The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Officer will ensure that WASH programmes and project activities effectively integrate gender considerations and mainstreaming and promotion of gender equality and social inclusion in programmes/projects and strengthen specific programmes/projects for the empowerment for girls, women, youth, and people with disabilities to close gaps and help overcome gender-based inequality and discrimination. The position holder will lead the integration and streamlining of gender and social inclusion activities through the development of empowerment frameworks and guidance. The specialist will support the design and implementation of project activities that address the unique human rights challenges that women and girls face, and how to incorporate gender and social inclusion concerns in advocacy activities. S/he will support project management with recommendations for improving processes to achieve objectives and will play a key role in project planning, learning documentation, and reporting. 

S/he is responsible to ensure gender responsive and inclusive WASH solutions are used in projects, participate, and ensure gender and inclusion activities and indicators are included in Universal WASH Access and Climate Resilience projects while proposal designing and development, provide capacity building training for WaterAid and stakeholders in Gender and Social Inclusion, monitor gender and Inclusion activities are progressed well as planned.

Responsibility and Duties 

Technical Advisory:

• Develop the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion action plan in the programme/project and coordinate its implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. 

• Support an inclusive approach in all components of the project,

• Conduct timely, quality, and comprehensive Gender and Power Analysis (GAP) to inform program design and advocacy efforts of the organization.

• Lead gender empowerment and social inclusion tasks and influencing work at projects level.

• Develop /adopt community conversation tools like SAA (Social Analysis and Action) in the WASH context to promote women empowerment.

• Ensure that projects are technically sound and are aligned to WaterAid Equality, Inclusion and Rights Framework. 

• Develop necessary guidelines, systems, and tools for gender mainstreaming and systematic integration of Gender Equality in projects in close collaboration with WAE staff.

• Prepare operational plans and support implementation of gender targeting projects.

• Ensure the gender, inclusion and empowerment tasks are effectively monitored and evaluated against desired results.

• Support and implement relevant advocacy activities and campaigns with key stakeholders including relevant government offices, community leaders and service providers on women’s empowerment and social inclusion.

• Ensures that all project activities consider E&I principles and mainstreamed in the project/program to influence both local WASH sector and other stakeholders to include E&I in their WASH interventions.

• Ensure women and youth are engaged in WASH programmes and projects planning, implementation, monitoring, and decision making.

• Contribute to annual and quarterly implementation plans and budgets and reports

Planning:

• Take part in project plan and personal work planning, implementation, and review processes to maximize the effectiveness of WAE’s initiatives and supporting the Woreda and Town WASH sector.

• Plan, direct and control the operation of activities assigned.

• Take part in Woreda and town WASH planning, community mobilization and other stakeholders’ engagement in the planning process.

 Monitoring and evaluation: 

• Contribute to the monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) tools and processes, as an integral part of social change. 

• Conduct gender equality and inclusion audits from time to time and identify areas of improvement, communicate the same with relevant internal and external stakeholders, develop an action plan to address identified gaps. 

• Actively participate in project reviews, annual reviews, and planning. 

• Ensure women and vulnerable groups, must be valued as contributors, and be included in restitution of collective learning. Generate evidence and share lessons learned on gender transformative approaches.

• Ensure gender equality issues and sex, age and disability disaggregated data are included in monitoring report.

• Identify, document and disseminate best practices from within and outside WA to staff and stakeholders.

• Support thematic leads and other technical specialists in setting indicator targets and ensure targets are in line with proper programming approaches.

• Support in regular performance reviews activities to assess progress on gender transformative programs and projects.

• Prepare monthly, quarterly and interim reports to the WAE, donors, WaterAid Region as may be required on gender, social inclusion and empowerment.

• In collaboration with local government actively participate in midterm evaluation and facilitate final evaluation.

Reporting, learning, research, and capacity building:

• Develop and implement GE capacity building plan for team members and stakeholders to contribute to the Program results and managements. Develop GE training tools. Provide GE trainings and continuous support.

• Conduct gender analysis at project/ program outset and incorporate findings in work plan and baseline data for ongoing monitoring and learning purpose.

