GENDER, INCLUSION & Safeguarding SPECIALIST
Job Title
Gender, Inclusion and Safeguarding Specialist
Function
Programme development and Quality
Supervises
None
Reports to
Programme Quality Manager
Location
Hargeisa, Mogadishu
Travel required
%30
Effective Date
5th April
Grade
D2
ORGANISATION OVERVIEW & ROLE PURPOSE
Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion, and discrimination. And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters, and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national, and global levels using our reach, experience, and knowledge. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 88 years, and are now active in more than 87 countries.
Our global strategy “All girls standing strong creating global change” has a specific focus on girls, as they are often the most marginalised and most often left behind. We have committed ourselves to the ambitious target of reaching 200 million girls over 5 years, to ensure they can learn, lead, decide and thrive. This is our contribution to reaching the sustainable development goals, and in particular the goals on gender equality in both humanitarian and development settings. Our organisation is transforming itself to meet the enormous challenge everywhere we work. We need bold, forward-thinking, and innovative individuals to lead our country operations, driving change and delivering results that will allow us to reach our target of 200 million girls.
Plan international has opened an office in Somaliland/Somalia and started programs that focus on child protection, education, and youth economic empowerment programming in both humanitarian and development settings, working with/through partners and providing technical support to INGOs, and the Government in Plan’s areas of expertise.
The position holder will be responsible to support the implementation of Plan International strategy by developing & ensuring the mainstreaming and promotion of gender equality, safeguarding, and inclusion in all programs and strengthening specific programs/projects for the empowerment of girls, women, and persons with disabilities to close gender gaps and help overcome gender-based inequality and discrimination. This would be demonstrated in undertaking responsibilities which include; ensuring gender transformative approaches are used in all projects, participating and ensuring gender, safeguarding, and inclusion activities and indicators are included in projects while proposal design and development, providing capacity-building training for plan International and partners’ staff, strengthening networking and resource mobilization, strengthening partnership with organizations and NGOs that have similar visions, missions, and goals on Gender, Safeguarding, and Inclusion work and to monitor gender, safeguarding, and Inclusion activities are progressed well as planned.
ROLE DIMENSIONS:
The Gender, Inclusion, and Safeguarding Specialist will work to further improve the quality of our projects’ design and delivery and mainstream gender equality, safeguarding, and inclusion in projects, operations, and human resources staff procedures. The post holder will work closely with the program, human resources, and operation teams to support the implementation and tracking of gender equality, safeguarding, and gender-transformative standardized guidelines, tools, procedures, gender marker, GEISA, GIR, and other standards and assessment actions.
Level of contact with children
This position has been classified as “high contact”: Significant interaction with children
Key result areas:
KRA 1: Strategic support and Leadership
Conduct timely, quality, and comprehensive rapid gender analysis (RGA) to inform program design and advocacy efforts, incorporating safeguarding concerns
Ensure safeguarding principles are integrated into all gender and inclusion strategies and programmatic decisions.
Conduct gender equality, inclusion, and safeguarding audits to identify areas of improvement, communicate findings with relevant stakeholders, and develop an action plan.
Advice on gender and inclusion program and generate evidence and share lessons learned on gender transformative approaches for strategic organizational decisions.
Lead the implementation and operationalization of the Gender Equality Inclusion Self-Assessment (GEISA) findings with a safeguarding lens
Provide leadership in the development of Gender Age Marker (GAM) and ensure safeguarding risks and mitigation measures are integrated during proposal development.
KRA 2: Program Design, Integration & Mainstreaming
Ensure that Plan Somalia/Somaliland implemented programs are gender-transformative, technically sound, and aligned with Plan’s Gender and Safeguarding Policies.
Provide technical support on gender, safeguarding, and inclusion in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of humanitarian and development programs
Develop necessary guidelines, systems, and tools for gender and safeguarding mainstreaming.
Work closely with program staff to allocate budget for gender, safeguarding, and inclusion activities.
- Be responsible for gender mainstreaming in all Plan International Somalia/Somaliland program areas including in Emergency Response.
Ensure equal and fair opportunities and representation of both sexes and persons with disabilities in the program area.
Ensure the Gender, equality and inclusion tasks have been properly monitored and evaluated to whether it brings the desired result
Work seamlessly with the existing MERL system on monitoring, evaluating and reporting Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) issues as per the required templates and timelines
Ensure safeguarding considerations and risks are assessed and integrated into all programs, including humanitarian responses.
KRA 3: Influencing, Advocacy and Representation
Represent the organization in relevant national and regional forums on gender, safeguarding, and inclusion.
