Gender Advisor (Africa) – The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Development and Project Management, Economics, Social Sciences and Community
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Each day, 795 million people — one in nine — go hungry. Close to 2 billion people survive on diets that lack the vital vitamins and nutrients needed to grow properly, live healthy lives, and raise a healthy family. About 1.4 billion people worldwide struggle with overweight and obesity. That’s more than the number of people who are hungry worldwide.
In total, around 3.5 billion people — half the people on the planet today — are malnourished.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an international organization that was launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition.
GAIN is driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. We act as a catalyst — building alliances between governments, business and civil society — to find and deliver solutions to the complex problem of malnutrition. Today we are on track to reach over a billion people with improved nutrition – a goal for 2015.
We focus our efforts on children, girls and women because we know that helping them have sustainable, nutritious diets is crucial to ending the cycle of malnutrition and poverty. By building alliances that deliver impact at scale, we believe that we can eliminate malnutrition within our lifetimes.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is seeking a Gender Advisor (Africa) in supporting the integration of GAIN’s strategic gender objectives into all aspects of its work across 6 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This position will be on a 2 years’ fixed term contract basis, subject to availability of funding and is open to GAIN’s country offices in Addis Ababa and Abuja.
About GAIN
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with both governments and businesses, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people. In particular, we aim to make healthier food choices more desirable, more available, and more affordable. GAIN’s mission is to advance nutrition outcomes by improving consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, especially the most vulnerable to malnutrition.
About the Role
This position is part of a team responsible for supporting the integration of GAIN’s strategic gender objectives into all aspects of its work. This mainstreaming agenda, facilitated by GAIN’s Gender Lead, is comprised of two workstreams: programmatic and institutional. This role is responsible for accelerating GAIN’s process of integrating a gender focus into all steps of project implementation (project design, implementation, and monitoring).
Reporting to the Senior Technical Specialist, Gender Lead, the postholder will be a thought-leader and adviser to GAIN’s Africa-based teams as they develop and implement projects. You will be responsible for providing the technical guidance and tools to ensure a gender-lens is applied and gender considerations integrated into activities. This position will rely on your previous programmatic experience implementing nutrition programs with a gender focus and their strong grasp of extant evidence on best practices in Africa.
The postholder will be the focal person and technical advisor on gender for project teams across 6 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, implementing large-scale collaborative multi-sectoral nutrition programmes. In addition, you will utilise project data to document and present successful examples of gender integration, internally and externally. External engagement will also include building strategic relationships with regional partners including government decision makers and NGOs.
Key Responsibilities include;
- Providing technical guidance to GAIN and CARE consortium teams in 6 countries – Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda on integrating gender considerations into all aspects of the project lifecycle. This includes improving theories of change to reflect gender objectives set by programme, reviewing activity plans, identifying appropriate gender indicators, and advising evaluations
- Identifying a set of gender assessment methodologies and tools and advising country teams on appropriate application
- Leading on the development of a gender monitoring framework and in cooperation with the Programme Monitoring and Improvement Lead that tracks gender equitable outputs and outcomes
- Providing advice to Country Directors and Project Managers and build capacity of country teams to effectively employ the monitoring framework in their project portfolios
- Tracking project data on gender and periodically review progress on gender-focused outputs and outcomes and advising course correction when necessary
- Engaging programme staff on gender through launching and facilitating a gender technical advisory group
- Advising country policy teams on where they can and should integrate gender into advocacy initiatives to improve the enabling environment around gender
About You
The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in gender equitable programming in Low- and Middle-Income countries within nutrition, food security, policy, advocacy and/or related programme areas, providing technical support, research, or evaluation (ideally within the international development, civil society, NGO sector). You will have proven field work experience in multiple Sub-Saharan African countries and demonstrated success working in multi-sectoral programmes and multi-cultural settings.
You will have demonstrable experience of integrating new concepts and working with project / programme staff and multi-disciplinary teams at varying levels with an in‐depth understanding of programme issues and advocacy work at organizational, national and international levels.
In addition to this, you will possess excellent M&E and data analysis skills, with an understanding of measuring and monitoring gender equitable outcomes, women’s empowerment/agency, and related topics in projects alongside an excellent understanding of nutrition and food systems concepts and measurement/monitoring.
Excellent communication (written and verbal) alongside exceptional public speaking skills will be essential to this role, with the ability to communicate technical content to multi-disciplinary teams with varying levels of technical knowledge.
Candidates should have an excellent command of written and spoken English, and fluency in French or Portuguese or knowledge of second language is an additional asset.
A Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Economics, Nutrition, Sociology, Development, or related field is desirable. Candidates are expected to be highly flexible and be willing to travel occasionally.
About our Offer
The starting salary for Ethiopia office is as follows, depending on experience:
ETB 923,496 – ETB 1,056,480 (gross) per annum
GAIN has a fair and competitive salary structure that allows for annual progression subject to good performance. In addition, GAIN offers a total of 37 days holiday per year (including annual leave, public holidays and additional office closure days), an attractive pension scheme and competitive insurance cover including health, travel and life assurance.
We are committed to the health of our staff, especially in these challenging times, and have developed a programme of wellbeing that includes flexible working, additional leave allowances, wellbeing days, mindfulness coaching and access to independent and confidential counselling.
GAIN also has a strong commitment to professional development. We will support you to grow in your career through both formal and informal training, and are committed to providing opportunities through internal recruitment, secondments and promotion. All of this is delivered in a supportive and collaborative environment.
Our Working Culture and Environment
We provide a flexible working environment that includes a combination of home and office working opportunities through our global hybrid working policy. This encourages our staff to have a healthy work-life balance and increases staff motivation, enriches employee wellbeing, and improves performance and productivity.
All of our positions are based in one or more of GAIN’s designated offices as stated on our job advertisements. Successful candidates will be based in one of GAIN’s country offices and must have the existing right to live and work within a reasonably commutable distance of the relevant city / cities in which the role is advertised. Please note, that GAIN does not sponsor working visas and relocations.
GAIN reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment for candidates who are considered to ineligible under the above conditions during or after the recruitment process.
For more detailed information please follow this link GAIN – Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition: Gender Advisor (Africa) (gainhealth.org) and see the attached job description.
