Senior Officer – Gender Equality / Social Inclusion

Background/IRC Summary:

•  The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives.
• Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war and disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.
• The IRC leads the way from harm to home.
• IRC has been working in Pakistan for approximately 40 years, managing and delivering large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, safeguarding, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor and disaster affected communities.
• IRC works in partnership with local government and non-governmental organizations and is currently working across the country.
• The IRC Pakistan has been implementing the DFID-funded TEACH program in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province since 2019, working to support marginalized adolescent girls aged 10-19 through creating learning opportunities, economic empowerment opportunities, and support positive gender-based empowerment. Working closely with communities, the TEACH project is working to bring girls into two broad pathways delivered in accessible learning centers- one focusing on Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) which seeks to prepare girls for integration back into formal schools, and one focusing on Basic Literacy and Numeracy and Economic Empowerment, which seeks to prepare girls for livelihoods opportunities. Alongside this, for all girls, and in recognition of the vulnerabilities and challenges the girls face in taking greater control of their lives, TEACH will deliver a program of life skills  and Social and Emotional learning, along with mentoring and strengthening of peer networks.
• Job Overview/Summary: Senior Officer - GESI is responsible to provide project and administrative support to the implementation of activities within the TEACH project.

Major Responsibilities:

• Under the supervision of the Senior Project Manager, and close coordination with Gender Equality Coordinator and WPE Manager the Senior Officer - GESI will accomplish the following responsibilities:
• Working closely with the IRC and partner staff to ensure the implementation of key gender and inclusion commitments.
• Ensure that TEACH activities are planned and implemented in a gender sensitive and inclusive manner and that all implementing partners are sensitized and trained in gender equality and social inclusion
•  Provide advice and support on gender and inclusion to the field staff
• Closely work with the research manager to integrate GESI in the ongoing assessments of the project including but not limited to baseline, end line study, gender analysis.
• Provide guidance to programme teams in data collection, compiling lessons learned, establishing indicators to support knowledge sharing on gender equality and social inclusion aspects.
• Support WPE manager to create awareness on Gender based violence and psychosocial counseling for girls, parents, community members and schoolteachers.
• Support WPE manager in developing and roll out of men and boys engagement strategy for TEACH project
• Facilitate to ensure GESI responsive financial literacy, vocational training delivery and business development support to TEACH clients under girls earn stream
• Review and provide inputs in the IEC material, training manuals, reports, and other project documents from GESI lens.
• Incorporate GESI in community mobilization strategy and more specifically in the ToRs and training plans of Village Support Groups (VSGs), and Parent-teacher School Management Committees (PTSMCs)
• Ensure that each learning centers have the gendered responsive facilities (e.g. inclusive toilets, childcare provision etc)Perform any other duties assigned by the supervisor and technical lead.
•  Develop and execute periodical sessions with IRC and partner staff on gender and inclusion sensitization.

Key Working Relationships:

Reporting Line: Senior Project Manager

Technical Leads: Gender Equality Coordinator and WPE Manager

Job Requirements:

A. Education

• Graduate/Master’s degree in social sciences, women/Gender studies/Inclusion or other relevant field

B.Work experience:

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in the relevant field, preferably in an NGO environment. 

C.Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Strong technical design skills.
• Highly effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management, planning, organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills

Language Skills:  

• Must be fluent in Urdu & English languages.
• Pashto/Balochi or any other local language spoken in Baluchistan province will be preferred.

The IRC Core Values and Commitments.

•  The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.
• These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability.
• In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons. IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Level of interaction with children: Less contact with children
• IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.
•  IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission.
• As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs.
• Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.