Establish and strengthen partnerships and networks with NGOs, Government bodies, forums and CBOs for cross-learning, identification of lessons learned, best practices, resources mobilization and scaling-up to enhance program initiatives
- Network effectively with others to draw information and knowledge for the development of project inputs and strategy development.
- Develop and implement policy advocacy action plan related to gender and inclusion using all relevant tools and techniques and in close collaboration with the Influencing and Communications team. This will include, but not be limited to, developing policy briefs, advocacy messages, organizing conferences and seminars, etc. Closely work with the Regional and Country Office Gender Specialists and other staff.
Present and share lessons, best practices, approaches and tested models for donors, government and other stakeholders, partners and alliances to further scaling up and reach wider beneficiaries as well as influencing and attracting more resources
Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan Internationals Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
KRA 5: Learning and Capacity Building
Provide technical assistance and build the capacities of local partners and Plan staff on gender and inclusion and safeguarding principles with special emphasis on addressing gender-based violence in humanitarian setting
Train staff on gender, safeguarding, and inclusion assessment tools to ensure safe programming.
Organize performance review meetings to assess progress on safeguarding-integrated gender transformative programming.
Develop training materials and conduct awareness sessions on child safeguarding, gender-based violence prevention, and reporting mechanisms
Build the capacity of staff and partners on gender transformative programming, addressing gender-based violence, particularly in humanitarian settings, etc
Work with National Offices and other stakeholders to tap the potential of mobilizing resources aimed specifically at building the capacity of staff in the area of gender, equality and inclusion
KRA 6: Safeguarding, Gender Equality & Inclusion
Ensure that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in programs and operations.
Ensure all staff, associates, and partners understand and comply with safeguarding responsibilities and reporting mechanisms.
Strengthen safeguarding risk assessments and incident reporting mechanisms in all projects.
Promote a culture of zero tolerance to exploitation, abuse, and harassment within Plan International and partner organizations.
ROLE REQUIREMENTS:
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Gender studies, social work, human rights and other related disciplines.
At least six years of substantial experience in gender on Humanitarian and development programs/projects (designing, implementing and assessment/evaluation).
Practical experiences on gender need assessment, gender analysis, GAMs and other gender tools at field and office levels for humanitarian settings
Extensive knowledge and experience of mainstreaming gender & inclusion and gender transformative approaches in all programs and projects
Leadership Competencies
Myself as a Leader
Leads through influence rather than position, and role models our values, accelerating gender equality inside and outside PIS; leads change by developing new ideas and strategies.
Lasting Impact
Sets and communicates ambitious but realistic work goals and priorities, explaining how these contribute to Plan International’s purpose.
Open & Accountable
Ensures effective delivery by leading through others, working closely with our support functions, keeping abreast of what is going on in own business unit or function and responding quickly if problems arise.
Work Well Together
Builds positive relationships outside their own work area, communicates clearly and persuasively with large and diverse groups of people; willing to compromise own preferences to achieve our broader purpose and longer-term impact.
Inclusive & Empowering
Delegates tasks and decisions, trusting and stretching others but ensuring they have the resources and support they need; adopts a coaching approach with the people they manage or advise.
Skills & Knowledge
Creates space for reflection and uses external evidence and internal evaluation to identify what and how we need to improve; creates a safe environment for others to challenge self or raise concerns; leads the team to implement changes as a result of what has been learned.
Critical Business Management Competencies
Broad and deep understanding of the political, social, financial and cultural drivers of inequality; with practical experience of developing and implementing strategies for change
Extensive knowledge and experience of mainstreaming gender & inclusion and gender transformative approaches in all programs and projects
Extensive experience and expertise in addressing gender-based violence, particularly in a humanitarian setting
Strong ability to analyse and interpret an appropriate range of data and evidence, both internal and external, using sound judgement to make balanced decisions, based on insights gained, or projection of trends.
Strong written and spoken communication skills, including in relevant local languages, with an ability to effectively adjust content and presentation to suit varied audiences internally and externally, to get key messages across.
Outstanding interpersonal skills with an ability to relate effectively to a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds; proven track record of leading collaborative working relationships and resolving conflicts between parties with differing interests.
Critical Technical Competencies
- Experience of leading others with a track record of delegating work effectively, supporting good
- Strong team management, staff capacity building, and skills in teamwork and networking
- Experience in working in a range of humanitarian contexts including with the child protection Cluster and cross-sectoral and protection and GBV relevant actors.
Demonstrated budget management and proposal development experience (with experience managing full project budgets an advantage)
Project specific know-how
Project specific know-how
Knowledge of current international humanitarian and development trends and thinking on program effectiveness and humanitarian-development nexus.
Desirable: Understanding of integrated gender transformative programming in development and humanitarian issues.
