Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Kenya is a youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge, and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities. We support youth to become innovators and leaders, and to create and apply digital solutions that have positive impact in their communities. We work with youth, the private sector, governments, and community-based organizations towards a collaborative vision of communities shaped by daring social innovators. DOT Kenya has been running youth-led programs focused on sustainable economic growth since 2005.

Summary

The Gender, Learning and Safeguarding Officer will provide technical support, including supporting the integration of gender transformative approaches and activities in program design and implementation, monitoring and reporting on gender equality issues, and coordination across teams on gender equity initiatives to ensure the meaningful inclusion of underserved groups of youth including young women, youth with disabilities and refugee youth. Additionally, the Officer will also serve as the support focal point for safeguarding at DOT Kenya, actively promoting and actioning DOT’s policy and procedures for the Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (PSEAH) for all DOT Kenya employees, project partners and associated personnel, and youth participants. This role will also require some travel to project contexts, including training and monitoring partners.

As the successful candidate, you have a strong understanding of gender equity approaches, intersectionality, and gender mainstreaming as they relate to the implementation of youth education and skills building initiatives, and a passion for advancing women’s empowerment and gender transformative change. You have experience with safeguarding concepts and actioning policies and maintaining safeguarding systems and practices. You have a proven track record in implementing and supporting team members to develop and maintain gender-responsive systems, processes, and tools. You are a self-starter who takes initiative and is excited by working in a highly dynamic, collaborative and cross-cultural environment.

Responsibilities: 

Gender Equality (GE) (50% LOE) 

• Collaborate with different teams to deliver high-quality GE technical assistance to diverse teams across the organisation, including program design, delivery and measurement teams;
• Provide technical support to the design and facilitate the delivery of gender equality and social inclusion training for staff of youth-serving and youth-led organisations, and youth leaders deployed to deliver Going Beyond training to their youth peers;
• Provide support and monitoring of project activities and outcomes to ensure accountability for program quality and impact for young women, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and refugee youth.
• Support the documentation of learning around performance, challenges, and proposed recommendations for improvement, and the iteration of project design and implementation approaches to improve relevance, accessibility, and impact for underserved groups of youth, especially young women, PWDs, and refugee youth;
• Support the development, evaluation and revision of strategies for gender equity and the inclusion of diverse groups of youth, and provide support to localize project strategies, activities, and implementation plans;
• Contribute to project reports and documents as required;
• Participate in project coordination meetings and workshops as required.

Support Safeguarding (50% LOE) 

• Provide awareness-raising sessions on PSEAH for DOT staff, partner organizations and other project personnel on a regular basis;
• Support the design and delivery of training on safeguarding, DOT’s PSEAH policy, approaches to keeping people safe.
• Work with DOTK teams and partner organizations to develop and maintain localized and vetted referral systems, and provide support to maintain and improve systems to respond to any incidents of SEAH;
• Support in providing survivor-centered and trauma-informed support to staff, participants and community stakeholders, serving as a trusted support to the focal point to receive safeguarding complaints/reports, support survivors of SEAH, and collaborate with safeguarding response team
•  Work with DOTK teams and partner organizations to monitor the implementation of safeguarding policies, codes of conduct, and procedures;

Qualifications: 

• Passionate about building inclusive communities that can support all young people to thrive, and demonstrated commitment to championing the leadership of young people, especially young women;
• Undergraduate degree in Sociology, Gender Studies, International Development or a related field, graduate degree is an asset;
• A minimum of 2-3 years of experience in integrating and advancing gender equality within community-based education and/or entrepreneurship support initiatives or related international development projects;
• Strong understanding of GE frameworks and methodologies, including gender equity, and intersectionality, and experience implementing GE project strategies using these approaches;
• Some exposure to programming areas such as entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, digital engagement, innovation, and youth leadership, ideally through previous roles, projects, or academic work;
• Knowledge of safeguarding best practices related to accountability, protection, women and children’s rights, and the prevention of SEAH;
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage productively with various community stakeholders;
• Ability to work productively with a variety of community stakeholders to support participatory processes, such as co-design workshops with young people;
• Interest in supporting the design and delivery of accessible programs for people living with disabilities and helping project stakeholders equitably address the needs of this group;
• A problem-solver who can think critically and innovatively to add value to the project and team.