Gender & ESS Officer - (Re-announced)

About WEE-RDP/MRRD:

The Mission of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) is to ensure the social, economic, and political welfare of rural society, especially poor and vulnerable people, through the provision of basic services, strengthening local governance, and promoting sustainable livelihoods. MRRD accomplishes this mission through donor funded national programs in the areas of governance, infrastructure and economic growth.
Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program (AREDP) over the years while working for overall Enterprise development in five provinces, has consciously involved more women in its program. The program has facilitated women to build on their economic security through participation in Savings groups, Enterprise Development, Village Level Savings Groups (VSLAs), SMEs, etc. The fact that the overall women participation in AREDP program is about 58% on a weighted index, it talks volume on its intervention strategies and approach for women economic empowerment.
With the Government of Afghanistan’s step towards strengthening WEE and thereby taking up WEE-NPP ( Women Economic Empowerment – National Priority Program ), which is much more inclusive and one of its pillar is WEE-RDP ( Women Economic Empowerment-Rural Development Program ), AREDP with its experiences and successes so far, looking forward to be more systemic in its approach and work in partnership at all levels of its intervention and strengthen the business service providers and institutions in general and those of Women focused in particular.  AREDP while transitioning to WEE-RDP, would be more of a facilitating agency and involve Implementing Partners (IPs) & Facilitating Partners (FPs) who have been strengthened by Citizen Charter for overall growth of the rural economy.
WEE-RDP is designed to be a more women centric program and it would be scaled up to 34 provinces with better institutional alignment with WEE-NPP objectives. The new project intends to build on the overall experience of AREDP and would simultaneously leverage the institutional platform of CDCs established & nurtured under ongoing Citizen Charter program of MRRD. Under WEE-RDP, greater emphasis is being given to collaborating with non-governmental institutions, private sector entities, service providers and organizations and civil society organizations (CSOs) in implementation of project activities while fostering partnerships with both the public and private sector to leverage technical resources and access to finance. Synergies will also be built among potential government organizations (e.g. MoWA, MoLSAMD, MoCI, MAIL etc) and non-government and civil society organizations. The project will follow a demand-driven/market-led approach to establish market linkages at the national, provincial and local levels and special emphasis will be given to identify & support women centric sub-sectors.  Women led enterprises   and its further aggregation to higher level institutions will be promoted under WEE-RDP.

Summary of Duties

WEE-RDP seeks to hire a qualified Gender & ESS officer to provide technical assistance to WEE-RDP’s Safeguard Implementation Unit (SIU).

Job Description:

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Environmental and Social Safeguard Manager of WEE-RDP, Gender & ESS officer will undertake the following tasks;

Assist SIU and Gender Technical Senior Specialist in the implementation of Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF), Pest Management Plan (PMP), Strategy on Addressing Child Labor issues, environmental law and other national environmental and social regulatory frameworks;
Conduct, facilitate environmental, social and gender assessment and assist SIU in preparation of Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) in program activities.
In close consultation with community, regional offices, SIU and Gender Technical Senior Specialist, Gender & ESS officer shall develop site specific mitigation measure relevant to environmental, social and gender aspects.
Monitor implementation of environmental and social safeguards, and gender related issues in sub-program activities;
conduct field visits, community consultation, gender mainstreaming and women consultation on environmental, social and gender aspects;
Assist and support SIU in IPM/PMP activities implementation in the program areas;
Gender & ESS officer shall thoroughly ensure implementation of Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) and he/she report, submit and enter grievances into the grievance handling system;
In close coordination with SIU and Gender Technical Senior Specialist, Gender and ESS officer shall Perform Training Need Assessment (TNA) and conduct  trainings on gender mainstreaming, women consultation, environmental protection, social protection and other relevant topics to regional staff, extension workers, and local communities;
Assist Gender Technical Senior Specialist and SIU, on mainstreaming gender concerns within MRRD/WEE-RDP policies and regulation, He/she will be responsible to work on Gender base violence cases (GBV),
Initiate actions aimed at breaking down nonparticipation of the women, apathy and attitudes of letting others do things for them.
Raise awareness among the women that community members themselves can move each community out of poverty, and to show them ways they can do this for themselves.
Assist Gender Technical Senior Specialist in designing and delivering realistic and pragmatic gender strategies and programming interventions that will lead to positive gender equality outcomes.
Track and report against gender indicators and disaggregate data by gender to analyze results within each domain at regional and provincial levels.
Assist Gender Technical Senior Specialist in conducting gender assessments, reviews and audits to assess ways to continually target involvement of women in program activities.
Identify successful practices in the program activities that can be showcased in publications, communication materials and conferences.
Assist women in the respective communities in obtaining available outside resources, warning of the negative effects of becoming too dependent upon outside resources.
Gender & ESS officer should provide counselling, mediation to program staff and stakeholders who come to the district level.
Close coordination with program stakeholders; NEPA, DRRD, DAIL offices and partner NGOs.
Develop reporting formats and maintain environmental and social safeguard, and gender related data and records on established formats;
Provide reports on regular basis to SIU; and
Perform any other task assigned by SIU.

Job Requirements:

Knowledge/Experience

Bachelor degree with 4 years relevant experience

Qualifications/Skill

University Degree in Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Agriculture, Social and Gender development studies and Engineering;
Excellent communication, team working and problem solving skills;
Fluency in written and spoken Pashto, Dari and English;
Good computer skills and usage of Microsoft Office packages; and
Proven experience in report writing and good office administration skills.

Abilities

Ability to build and sustain effective work relationships with colleagues and stakeholders to achieve common goals.
Ability to work under pressure.
Willingness to enhance knowledge through training and personal initiative.
Willingness and ability to travel to the rural areas and provinces on regular basis.

Submission Guideline:

Interested Afghans with the required qualifications and experience should submit their applications electronically through vacancies.hrcsd@mrrd.gov.af
While submitting your applications please mention the Title of the position plus Vacancy Number in the subject of the e-mail; please do NOT submit any other supporting documentation or educational certificates with your application. If you are short listed you will be asked to submit electronic copies of your educational certificates and if you are invited to written test you will be required to present the original certificates. Applications will not be accepted after the closing date of the position. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for written test Note: In the interests of open and fair competition and a merit based selection process applicants are advised that lobbying for a position , whether by the applicant or by any person acting on his or her behalf, shall result in the immediate disqualification of the candidate from further consideration. Applicants are strongly advised to inform potential supporters of this restriction which shall be strictly enforced.

Please don’t forget to type the Vacancy Announcement Number (1311/019/HRCSD/WEE-RDP/MRRD) in Subject while applying online. Application without vacancy number will not be accepted. 

The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is highly committed to increase women’s participation in government sector therefore women are highly encouraged to apply.

Submission Email:

vacancies.hrcsd@mrrd.gov.af