Position Title: Gender Advisor
Reports to: Head of Partnerships Development and Advocacy
Travel: 20-30%
Location: Flexible
Are you interested in helping lead an entrepreneurial effort aimed at changing paradigms in international development and in true partnerships with governments to reduce donor dependency and increase financial sustainability? Would you be excited to leverage your private sector background to help finance health systems? Do you get energy from working with different stakeholders – ranging from Wall Street banking institutions to ministries of health and finance to UN agencies? Are you looking to join a team of partners that are committed, experienced, and fun to work with? Then you should explore this leadership role with the Financing Alliance for Health.
FINANCING ALLIANCE FOR HEALTH OVERVIEW
Financing Alliance for Health (FAH), partners with the government on all steps of financing to strengthen, and sustain community health systems, leveraging primary health care to attain universal health coverage. (FAH partners long-term with Ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance teams to develop different and changing financing sources). FAH draws on private sector knowledge of financial structuring and access to private sector and development finance opportunities to support countries to access financing for community health, given the complexity of the funding landscape, the challenges of utilizing domestic resources, and the difficulty of capitalizing on available funding opportunities. We are also charged with identifying and tapping into private sector financing and developing new, creative and ‘out-of-the-box’ models of ‘blended’ financing that combine domestic and international support with private sources of capital, including from corporations.
The aim of our work is to increase access, coverage and utilization of quality primary health services at household level, in a culturally appropriate manner so as to reduce morbidity and mortality. Community health systems have a proven track record of economic, social and health impact through the thousands of jobs created for predominantly female, marginalized and young community health workers (CHWs).
The FAH focuses on four work areas: country engagement and support, analytical toolkits, financing products, and awareness and education.
POSITION DESCRIPTION
The Financing Alliance for Health is seeking a highly skilled, multi-functional, and entrepreneurial Gender Advisor with a passion for global health.
The Gender Advisor will play a crucial role in providing expert advice on gender-related issues, challenges, and initiatives critical to the attainment of objectives in line with latest evidence and programmatic developments on gender. Specifically, the Gender Advisor will provide guidance and support to the program team to further understand how integrating CHWs into health systems can be done in a more gender responsive way, increase understanding of the challenges and opportunities female CHWs face on the journey to professionalization as well as surface any unintended negative consequences to professionalization. This will be done using qualitative (focus groups, docuseries) and quantitative measures (surveys) working in close collaboration with academic partners. The Gender Advisor will also contribute to organizational change efforts to promote a culture and systems that help advance gender equality. The Gender Advisor will provide mentorship and coach the program team as part of daily work by explaining key gender integration concepts, standards, and resources. The incumbent will also facilitate training and mentorship to strengthen the gender integration capacity of FAH.
Key Responsibilities
1. Prepare a comprehensive Gender Implementation Plan that outlines the procedures for both qualitative and quantitative gender research.
- Prepare a robust outline of activities with clear timelines & budget that will go into ensuring that program activities are gender transformative (https://www.gatesgenderequalitytoolbox.org) and that project goals and objectives are achieved.
- Conduct or provide technical guidance for gender analysis using a range of primary and secondary data collection methods, as appropriate, given the context and scale of the project, initiative, or strategy the analysis aims to support.
- Synthesize gender analysis findings into practical recommendations that can be integrated into program design and implementation by non-specialists.
- Identify programmatic solutions to the achievement of sectoral outcomes that can also advance gender equality outcomes.
- Recommend primary outcomes contributing to the reduction of gender barriers and/or gender gaps that can be embedded in a given project/approach.
- Work with colleagues/partners to design and implement appropriate risk mitigation strategies to address gender-based risks across project stakeholders (i.e., gender-based violence, social sanctions, job cannibalization etc.).
- Recommend adaptations to programming to address emerging gender-based challenges/opportunities identified in the course of project implementation.
2. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting on Gender-Integrated Programs
- Establish indicators and data collection mechanisms to track progress and assess the impact of gender-related interventions.
- Run a baseline survey to collect data on the prevailing gender norms in select countries to compare any changes intended or not at the end of the grant period.
- Travel to countries (Senegal, Ethiopia, Mali and Kenya) to conduct interviews with community health workers.
- Conduct quarterly visits to countries to monitor and support gender-transformative activities in progress. (Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal and Mali)
- Monthly documentation of gender-related activities to support and streamline docuseries production on Senegal’s community health system, focusing on the integration of Community Health Workers (CHWs).
- Actively collaborate with multiple partners in (Ethiopia, Mali and Senegal) to deliver critical insights on gender-related aspects, thereby influencing and shaping strategy/policy development.
