nigeriaacross states of Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa by providing youth, in particular girls in rural underserved and nomadic communities, with access to inclusive gender transformative and conflict sensitive equitable quality education and skill development. The project will support the governments’ efforts to address the challenge of Out of School Children and Youth (OOSCY) through the institutionalisation of Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP) in the 3 states. The project will also support the efforts of the Federal and respective State governments to empower youth with job creative skills through vocational training as well as address the barriers that girls and women face to access education and livelihood opportunities.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Gender and Social Inclusion Officer will support the EU education project team and provide technical support to guide and inform gender and social inclusive programming through an “integrated approach” in Jigawa and Kano states.

The Gender and Social Inclusion Officer will support in mainstreaming gender and Social Inclusion as cross-cutting themes for all the programmatic activities. S/he will ensure gender is integrated into the results-based management frameworks, strengthen, and support social inclusion, apply gender equality strategies and facilitate gender equality capacity strengthening for field teams and partner organizations of SCI via training and tool development. S/he will not only ensure the project programmes are inclusive and gender sensitive but aims to provide support to make such programmes become gender sensitive.

Under the guidance of the Programme Manager, the Gender and Social Inclusion will ensure that gender and social inclusion issues are identified in the project are addressed, and that activities are responsive to the needs of girls, boys, young people, other vulnerable groups and, that all materials and trainings are inclusive.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Programme Manager

Staff directly reporting to this post None.

Budget responsibility: None

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Programme Implementation, Coordination & Management:

• Lead capacity building for staff on gender and social inclusion, including developing initiatives to make existing learning environment gender-responsive and inclusive for girls, boys, young people and other marginalized children in the project states.
• Guided by gender analysis, the officer will support in advocacy to identify and support stakeholders in developing mechanisms to address gender and social inclusion in policy and system on education and empowerment of young people.
• Coordinate gender and social inclusion project activities between thematic areas of implementation.
• Conduct regular gender analysis, support community mapping and safety audits to identify and address access and social inclusion issues.
• With support from the programme team, formulate key gender and social inclusion messages and targets from lessons learned, assessments, research and evidence gained through project implementation.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of EU project objectives and initiatives, both short and long term, encompassing a wide range of issues with a gender lens.
• Acquire information and understanding of key gender issues in the country particularly in the project states focusing on boys and girls (e.g., GBV etc.) and adapt strategies as necessary.
• Ensure a focus on gender equality, gender mainstreaming and social inclusion in all components of project implementation.
• Develop and facilitate gender and social inclusion components in training materials, needs assessment and other project tools and resources.
• Ensure gender and social inclusion is mainstreamed in IEC materials developed on the project.
• Support SCI staff to identify and address the intersectionality of gender and disability in project planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Perform other tasks, as required, to ensure the smooth running of the organisation.

MEAL

• Support tracking of gender and social inclusion-specific project indicators.
• Support MEAL team in analysing gender and inclusion specific data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• In collaboration with the MEAL team, collate and disseminate regular project gender and social inclusion reports.

Human Resources Management and Development:

• Working together with the EU project team to identify learning and development needs of the project teams and develop specific plans to address the learning needs.

Internal and external engagements

• Develop and maintain a network of external contacts with key individuals in the state, NGO sector, civil society and the media particularly working on gender and social inclusion issues and participate in gender working group meetings, which may include providing oversight.
• Engage the relevant gender and social inclusion stakeholders at State levels in support of the project cycle management.

Safeguarding

• Ensure that the gender component of project complies Save the Children’s safeguarding policies.
• Work with the project safeguarding officer to ensure that all gender and social inclusion activities have a safeguarding risk assessment and mitigation measure in place

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development, and encourages others to do the same.
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.
• Future orientated, thinks strategically.

Collaboration:

• Actively listens to different perspectives and experiences of stakeholders.
• Actively participates in networks to access and contribute to good practice.
• Establishes and maintains clear communication and dialogue with disaster and conflict affected people and other stakeholders.
• Establishes clear objectives with partners.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions to gender and social inclusion.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency.
• Commitment to Save the Children Values

Leadership: Action; Thinking; Self; Inspiring; Developing Others:

• Demonstrates approachability and trust by listening carefully to others and valuing their contribution, and making others feel comfortable by being open and honest about their thoughts and feelings.
• Demonstrates self-development and management by taking responsibility for own development, and actively seeking out feedback to better understand their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Makes positive statements about work.
• Effectively influences others by understanding their interests and showing how they will be met by own preferred solution.

Gives constructive feedback to enhance capabilities and responsibilities to partners and others

Desirable

• Experience building capacity particularly in gender and social inclusion related issues.
• Prior work experience in communities across Nigeria.
• Knowledge of the policies, frameworks, functions, structures and decision-making processes of key national institutions with regard to disability and gender.
• Team player with strong leadership skills.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential Criteria

• First degree or equivalent in Social Science, development studies, gender & development or equivalent combination of relevant training and experience.
• At least 2- 5 years-experience implementing on issues of gender and social inclusion in development, humanitarian response.
• Proven experience in supporting the designing, implementing, and evaluating gender-transformative social and social inclusion interventions.
• Experience in supporting the implementation of empowerment of young people and gender-transformative approaches in any context.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team setting with minimal supervision.
• Specific knowledge of international development gender equality and social inclusion issues; experience engaging children and other community members on gender equality issues desirable.
• Excellent planning and organizational skills with the ability to multi-task in a fast-paced work environment

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal opportunities and diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

The Organization
We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

· No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
· All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
· Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information:
Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/jobs We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.