GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION (GESI) ADVISOR

Location: West Bank/ East Jerusalem

Position Status: Full-time, Regular Employment

Salary Level: 6B - 6E, Depends on the Experience

Duration: One year with the possibility of extension

Department: Positive Youth Engagement (PYE)

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long-term impact.

The Program

Positive Youth Engagement (PYE) is a seven-year multi-sectoral Youth Activity designed to address the core issues of Palestinian youth development. The PYE activity will reach vulnerable and marginalized youth aged 10-24 at risk of social marginalization in deprived areas and private universities where they live by improving education, health, employment, community involvement (reintegration), and other needs as identified through drivers' assessments. The activity’s goal is to transform vulnerable youth into productive, contributing citizens who are connected to their communities by increasing opportunities for Palestinian youth to realize their potential and to effectively contribute to social and economic development. The following are the main themes of the PYE:

• Core programming that supports, protects, prepares, and engages youth in safe spaces found within a strong network of more than 80 CBOs throughout the West Bank.
• Tailored packages of activities, resources, and referrals that will set youth on individually selected pathways building on the core curriculum to increase opportunities for youth to effectively contribute to social and economic development.
• Opportunities for sustained community engagement and leadership through youth-led pathways and councils, community and social media campaigns, and mentorship of subsequent cohorts as part of sustainable community youth networks.
• Improve opportunities for learning and individual empowerment for youth in grades 7-12 through the network of safe spaces.
• Expand safe spaces through 11 local university career centers to reach youth ages 19-24 and offer the PYE core interventions including the Profound Stress and Attunement (PSA) approach and healthy well-being for youth, parents, and adult caretakers; learning activities (including the Passport To Success (PTS) and I: SERVE), youth pathways; and youth-led small-scale initiatives in addition to technology and innovation-driven learning programs with a focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics), green solutions, and entrepreneurship.

The Position

The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor will lead the development of the GESI approach under the PYE program and mainstream gender and disability-inclusive interventions and activities into program design and implementation. The GESI Advisor will work under the supervision of the Senior Technical Expert (STE), and closely with the Chief of Party (CoP), Technical Advisors on Nonformal Education and Career Centers Development in Private Universities, Youth Pathways and Wellbeing Managers, Learning Senior Manager, Youth Safe Spaces Capacity Strengthening Specialist, and the MEL team.

The GESI Advisor will engage with existing partners in communities and safe spaces (primary, and secondary) across 60 geographic locations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The focus of this position would be to:

• Lead the development of PYE GESI approach in collaboration with PYE CoP, STE, components’ Leads, and partner organizations, to ensure a participatory approach in integrating and mainstreaming GESI considerations into interventions’ design and implementation.

• Lead the GESI assessments/audits for partner organizations and safe spaces as well as other GESI analysis efforts as appropriate.
• Lead the development and implementation of capacity-building plans for existing partners in communities and safe spaces in key technical approaches related to advancing gender equality and social inclusion, via developing and facilitating high-quality tools, training, and coaching.
• Guide program team, partners, and safe spaces in addressing Gender and Social Inclusion of youth who live with disabilities considerations applying Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach and Do No Harm approaches.
• Promote, design, and/or implement, gender equality, youth participation, and social inclusion activities across assigned program components, ensuring that broader intersecting social justice, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in program components’ design and implementation.
• Support the program components in applying a gender and social inclusion lens in the design, development, and implementation of tools, curricula, learning materials, and interventions to ensure gender responsiveness having a careful and intentional consideration of the different learning and engagement needs of female and male youth and youth with disabilities (YWDs).
• Work closely with the non-formal education team and the learning team on mainstreaming gender and social inclusion in the design and development of related curricula and learning materials.

Essential Responsibilities

• Work in close coordination with the program team, partner organizations and safe spaces to develop and implement gender-specific mechanisms to reach target female and male youth, YWDs, and expand access to the most marginalized and underserved.
• Contribute to the development of activities that are gender sensitive/transformative, align with Positive Youth Development (PYD), and emphasize participatory and youth-led approaches.
• Lead measures to ensure that program efforts do not put any individual or marginalized group at increased risk of harm.
• Provide expertise in gender equality, youth participation, and social inclusion for the program staff, partners, and safe spaces; provide inputs for the drafting of the program concepts, activity plans, tools, publications, MEL, and reports.
• Work in close coordination with the MEL team to carry out related analysis, and assessments, and monitor partners' and safe spaces' performance in applying gender-sensitive, inclusive, and transformative programming.
• Contribute to organizational learning on gender equality, ensuring that learning from the program is shared across the program team, partner organizations, and safe spaces by distilling learnings and evidence generated into succinct and compelling programmatic guidance.
• Support the establishment, cultivation, and maintenance of relationships with the ecosystem of program stakeholders, including existing partners in communities and safe spaces, program participants, and others.
• Work collaboratively to support the program to adaptively respond to changes in the operating environment to meet the desired objectives.
• Employ creativity to adapt to learning and challenges throughout implementation.
• Ensure activities support sustainable approaches to improve the capacity of partner organizations to drive stable, long-term improvements and institutionalization.
• Contribute to the development of work plans and weekly, quarterly, and annual reporting.
• Other support duties as requested by the STE.

Accountability to Program Participants

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging program participant communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibilities

The GESI Advisor will report to the STE. Further, coordinate related data, insights, and technical knowledge with the technical team. He/She will be managing related interventions in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza. 

Accountability

Reports Directly To: PYE STE

Works Directly With: PYE CoP, MEL Team Lead, Technical Advisors on Non-Formal Education and Career Centers Development in Private Universities, Pathways and Youth Healthy Wellbeing Managers, Youth Safe Spaces Capacity Strengthening Specialist, Learning Senior Manager, Finance and Compliance Department, Operations Department, Procurement Department, and partner organizations.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Knowledge and Experience

• BA degree in gender studies, social sciences, or other human development themes. A Master’s degree is strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 8+ years of professional experience working on donor-funded international development programs, and experience focusing on gender analysis and gender mainstreaming and social inclusion.
• Significant experience in gender equality training, capacity building, and mentoring, and a demonstrated ability to make complex concepts compelling and accessible.
• Demonstrated knowledge and skills related to intersectional gender analysis, and to the design, implementation and evaluation of tools and resources to advance gender equality and social inclusion.
• Demonstrated strong knowledge and skills related to gender sensitive and transformative program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, including designing frameworks to sustainable impact.
• Understanding of best practices in youth programming, including Positive Youth Development, and familiarity with USAID’s Youth in Development Policy.
• Demonstrated ability to cultivate relationships and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders including youth, local partners and community-based institutions, educational institutions, and private sector entities.
• Demonstrated understanding of the Palestinian context for gender-related issues, social inclusion, and youth participation.
• Fluent verbal and written communication skills in Arabic and English.

Success Factors

A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members and other stakeholders of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving. This position requires an ability to think creatively about changing norms that lead to greater opportunities for economic growth at household, community, and institutional levels. S/he will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem-solve, work within a complex and sensitive setting and follow laws and security protocols. The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This position is based in Ramallah, Palestine, and requires constant movement between West Bank cities. Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs, and Mercy Corps’ policies, procedures, and values always and in all in-country venues.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal-opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants, or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply online HERE no later than 13:00 on Monday 08 April 2024.  Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.