Senior Gender Equality Advisor at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in over 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Save the Children is working in Nigeria because one in five children in Nigeria dies before their fifth birthday. About 40% of children miss out on school and have to work to survive while nearly 2 million children have lost one or both parents to an AIDS-related disease.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior Gender Equality Advisor

Job ID: 220002PL
Location: Abuja
Employee Status: Fixed Term
Team / Programme: Programme Development & Quality
Reports to: Programme Quality & Development Director
Staff directly reporting to this post: None
Contract Length: 2 year
Grade: 2

Child Safeguarding

Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Role Purpose

The Senior Gender Equality Advisor will use their in-depth contextual understanding, technical and practical expertise, and relationship building skills to define and deliver our strategic ambition for advancing gender equality in Nigeria. The role will lead strategy development and the technical design and implementation of high quality programmes that advance gender equality and ensure that children, girls and boys can equitably access, participate within, benefit from and act as decision makers for both emergency and development programming.
The role supports national advocacy and influencing, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development. It provides leadership to ensure our work is grounded on intersectional gender and power analysis, and supports the design and implementation of gender transformative monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners.
The role will work closely with operations colleagues and with partners, especially women’s/girls’ rights and gender equality-focused organizations, in Nigeria, fostering the building of ownership and agency of local organisations. It will provide leadership to design/adapt and deliver gender transformative content for capacity building and systems strengthening. This role includes a focus on external representation on priority issues including child-centred gender and power analysis, girls’ empowerment, gender-based violence and other topics central to gender transformative child rights-based approaches across thematic areas. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Scope of Role

Reports to: Programme Quality & Development Director
Staff reporting to this post: no direct reports but with dotted line reporting from gender equality officers, assistant, coordinators and specialist in the field offices and expected to provide coaching and mentoring support to operational and other technical colleagues and local partners

Key Areas of Accountability
Technical Leadership:

Provide technical leadership for gender equality for the Country Office, and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy, supporting the organization to implement Save the Children’s Global Gender Equality Policy
Provide technical leadership to establish/support/monitor a Gender Equality strategy /Action Plan for the Country Office, grounded on Save the Children’s Gender Equality Self-Assessment and other tools
Build capacity of national staff and partners in key technical approaches related to advancing gender equality and social justice, via developing and facilitating high quality training via workshops, webinars, etc.

Ensuring Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children; uphold accountability for Save the Children’s global Gender Equality Marker (development or humanitarian)
Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality, holistic gender-transformative and gender-equality focused programmes, building on global best practice. Ensure that broader intersecting social justice, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation.
Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation
Promote a Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework that supports working in collaboration and partnership with governments and local partners and working towards impact, scale and sustainability.
Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound and grounded on gender and power analysis, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results.
Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of gender sensitive and transformative programmes at the community level.
Contribute to the development, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation of innovative program quality tools and resources focused on advancing gender equality
Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) teams to carry out gender and power analysis, and conduct quality monitoring against international standards through participatory methodologies that promote gender equality and social justice (including child-friendly and gender sensitive/transformative methodologies);.
Contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of disaggregated data, evidence and analysis (including gender and power analysis) and understands its link to quality and accountable programming; Contribute to strengthening the use of equality-focused programme principles and good practice across themes and sectors.
Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement.
Distil learnings and evidence generated into succinct and compelling programmatic guidance and thought leadership for internal and external consumption. Contribute to organisational learning on gender equality, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office and with our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global gender equality community within Save the Children via Technical Working/Leadership Groups and Communities of Practice and externally.
Support Humanitarian colleagues (as needed) to develop gender sensitive and transformative emergency preparedness plans, and conduct intersectional, sectoral assessments (including gender and power analysis, using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver gender sensitive/transformative emergency response and recovery programmes. Build capacity on gender equality and gender-based violence among humanitarian teams involved in different sectors. Ensure synergies between humanitarian gender equality teams, disaggregated data and gender sensitive/transformative programme design.
Monitor trends in order to ensure early, gender sensitive/transformative action; and lead technical design and implementation and technical coordination of humanitarian responses

Networking & External Engagement:

In alignment with Country Office strategy and leadership, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice in gender equality programming.
Foster partnership with feminist organisations focused on women’s and girls’ rights, engaging men and boys, equal rights and advancing gender equality.
Ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others to advance gender equality through national technical coordination and networking bodies such as clusters and working groups focused on gender equality and gender-based violence, or focused on specific thematic areas and requiring a strong gender equality lens (education, child protection, sexual and reproductive health and rights, etc.).
Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes for advancing gender equality and eliminating gender based violence, including ending child marriage, through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues. Ensure that the diverse voices of children, girls and boys are equitably heard and represented across thematic advocacy work.
Represent the program to National and Local government representatives, donors, and partner agencies, as required, highlighting the importance of a priority focus on advancing gender equality.
Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), prioritizing and embedding gender equality across framing and content, working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed.
Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across Save the Children, including technical working groups and centres of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back.

Qualifications

Master’s Degree in Women and Gender Studies or other related fields
Related social science degree with focus on international development, social work, public health, sociology, anthropology or other related areas with equivalent experience of over 10 years working in the sector of gender equality

Experience and Skills:

At least 7 years’ experience (including field experience) providing technical leadership for the design and implementation of humanitarian and development programmes focused on advancing gender equality
Strong understanding of gender equality principles and practices, the gender equality sector, policy priorities and key gender inequalities impacting children in Nigeria
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 and power analysis, and to the design, piloting, implementation and evaluation of innovative technical tools and resource to advance gender equality
Track record in successful business development/fundraising, designing and pitching gender transformative approaches, models and programs
Demonstrated strong knowledge and skills related to gender sensitive and transformative program design, monitoring and evaluation, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale.
Experience of strategy development and planning to advance gender equality and social justice
Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources.
Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
Fluent in English and high level of English writing skills.

Key Competencies:
Technical competencies:

Develops, implements and applies intersectional gender analysis.
Designs and implements evidence-based holistic gender sensitive and transformative interventions: Fosters gender sensitive and transformative approaches to ensure all children have equitable access to, participation within and benefit from interventions.
Strengthens capacities to advance gender equality.
Develops and applies effective, innovative gender equality tools and resources.
Advocates for gender equality.

Generic Competencies:

Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities
Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalised children
Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery
Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peers

Behaviours (Values in Practice)
Accountability:

Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
Future orientated thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength
Approachable, good listener, easy to communicate with.

Creativity:

Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity
The post holder must commit to work in an international agency that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion and fights racism, gender inequality and discrimination in all forms; and to model positive behaviours that demonstrate a commitment to equality and respect to all colleagues, partners and communities.

Additional Job Responsibilities:

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities:

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI’s global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Gender Equality policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff: