Gender and Social Inclusion Manager

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets, unpredictable political dynamics and, increasingly, the effects of climate change. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing…when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they are able to access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Program Description:

The ZCAP Grant Manager – Agriculture Sector project, funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and managed by the Gabinete do Desenvolvimento do Compacto-II in Mozambique, aims to enhance agricultural productivity and promote sustainable growth in the Zambezia province. The project involves the management of a results-based grant and technical assistance facility, which will provide support to agricultural aggregators. Over a 5-year period, the project will focus on implementing innovative solutions to improve agricultural value chains, strengthen farmer cooperatives, and increase market access. The selected consultant team will be responsible for overseeing grant disbursements, ensuring compliance with MCC’s environmental, social, and fiduciary standards, and delivering technical assistance to maximize the impact of the grants. This project is a key component of the Promotion of Reforms and Investment in Agriculture (PRIA) initiative, designed to drive inclusive economic development in rural Mozambique.

Position Overview

The Gender and Social Inclusion Manager oversees of all GALS interventions, leading the gender & social inclusion work across activities/processes and overseeing any sub-contracted implementing partners for the GALS activity.

Primary Functions and Responsibilities

• Work with the program team to ensure that the work plan includes a strategy; activities and targets to reach MCC’s overall goal of reaching 40% female and youth beneficiaries
• Contribute to MCC’s annual work plans and ensure timely implementation of the women and youth-targeted work plan activities 
• Promote MCC’s innovation and upscaling grants facility and identify and encourage eligible women and youth-led actors and organizations to participate in the grant application process. 
• Lead in supporting the beneficiaries with the development of scopes of work and ensure strong procurement policies and procedures, as well as product and service quality and cost monitoring required for the grant implementation.
• Ensure timely implementation of the MCC’s women and youth business grants and signal potential issues and delays and report these to the grants manager and the DCoP. 
• Advise and support MCC’s team with the integration of women and youth-specific activities in the project work plan, the grants implementation plans, and the organizational Capacity Building Plans.
• Lead gender awareness training in work plans and grant implementation plans for the program team, the beneficiary organizations, grantees, and businesses and ensure their timely implementation. 
• Identify and communicate the business case for the inclusion of women and youth to agribusiness clients and partners.
• Facilitate entrepreneurship training targeted to women and youth that include confidence and skill-building activities that challenge the social norms preventing them from seeking jobs or entrepreneurship opportunities.
• Support the beneficiary actors with the development of scopes of work and ensure strong procurement policies and procedures, as well as product and service quality and cost monitoring required for the grant implementation.
• Develop and promote women and youth inclusive management practices. This includes coaching current women and youth employees to take leadership roles and develop the technical skills needed for advancement
• Support larger agribusinesses and agri-SGBs to improve gender and youth policies and hire them as employees.
• Assist the Technical Team in connecting agribusiness partners with local service providers to improve the inclusivity of their recruitment and sourcing policies
• Support financial institutions by conducting gender analyses that examine the needs of women- and youth-owned businesses, demonstrating the business case for expanding client portfolios with women and youth, and raising awareness of unconscious bias effects on client relationships and services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree, either social science, law, business administration or equivalent, including 7 years of experience, or a Master’s degree, either Business, Economics, Agriculture, Finance or equivalent, including 5 years of experience in agronomy, rural development, agribusiness or other relevant field. 
• Experience undertaking analysis of economic, social and gender inequalities at the household and community levels, livelihood generation, and economic opportunities for women; 
• Experience in the design and roll-out of gender transformative methodologies, particularly GALS, and their adaptation, pilot and roll out; 
• Experience in setting up and managing grievance redress mechanisms and addressing gender-based violence, trafficking in persons, and other grievances from beneficiaries and other project stakeholders; 
• Capacity to coordinate mobilization and awareness activities with small-scale producers and rural communities; 
• Experience in a similar role with an established international development organization in Sub-Saharan Africa; 
• Fluency in Portuguese with excellent oral and written communication skills required
• Proficiency in English is preferred

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