Role Summary
- The PVNL Gender Specialist will be responsible for providing technical expertise and leadership in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment across all PVNL’s programs and initiatives.
- The Gender Specialist will play a pivotal role in the development of a gender and socio-inclusion framework for mainstreaming gender throughout the PVNL’s project cycle, from design to implementation and evaluation, ensuring that gender perspectives are effectively integrated into all organization's development interventions.
- The Gender Specialist will report to the programs director and work closely with other project leads.
Key Responsibilities
Gender Strategy and Mainstreaming:
- The Gender Specialist will provide technical support in developing and implementing women-specific projects and ensuring that principles of gender equality and social inclusion are integrated into all aspects of project design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
- She will provide technical support to the project team, project partners, and community stakeholders on the effective integration of Gender and Socio-Inclusion strategies, specifically for marginalized groups such as women, youths, and People Living with Disabilities (PLWD’s).
- Support the programs director in developing and implementing the PVNL’s Gender and Socio-Inclusion (GSI) strategy and action plan to guide the organizations gender programming.
- Lead all gender assessments and conduct gender analysis to identify gender gaps, constraints, and opportunities for specific projects within target communities or sectors.
- Ensure that PVNL’s program activities and interventions are gender-responsive and promote women's empowerment.
Capacity Building and Training:
- Design and deliver gender-related training and capacity-building programs for PVNL staff, partners, and stakeholders.
- Foster a culture of gender awareness and sensitivity within the organization and among implementing partners
- Develop toolkits, guidelines, and resource materials to support gender mainstreaming efforts.
Partnership Communication and Advocacy:
- Establish and maintain partnerships with gender-focused organizations, networks, and stakeholders.
- Working closely with the Program Director in the development of knowledge products, publications, and thought leadership pieces on gender-related topics.
- Lead in planning and share support for commemoration of global gender related events and stay abreast of the latest developments, methodologies, and approaches in the field of gender and development.
- Represent PVNL in relevant forums, conferences, and events related to gender and development.
- Support the PVNL Senior Management Team (SMT) in advocating for gender, socio-inclusion and women's empowerment at high-levels through influencing policies and practices where applicable.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning:
- Support the M&E team to develop gender-sensitive indicators and tools for monitoring and evaluating the impact of gender mainstreamed programs.
- Support the program team to analyze data and prepare reports on gender-related outcomes and lessons learned.
- Facilitate learning and knowledge-sharing activities to promote continuous improvement in gender mainstreaming.
Desired Qualification Skills and Experience
- Bachelors and Master's degree in Gender Studies, Development Studies, Social Sciences, or any related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in gender mainstreaming, programming and women's empowerment related works in development programs.
- Proven expertise in gender analysis, gender-responsive programming, gender monitoring and evaluation methodologies, Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC), gender equality principles, frameworks, and best practices.
- Excellent training and capacity-building skills, excellent research, analytical, and report writing abilities.
- Knowledge of gender-related policies, frameworks, and international commitments (e.g., SDGs)
- Proficiency in stakeholder engagement, partnership building, community advocacy and ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams and stakeholders.
- Effective communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey complex gender concepts to diverse audiences.
- Excellent computer/technical skills with advanced proficiency in MS Office Suite (Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Experience with the use of project management software.
- Fluency in Hausa language and strong understanding of rural community context in northern Nigeria is key for this position.