Regional Gender Specialist (female applicants only)

Organizational Setting

FAO Afghanistan is investing, across all 34 provinces, in resilience reinforcing actions that focus on protecting agriculture livelihoods and local ecosystems, boosting local production of nutritious foods and cash-incomes, and safeguarding critical agriculture sectoral development gains achieved over the past couple of decades through revitalizing rural markets and economy. In 2023, FAO will contribute to the humanitarian components of the UN Strategic Framework 2023-2025 through four priority actions: (i) Safeguarding Wheat Seed Security, (ii) Enhancing Local Production of Nutritious Food, (iii) Livestock Protection and Dairy Sector Support, and (iv) Restoring Irrigation Structures to Boost Cash Incomes. FAO will also contribute towards resilience building activities and longer-term transformational processes as part of the implementation of the UN Strategic Framework 2023-2025.

FAO Afghanistan are specifically seeking female applicants for the position of Regional Gender Specialist with duty station Kandahar.

Reporting Lines

Overall supervision of the FAO Representative, the direct supervision of the Regional Coordinator and the technical supervision of the Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer.

Technical Focus

The incumbent will address aspects such as: gender equality in food security, social protection; gender equality in the livestock, gender-sensitive value chains and analysis and use of sex-disaggregated data; gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and resilience; reduction in rural women's work burden; gender mainstreaming in all pertaining projects, including monitoring and reporting; women's land rights; and gender and social protection.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Deploy a strategic plan in assisting Programming Teams to design and initiate emergency response programs/interventions, needs and resources which appropriately address gender considerations and promote the protection and empowerment of women and girls in rural communities; • Respond to requests and provide advice, assistance and solutions to Regional Coordinators related to gender equality and women’s empowerment and provide technical recommendation and advice to field projects both in development and humanitarian contexts; • Coordinate capacity development activities involving knowledge sharing, organization of training workshops, awareness raising, seminars and meetings as well as the development of related materials and on-line tools and information kits; • In close collaboration with all Regional Gender Officers, develop training materials, provide training and coaching on gender to Implementing Partners (IPs) and FAO’s regional staff; • Help and support practices and actions to promote gender equality and the protection, empowerment and voice of women and girls, such as considering gender composition of beneficiaries, supporting capacity development of women, training, and orientation; • Initiate and lead gender analysis and assessments to generate regional-specific evidence on gender and other social aspects of technical areas under the FAO mandate and subsequently identify good practices in FAO work and widely disseminate/promote these within the region; • Provide on the job training (OJT) and supervise the gender and home economics specialists at district level; • Assist the Regional Coordinator to develop and improve gender inclusion and awareness and activities including improvement of women and youth conditions and options for smallholders to work with the project enterprises; • Directly supervise and guide inclusion of gender surveys and activities across the programme portfolio by providing training and supervision for field staff in data collection and analysis, and in particular the training on improved practices using available and improved food sources. This will include the measurement of gender involvement with women as a specific target group of beneficiaries; • Monitor and oversee regularly the activities implemented focusing on women and men in targeted communities, making sure equal access of both men and women, prepare report, including recommendations for remedial actions as necessary and share findings with the Regional Coordinator and Programming Team in Kabul; • Deliver training for women’s groups and training-of-trainer (TOT) on agriculture and livestock packages and production, storage, processing (to reduce also drudgery for women) and introduce and provide training on better technologies and tools for small and medium scale processing and value addition; • Provide guidance on the equipment and materials needs to improve gender participation at provincial and district level; • Report to the Regional Coordinator on all activities related to the gender aspects of the programme and compile / summarize a monthly report (s) based on IPs’ inputs; • Prepare technical and other reports, monthly or as required and develop/maintain gender-segregated data; • Engage with local service providers and supervise the gender related components of service contracts, service providers and beneficiaries; • Assist the Gender Focal point of FAO in Gender plan and Gender Stock Taking Exercise for FAO; • Perform any other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master or equivalent) or University degree (Bachelor) in Sociology, Social Sciences, Nutrition, Agriculture, Human Rights, Economics, Development Economics, Development Studies, Gender Studies or other related disciplines; • For Advanced university degree (Master or equivalent) at least five (5) years of professional experience in an area related to value chain development, agriculture, rural development with special knowledge in gender mainstreaming, gender sensitive value chains as well as gender and development, human rights, social affairs, political affairs or humanitarian affairs; • For university degree (Bachelor) at least seven (7) years of experience in an area related to value chain development, agriculture, rural development with special knowledge in gender mainstreaming, gender sensitive value chains as well as gender and development, human rights, social affairs, political affairs or humanitarian affairs; • Working knowledge (level C) of English and local languages (Pashto and/or Dari); • National of Afghanistan.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus • Teamwork • Communication • Building Effective Relationships • Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Ability to effectively coordinate a large, multi-stakeholder project with results-based management; • Ability to deal with political, technical, and people management challenges, administer budgets and work effectively with all staff and with groups involved in the project; • Experience in designing, coordinating, and implementing development progammes and projects; • Experience organizing stakeholder meetings or workshops; • Ability to identify and resolve problems expeditiously and pragmatically; tact, initiative and sound judgment; • Extent and relevance of experience in coordinating and liaising with the relevant stakeholders; • Excellent report writing skills; • Excellent interpersonal communications and coordination skills, and proven ability to work constructively with a variety of stake holders to achieve common goals; • Previous experience with the UN is considered a strong asset; • Strong professional command of Microsoft Office, in particular Word and Excel.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help please contact: [email protected]
• Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
• For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.