- Lead in the collection and analysis of data disaggregated by sex and other demographic characteristics as relevant and feasible.
- Ensure measurement of project contributions to reduction in gender barriers and/or gender gaps.
- Advise on design of appropriate monitoring systems to assess gender-based risks – as well as unintended negative consequences – during implementation.
- Promote the safe and informed participation of women and girls in project-based monitoring and evaluation activities.
3. Influencing and Capacity Building
- Work with the program teams and partners to ensure that gender transformative practices are incorporated in outputs relating to various activities.
- Contribute to the development, evaluation and refinement of capacity building tools and training for organization staff, consultants, and in-country partners on issues related to gender.
- Provide training to program ecosystem partners on gender mainstreaming, gender transformative budgeting and policy making and programming.
- Provide ad hoc support to other implementing partners to support them in ensuring the TA they provide to select countries is gender transformative.
- Lead on ensuring FAH’s broader work supporting countries outside of the program or select countries is gender transformative.
- Sensitize stakeholders and decision makers e.g., government and health leaders to key gender issues (i.e., gender gaps, gender barriers, access, and agency) in their technical/programmatic area using tailored messages.
- Articulate the rationale for gender transformative investment for given technical/programmatic areas and why it is integral to the organization’s mission.
- Play a pivotal role in shaping the design and implementation of projects, ensuring they incorporate a gender-transformative perspective.
- Identify, assess, and nurture relationships with partners relevant to promotion of gender equality in given technical/programmatic areas.
4. Final published report on Gender
- Produce a final report/publication on how integrating CHWs into health systems can be done in a more gender transformative way, challenges, and opportunities female CHWs face on the journey to professionalization, as well as on any unintended negative consequences to professionalization.
- Identify channels of dissemination & ensure dissemination of the final report to all relevant ecosystem players and stakeholders.
Key Relationships
The Gender Advisor will report directly to the Head of Partnerships Development and Advocacy. The incumbent will work closely with the CEO, Head of Country Programmes, The Head of Strategy, and Investment etc. S/He will regularly collaborate closely with the program teams.
Candidate Specification: Key Selection Criteria
- Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women’s studies, international development, or a related field.
- 5-7 years’ experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of projects integrating gender equality objectives and outcomes.
- Knowledge of foundational concepts related to gender equality.
- Familiarity with theories of change and evidence-based and/or promising practices to address gender inequality while advancing outcomes in one or more sectors in which CHWs work in (health, agriculture, economic strengthening, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, etc.).
- Experience designing and implementing development interventions to reduce gender-based disparities in access to and benefit from services and resources in one or more sectors.
- Experience conducting project and/or strategy level gender analysis, including collection and synthesis of qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data.
- Demonstrated ability to translate findings from a gender analysis into practical recommendations for uptake by program staff who are not gender specialists.
- Experience developing gender-sensitive monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems, including design of gender equality objectives, outcomes and indicators, inclusive community feedback mechanisms, and gender-sensitive approaches to learning, reflection, and adaptation.
- Understanding of the principle of “Do No Harm” as it relates to gender (in)equality and experience designing risk reduction strategies including monitoring and addressing unintended consequences, including gender-based violence.
- Strong interpersonal skills, including a track record of influencing individuals and teams to adopt gender-integrated approaches.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to explain complex technical and social concepts in accessible language for lay audiences.
- Experience facilitating workshops and developing training materials relevant to the advancement of gender transformative practices.
- Experience working and understanding of the gender norms in the African context specifically Senegal, Mali Ethiopia & Kenya will be an added advantage.
- Health systems: knowledge and practical work on health systems; experience working with government agencies as well as major donor organizations is critical for this role.
- Global mindset and experience: international experience across countries. Fluency in English, French is an added advantage.
Compensation
- This position offers a competitive compensation package linked to the background and experience of the candidate. This position is structured as a Consultancy role for an initial term of 3 years with an annual contract renewable based on performance and availability of funds within the initial term.
- The Gender expert will allocate 4-5 days per month to fulfill their duties and responsibilities as outlined in the job description.
Timing
Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Application Requirements
Please submit your updated CV in PDF version through this link
https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/6c9736c82c9044f0a895828ba80d167a
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted
FAH values the diversity of the people it hires and serves within the community. Our diversity is committed to fostering a work environment where individuals’ strengths and uniqueness are recognized, appreciated, respected and responded to in ways that fully develop their potential.
FAH has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable child or adult by any of our staff, partners or representatives. We are committed to preventing all undesirable behavior at work. This includes, child abuse and exploitation, sexual harassment and abuse.