• Assist technically on gender related research at various levels.

• Train staff on various gender analysis and assessment tools and procedures 

• Provide technical support on gender and social inclusion in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation and Learning of the programme/projects.

• Coordinate with regional, zonal, and Woreda/town stakeholders, development partners and networks particularly those relevant to the WASH sector and represent WAE in policy forums locally and at zonal level and accordingly Provide technical assistance and build the capacities of stakeholders on gender, inclusion, and empowerment. 

• Present and share lessons, best practices, approaches and tested models for internal WaterAid staff, government and other stakeholders, to further scaling up and influencing. 

• Contribute to WAE reports to government and donors and provide periodic progress updates for organizational use.

Outreach and visibility: 

• Develop and support the production of GE public engagement material (for local and regional engagement, tools and events. Collect success stories, contribute to campaign. 

Safeguarding, Safety, and Security:

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding, Child Protection and Gender policies and Code of Conduct (CoC).

• Adheres to any local security protocols that have been put in place when working in the office, travelling to the field or undertaking project / programme activities.

• Immediately reports any health, safety and security incidents or near-misses that occur on WaterAid duty to their line manager, Security Focal Point or CD.

• Behaves and acts in a manner that does not put colleagues or anyone that interacts with WaterAid in immediate danger or harm’s way.

Other:

• Perform any other duty as may be assigned by supervisor or designee from time to time

• Participate and contribute to committees and task forces e.g., Procurement Committee.

Job Requirements

Qualifications, Knowledge, and Experience

• BSc degree or higher in in Gender studies, Social sciences, Community Development and other related disciplines.

• Minimum relevant experience of 5 years for MSc and 7 years for BSc in gender empowerment and social inclusion, and youth empowerment on development programmes/projects (designing, implementing and assessment/evaluation), preferably in NGOs, preferably knowledge and experience in WASH, Gender Equality, and Social Inclusion nexus. 

• Experience and knowledge of the Ethiopia and local context.

• Experience in engaging men on gender equality and women’s empowerment; Gender and climate resilience; accountability of duty bearers; Empowerment of school age/adolescent girls.

• Practical experiences on gender need assessment, gender analysis, and other gender tools at field and office levels for developmental setting.

• Experience in designing and facilitating gender equality training for staff and partners.

• Demonstrated technical ability, sound judgment, and ability to work effectively with others at all levels.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, e.g., Government offices at different levels, partners, other NGOs, and networks.

• Proficiency in the use of computers (MS word, Excel, Power Point, e-mail, Internet).

• Good written and spoken English language; (Speaking the local language is an advantage).

• Good community mobilization and facilitation skills, respecting community values

• Experience of working on WASH related issues and good understanding of gender and inclusion in government WASH policy.

Behavioural Competences 

• Should have competency in WaterAid common approaches to work including partnerships, convening, inclusion, systems strengthening, creating behavioral change, and mainstreaming gender and inclusion of youth.

• The Gender, Inclusion and Empowerment Expert should demonstrate competence in the following: 

  • Respectfulness

  • Accountability

  • Courage

  • Excellence

  • Building partnership

  • Stress tolerance

  • Building commitment

  • Collaboration

  • People focus

How to Apply

Qualified applicants can send their CV's and motivational letters through THIS LINK. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. 

 WaterAid is an equal opportunities employer regardless of sex, race, disability, age, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. WaterAid Ethiopia does not discriminate on grounds of gender, marital status, race, tribe, religion, culture, disability, age, HIV/AIDS status, or any other factor. WaterAid Ethiopia encourages female candidates to apply. 

 WaterAid is committed to ensuring that wherever we work in the world, there is no tolerance for the abuse of power, privilege or trust. WaterAid reinforces a culture of zero tolerance towards any form of inappropriate behavior, abuse, harassment, or exploitation of any kind. The safeguarding of our beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf, is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. All staff and volunteers are required to share in this commitment through our Global Code of Conduct. We will conduct the most appropriate pre-employment references and checks to ensure high standards are maintained.