Program Summary 

With funding from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Mercy Corps’ Nawiri Program is leading a consortium of Kenyan and international partners on a eight-year journey to sustainably reduce persistent acute malnutrition in Turkana and Samburu Counties of Kenya. Through a phased approach that emphasizes evidence gap analysis, as well as partnership, learning, and co-creation, the program takes a robust county-centered design with government leadership, active engagement from communities, the private sector, and civil society. Mercy Corps’ consortium brings together the global leadership, research capacity, technical expertise, and implementation experience necessary to partner with local institutions to test, adapt, and scale evidence-based solutions. Together we will sustainably reduce persistent acute malnutrition for vulnerable populations in Turkana and Samburu counties.

Position Summary

The Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion officer will be responsible for implementing the gender and social dimensions’ interventions of malnutrition, food security and resilience. They will ensure effective and efficient roll out of planned gender/social change activities through day-to-day coordination at the sub-county level. Under the overall guidance of the Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics Lead, they will support the implementation of gender transformative approaches as captured in the gender strategy.

Through research and learning activities, that are designed and executed in close collaboration with county government, civil society, private sector, and communities themselves, there is an inherent need to understand the opportunities and challenges that are unique to women, youth and adolescents in Turkana and Samburu so that programming can be adapted. The Gender, Youth & Social Inclusion Officer will support and action our understanding of the complex causality of persistent acute malnutrition as it relates to the varied needs of women, men, girls, and boys in Turkana County. To ensure the gender and social dimensions of food security and resilience are effectively addressed across all activities and components, the Gender, Youth & Social Inclusion Officer will work with the team and coordinate closely with partners to fulfill gender and social change goals of the program.

Key Responsibilities

Program management:

• Supports the Gender, Youth and Social Dynamics lead in contextually translating the vision for Nawiri’s approach when it comes to the integration of gender, youth and social dynamics.
• Support the development, integration and mainstreaming of Nawiri’s Gender Strategy with a view to strengthen gender responsiveness and gender transformational approaches in all programmatic interventions, with a nutrition lens.
• Ensure high quality and timeliness of deliverables against intended objectives and targets.
• Ensure broad-based sub-county co-creation mechanism towards the development of a contextually relevant Structural and Social Behavior change strategy to guide effective integration in key sectors such as nutrition, health, water systems, and governance – throughout the program’s cycle.
• Contribute to and support the development of detailed implementation plans of gender and social change interventions.
• Support field research, learning and implementation of adolescent and youth interventions ensuring the adoption of mechanisms and approaches that enhance agency and leadership of adolescents and youth with a view to challenge intergenerational cycles of poverty and persistent acute malnutrition.
• Provide oversight to the gender/social change program components at the sub-county level, including undertaking field visits to oversee implementation and generate field visit reports.
• Support in the monitoring of project activities to ensure they are inclusive and support reflection and adaptation to improve inclusion as required.
• Work with the M&L team to ensure effective gender differentiated data is both captured and documented.
• Identify and support documentation of best practices and use them to profile the impact of local level gender /social change approaches and promote sharing of lessons.
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in gender integration for the program staff and partner organizations at Sub-County level.
• Represent the project to internal and external partners including the county government and other project partners and key stakeholders on relevant gender/ social change information at Sub-County level
• Other duties, as required.

Team management

• Create and maintain a work environment where mutual respect among team members prevails and where the pursuit of individual and collective excellence is valued.
• Supervise assistants, short-term consultants, enumerators and partners in various field activities in gender, youth, social dynamics scope to deliver on time and quality, from time to time.
• Promote individual accountability and commitment by clearly and regularly communicating and providing constructive feedback.
• Support field level collaborative efforts and learning to drive overall effectiveness and coherence of program operational strategies.
• Work collaboratively with all consortium partner staff in delivering a cohesive, integrated, gender and youth responsive program.
• Effectively communicate the program’s best practices and learning to the County and development stakeholders

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Requirements

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Degree in Social Sciences, Gender and development studies or other relevant discipline.
• At least three years of experience in designing, implementing gender integration interventions, including a focus on youth and adolescents
• Training in gender and youth responsive interventions.
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in gender integration that ensure proper cross-sectoral/integrated approach.
• Familiarity with principles and approaches in gender transformative approaches and understanding of programs addressing persistent acute malnutrition
• Demonstrated coordination, teamwork and planning skills with proven ability to function effectively programs/projects in both the public and NGO sectors.

Success factors/ essential skills:

• Initiative-taker, multi-tasker, and able to work effectively and respectfully with local government, private sector, civil society and donors.
• Demonstrated experience in setting up and managing systems and procedures as well as experience in building team commitment toward the achievements of program objectives.
• Team-player with positive attitude to problem solving and conflict resolution. Focused on team building and capacity-building of program staff and will be able to apply creative solutions to program quality.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected events impacting program operations.