Gender & Capacity Development Officer

THE ORGANISATION Founded in 1937, Plan International, Inc. ("PII") is a globally recognized non-profit dedicated to advancing children's rights and gender equality in both humanitarian and development contexts.
With over 80 years of experience, Plan International addresses the root causes of challenges faced by girls and vulnerable children, working in 70+ countries.
The organization collaborates with children, young people, supporters, and partners to create a just world, acknowledging that the potential of every child is often hindered by poverty, violence, exclusion, disasters, and discrimination.
PLAN INTERNATIONAL KENYA Plan International Kenya (PIK), operational since 1982, focuses on long-term development.
Collaborating closely with local communities and governments, PIK implements programs to enhance the well-being of children in areas such as Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Tharaka-Nithi, Siaya, Kwale, Kilifi, Homa Bay, Kisumu, Tana River, Turkana, Marsabit and Isiolo.
Under the current Country Strategy (July 2021 – June 2026), PIK aims to end teenage pregnancies and gender-based violence against girls.
This goal aligns with four strategic objectives: 1.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Improve access to SRHR services and information to reduce teenage pregnancies and harmful practices in Kenya.
2.
Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence: Ensure functional child and girls' rights protection mechanisms to prevent and respond to all forms of violence and abuse.
3.
Protecting Girls and Young Women in Crisis and Climate Change Adaptation: Minimize the impact of disasters on girls, young women, families, and communities.
4.
Youth-led and Innovative Partnerships for Job Creation: Build a stronger ecosystem for youth employment and entrepreneurship, particularly for vulnerable young women, fostering job seekers and creators.
ABOUT THE ROLE The SDC-GBV Horn of Africa project, is a new 4-year project that will be implemented in Isiolo County.
The project's intermediate outcomes are (1) Women, men, girls, and boys increasingly recognise, prevent, report and address GBV, and 2) Governments, formal and informal WLOs at national and local levels deliver quality GBV prevention and responses.
It will ride on the Gender and Inclusion Approach, which is a gender transformative and inclusive approach.
This approach attempts to tackle root causes of vulnerability and inequality and promote equal rights whether in a humanitarian or more developmental context.
The anticipated project activities implementation will consider the different needs of targeted girls and women and contribute for addressing the root causes of gender inequality and exclusion.
The Gender Capacity Development Officer (Gender-CDO) will be responsible to drive the gender transformative approach of both projects so that they challenge and address gender-related barriers for sustainable and rewarding change.
The Gender-CDO will support and work with project teams and partners to provide technical guidance and support to analyse and apply the elements of gender transformation in project activities, including capacity building of the teams and partners.
Additionally, the role is to ensure that the gender marker application is managed throughout the project cycle for project work.
With support from the line manager, the Gender- CDO will closely work with teams in SDC GBV Horn of Africa Project for synergy and integration of project interventions in Isiolo.
ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES 1.
Planning and Implementation (40%)  •    Ensure the projects maintains gender-sensitivity in all project activities.
These include but not limited to, addressing gender norms directly, improving agency, promoting positive masculinity, and fostering an enabling environment where possible and appropriate.
•    Work towards enabling projects to achieve the highest standards of gender transformation to address power and gender inequalities that undermine responsive nutritional and food security outcomes for children and women, adaptive climate change, improved economic self-reliance and community resilience and water, sanitation, and hygiene.
•    Facilitate meaningful engagement, consultation, participation and feedback to ensure gender transformation is on track.
•    Facilitate and support localization and implementation of Gender equality and Inclusion strategy into all the components of project cycle.
They will work towards promoting gender equality, women's empowerment, and social inclusion in the project's activities, strategies and outcomes.
•    Inform community led beneficiary targeting processes and reporting on interventions being undertaken from a gender and inclusion perspective.
2.
Reporting and Influencing (15%)  •    Support the Implementing partner engagement in the mobilization and participation of  women's rights organizations (WROs)  •    Promote participation of children, girls and communities in project cycle to explore and challenge gender norms.
•    Contribute to gender sensitive responses/intervention through continuous data collection during project implementation.
•    Contribute to project periodic reports in line with the laid down donor requirements and Plan standards.
3.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Quality Assurance (20%)  •    Manage the application of the gender marker across the projects •    Review and input into the projects MERL plans and framework, data collection tools and M&E guidance to ensure that MERL practices are gender sensitive and the project is expertly capturing gendered outputs and outcomes.
•    Participate in baseline/end-line and other qualitative and quantitative evaluation activities (i.e.
methodology and tool development and data analysis) to ensure a gender lens is applied.
•    Monitor and advise on the actions that promote gender transformation as defined in the marker, across all project phases.
•    Support and present in project reviews from a gender and inclusion perspective and identify areas where we are excelling with gender and areas where we can improve.
4.
Working in Partnership (10%)  •    Provide support and capacity strengthening of partners on gender transformation.
•    Understand the partnership context and inform the GEI aspects that affect the project implementation •    Actively participate in partnership sessions and support to drive GEI •    Build and strengthen working relations with local structures (local administration, schools among others) and ensure their participation from a gender and inclusion perspective •    Support the delivery of trainings on gender equality and inclusion for stakeholders and partners.
•    Assess local partners' capacity gaps in delivery of program work with attention to GE&I and develop capacity building plans for mutual development.
5.
Risk Management (5%)   •    Contribute to development of the project risk assessment on matters GEI.
•    Continually advise on local context in advancing gender transformation.
6.
Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) (5%) •    Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International's Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
•    Leads the orientation of programme staff to ensure that they are properly inducted on and understands their role in upholding Plan International's safeguarding and GEI policies; •    Ensures that Plan International's global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in project design, during implementation and as principles applied in day-to-day work of Programme team;  •    Ensures that Plan Kenya contributes to Plan International's global efforts to ensure safeguarding and GEI, including making sure that relevant reporting and data are submitted.
7.
Other Duties (5%) •    As assigned by the line manager.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE Qualifications/ experience essential:  •    Bachelor's Degree in Gender and development, International development, Development Studies, Sociology and other related studies.
•    Technical knowledge of Gender Equality and Inclusion in general, and as it relates to relevant sectors at the Community level and their impact on the population.
•    At least 3 years progressive experience in Gender Transformative and Rights based Approaches into project design, implementation and M&E  •    Direct project implementation experience, reporting and capacity building, preferably in the field of either nutrition, natural resource management, community development, and climate change adaptation.
•    Hold personal values, ethics and attitudes which are in alignment with the principles of the Plan's values   Qualifications/ experience desirable:  •    Experience working in Isiolo or the North  •    Strong report writing skills  •    Documentation of project impact stories of change •    Community facilitation, networking, partnership development and management skills  •    Good communication, negotiation and advocacy skills  •    Good interpersonal, relationship and team working  •    Conflict Management skills  •    Ability to understand the cultural context of the coastal communities.
•    Experience in program phase out management •    Motorcycle riding skills and experience   Languages required: •    Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Kiswahili and English.
Northern dialect is an added advantage.
Click on the following link to access the full Job Description: JD Gender and Capacity Development Officer - SDC_HoA - final.pdf   Location: Isiolo, Kenya  Reports to: Project Coordinator Closing Date: 6th November 2024  Contract Period: 3 years   NB: Qualified candidates who are residents of Isiolo are highly encouraged to apply.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.
We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.
We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls' rights and inclusion.
Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe.
This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.
A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International's Safeguarding Children and Young People policy.
Plan International also participates in the  Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme .
In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment.
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Disclaimer: Plan International is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate applicants on any basis.
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