Gender Specialist

FAO is a Specialized Agency of the United Nations committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing food security, hunger and malnutrition. The FAO Representation in Somalia supports the national government in developing policies and programmes across agricultural, fishery and forestry sectors, natural resource management, nutrition, and food security analysis, operating through five field offices with close to 400 staff.

The Gender Specialist will operationalise the gender stocktaking exercise action plan and effectively mainstream gender into the design, formulation and implementation of FAO's projects in Somalia. The role involves coordinating gender mainstreaming efforts across the organisation, conducting gender assessments, developing gender action plans, and building staff capacity on gender equality and women's empowerment.

• Review FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2030, FAO standard operating procedure for gender mainstreaming as well as the FAO country gender assessment, to inform gender priority in FAOSO Country Programming Framework (CPF) and overall programming.
• Coordinate operationalization of the gender stocktaking exercise action plan that assessed the extent to which FAOSO is mainstreaming gender in its programming against FAO’s Gender Policy. The Action Plan defines and sets the priorities, targets, addresses the identified gaps and outline opportunities to be take forward in line with the Gender Policy (GP) and the Country Programme Framework (CPF), making sure key gender outcomes are closely monitored and reported as per the CPF log frame.
• Undertake an assessment to identify FAOSO staff capacity needs on gender and mainstreaming and provide refresh trainings to the staff based identified needs including orientation sessions on the new Gender Policy.
• Contribute to the Country Programme Framework M&E reporting and Annual country reports on related gender outcome indicators.
• Assess and advice on donors that support GEWE work and/or have gender and WEE as priorities in their strategies for Somalia to inform future resource mobilization for gender related activities
• Lead context-specific gender analysis to inform the development of gender action plans for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries sectors/ projects, with a clear integration of cross-cutting themes such as Climate Change.
• Develop, monitor, and review implementation of gender action plans for respective projects with key gender indicators and targets integrating gender across activities and report on at the outcome level.
• Assess and identify areas for mainstreaming and integrating gender-responsive and gender transformative approaches in on-going and new projects.
• Review and analyze monitoring methodologies, tools and technical reports to ensure inclusion of sex-disaggregated data for both qualitative and quantitative assessments and to guide the use of thematic analysis in data analysis and presentation.
• Contribute to building the capacity of FAO programme personnel, government, implementing partners to mainstream gender and provide practical application of FAO’s Gender Policy ongoing projects.
• Document lessons learned and good practices which will feed into the guidance materials as practical field experiences and best practices for scale-up.
• Prepare project-related technical briefs, reports, and case studies to showcase programme results in mainstreaming and integrating gender-responsive and gender transformative approaches in projects.
• Contribute to preparation of project reports (quarterly & annual) and prepare sections of the reports on gender mainstreaming to support gender-sensitive reporting.
• Represent sectors in gender-related work, meetings, and in doing so seek to learn and disseminate new knowledge and evidence- based practices to respective teams.
• Perform other duties as required.

Minimum Requirements  

• Advanced university degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in Gender Studies, Social Sciences, development studies, Human Rights, or related field; Consultants with a bachelor's degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience.
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in gender equality, and women's empowerment programming, and inclusion including in fragile context.  
• Working Knowledge (Level C) of English.

FAO Core Competencies 

• Results Focus 
• Teamwork
• Communication 
• Building Effective Relationships 
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills 

• Experience in conducting gender assessments and integrate gender-responsive approaches into programmes and projects.
• Ability to develop gender action plans, identify capacity gaps, and deliver gender mainstream training to Personnel and partners.
• Excellent communication, writing, and reporting skills.
• Familiar with Project Cycle Management.
• Strong organizational and planning skills.
• Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills.

To apply, visit the FAO recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile with accurate and complete employment records, academic qualifications and language skills. Attach a letter of motivation to your online profile and submit your application. FAO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process.