Senior Gender Advisor

Overview

The Global Health Training, Advisory and Support Contract (GHTASC) delivers effective global health programming to advance the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Global Health (GH) through institutional support and workforce development services from junior, mid-level, senior and expert advisory and administrative professionals.

Credence and its partner, the Public Health Institute (PHI), are both employers for GHTASC, and are seeking a Senior Gender Advisor under GHTASC. This position will be hired under Public Health Institute (PHI).

The Policy, Evaluation and Communication (PEC) Division within the Bureau for Global Health’s (GH) Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) creates the enabling environment for family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH). The PEC division works with partners within USAID and externally in order to promote effective family planning advocacy, policy, financing, and governance (policy); collect, analyze, and evaluate data for evidence-based decision making (evaluation); develop and implement communication efforts to influence attitudes, norms, and behaviors or beneficiaries and providers (communication). PEC provides technical leadership, strategic direction, and implementation oversight, support to field missions, partner coordination, and performance tracking for family planning, especially as a component of Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths. PEC also provides technical input for evaluation efforts across the population, health and nutrition sector.

Position Summary:

The Senior Gender Advisor will primarily support the PRH Gender Team situated within the Policy, Evaluation, and Communication Division as a PHI Institutional Support Contractor (ISC). In this role, the selected candidate will provide technical leadership and serve as a point person for all gender-related issues across all 4 Divisions in PRH. The Senior Advisor will also provide strategic direction to and participate in the Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG). They will seek to understand and address gender norms and inequalities across FP/RH programming (e.g., research, data collection and analysis, policy and advocacy, service delivery, social and behavior change communication), with a particular focus on gender-based violence and child marriage, reproductive empowerment, and male engagement.

As an integral member of the PEC Division, the Advisor will also contribute to the overall goals of the Office and the Division through participation in PEC Division projects and activities. They will serve as a resource and leader for other USAID bureau and Missions on gender integration and FP. They will work closely with PRH and GH Gender Advisors and receive day-to-day guidance from the PRH Gender Team Leader.

Full salary range for this position is $129,740 to $195,000 per year, with the starting salary determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability

Responsibilities

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Coordinating with key program staff, managers, and technical specialists, to ensure the development of gender strategies and their implementation.
• Working closely with PRH project management teams to socialize gender integration concepts and approaches, to strengthen capacity related to gender internally, and to expand gender integration into FP projects and activities, technical materials, and events.
• Leading, overseeing, and facilitating coherent gender integration efforts, including reporting, across GH.
• Facilitating sound gender analysis and integration into PRH program design, implementation, evaluation, measurement, and reporting. Providing technical and strategic direction, and leadership on PRH gender priorities (male engagement, reproductive empowerment, mitigation of GBV); Serving as a technical resource for PRH and field mission staff, and Implementing partners to elevate, advance and strengthen knowledge and programming across these gender priorities.
• Serving as activity manager for gender focused activities and as a technical advisor for PRH projects as needed.
• Contributing substantially to project activity design, providing technical input and review of project workplans, budgets, monitoring and evaluation plans, protocols, project products and management reviews and supporting projects to achieve results.
• Providing strategic direction and oversight to the IGWG, participating in the IGWG and other relevant technical communities of practice, and coordinating effective outreach to multiple constituencies for the Gender Team.
• Designing and delivering context-specific trainings for PRH, GH, Agency, and Missions, on USAID gender policies and requirements, and their application to FP/RH and GH.
• Leading and coordinating hiring of interns to support the gender team; providing mentorship to interns and junior staff engaged in supporting the Gender Team.
• Actively fostering internal and external relationships with a range of gender and FP stakeholders, including implementing partners, advocacy organizations, researchers, donors, and governmental entities.
• Coordinating with gender advisors across GH and the Agency to ensure information sharing and consistency in approach, alignment of goals and collaboration on design of joint gender initiatives.
• Responding to gender-related queries from the US Government, donors, and other external stakeholders, and facilitating timely clearance processes.
• Serving on GH country teams and promoting PRH’s gender priorities with USAID missions.
• Responding to and managing Mission requests for technical assistance on gender integration in FP, global health, and other technical issues as appropriate.
• Developing talking points, briefings, and presentations on gender and FP/RH for Office, Bureau, and Agency leadership as appropriate.
• Providing and coordinating research, data analysis, measurement and evaluation expertise related to gender and FP/RH.
• International and domestic travel approximately 20% of the time.
• Training and professional development:
• Keeping abreast of literature and latest developments in the fields of FP, male engagement, GBV, women’s empowerment, and gender programming.
• Deepening knowledge of gender programming.
• Participating in interagency and intra-agency working groups as appropriate.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Qualification Requirements:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree with 10 years of relevant experience, bachelor’s degree with 12 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree and 14 years of relevant experience, or High School graduate and 16 years of relevant experience.

Other Qualifications:

• Minimum eight (8) years’ experience in FP/RH, with at least two (2) years’ experience in an international or resource challenged setting.
• Minimum eight (8) years’ experience in gender integration, program development/implementation and/or research (including monitoring & evaluation).
• Demonstrated understanding of FP/RH related gender equality and equity, gender-based violence, male engagement, and/or women’s empowerment more generally and reproductive empowerment more specifically.
• Demonstrated knowledge of gender integration in one or more of the key areas of FP/RH programming, such as health policy or advocacy, health financing, social and behavior change communication, private sector engagement, supply chain, gender-based violence in humanitarian settings, service delivery, expanding method choice, capacity building, and/or research in support of FP programming (e.g., formative assessment, rigorous evaluation, monitoring and evaluation).
• Experience with gender integration in the areas of Method Choice, Social Behavior Change Communication, Family Planning Workforce, Total Market Approach, and/or Product Availability. Ability to work independently and lead multi-disciplinary teams to conceptualize, plan, guide, and implement work.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a range of cultural settings, with appreciation for diverse perspectives and opinions.
• Strong communications skills and ability to present information clearly in English, both verbally and in writing.
• Experience with USAID programming, budgeting, and evaluation functions and procedures both in USAID/Washington and in USAID missions is desirable.
• Proficiency in French is desirable.
• Familiarity with adult learning approaches, experience developing trainings and leading capacity building initiatives, meeting facilitation skills, and strong public speaking skills.
• Flexibility and openness in responding to changing work priorities and environment.
• Ability to travel internationally 2-4 times per year for approximately 2-3 weeks at a time.
• Ability and willingness to work as part of a team and effectively cross-culturally.
• Adept at handling politically sensitive issues.
• Ability to prioritize work responsibilities and to handle multiple tasks at once.
• US citizen or US permanent resident with the ability to obtain and maintain facility clearance