Gender & Youth Senior Manager, HAPPY
Location: Accra, Ghana
Reports to: Program Director
Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.
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.
Job Summary:
TechnoServe seeks a Gender and Youth Senior Manager for the HAPPY Activity in Ghana, which will focus mainly on poultry, soybean, tomato, and rice value chains.
The Gender and Youth Senior Manager plays a lead role in supporting the achievement of gender and youth-related targets and advancing women and young people’s economic empowerment (WYEE) in the HAPPY project. The Senior Manager will provide technical leadership to HAPPY’s technical and operations team in Ghana, under the supervision of the Program Director and in close coordination with HAPPY’s GEYSI Manager and TechnoServe’s Global Gender Practice . This includes but is not limited to overseeing and developing processes, practices and technical approaches that enable program staff to successfully build the skills and confidence needed to implement, monitor, and deliver impactful programming that benefits young women and men.
Program Overview:
Harnessing Agriculture Productivity and Prosperity for Youth (HAPPY) aims to drive shared prosperity in Ghana by creating, sustaining, or improving dignified jobs and increasing agricultural productivity across the poultry, rice, soy, and tomato value chains. HAPPY will bridge the productivity gaps in these four value chains by building resilient youth-led and women-led food systems. The program will harness the power of young women and men to enhance the sourcing and business models of off-takers, pursue innovative entrepreneurial ventures, support the adoption of improved practices and inputs, and influence the enabling environment by making their voices heard. The result will be a more prosperous and inclusive agricultural sector that propels growth across the country.
Primary Functions & Responsibilities:
- Acts as the lead technical WYEE expertise across the consortium of partners and the targeted value chains for the HAPPY project, especially in support of gender-responsive and youth-positive agricultural value chains
- Supports the development and adoption of gender and youth analysis tools for use by consortium members to develop gender-responsive and youth-positive action plans which assist with the design and implementation of activities and continuously improve technical excellence
- Creates standard approach and content on core WYEE approach for the HAPPY project, including but not limited to adapting and consolidating training and other materials for use with young people, private sector, and other actors
- Supports rollout and adoption of gender and youth integration tools for effective program management, with particular emphasis on MEL approaches and tools
- Provides strategic guidance and counsel to the Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion Manager and the Project Management Unit on gender and youth integration approaches and priorities considering HAPPY program objectives and resources
- Creates processes and tools for capturing and sharing lessons learned, results, and impact of WYEE activities across the program to share with donors, external actors, and for internal learning and adaptation.
- Develops and leads a process for continuous learning on gender and youth integration for project staff and consortium members.
- Conduct assessments and facilitate meetings, as needed, with key stakeholders and clients to identify measures to improve inclusiveness, especially for youth and women within the project scope.
- In collaboration with the MEL team, ensure use of effective data collection and analysis tools to support monitoring of gender and youth integration in activities.
- Contribute to reporting on gender and youth-related topics.
- Support the development of key knowledge products (e.g., case studies, lessons-learned documents, etc.) that facilitate program development, program implementation, internal knowledge sharing and the influencing agenda.
- Participate in regular meetings with program leadership and staff as well as the Global Gender Practice team. eJpejXv BIpnb
- Participate in TechnoServe’s Gender Champions Network.
Basic Qualifications
- Minimum 10 years of experience plus a Bachelor’s degree in development economics, sociology, anthropology, gender or another discipline related to economic or agricultural development preferred. Alternatively a Master’s degree plus 7 years of experience minimum.
- Demonstrable experience implementing practical approaches to advance gender equality and youth programming in agriculture programs; experience working with agriculture and strengthening value chains through an enterprise approach highly preferred.
- Demonstrable experience implementing approaches to mitigate and reduce gender-based violence in economic growth programs preferred.
- Demonstrated success in leadership roles developing and managing development organizations, programs or initiatives requiring a combination of strong analytical, writing, social and management skills.
- Experience designing and backstopping project management systems that allow for effectively planning, tracking, and ensuring quality for complex projects.
- Expertise in a range of gender analysis methodologies across the program cycle.
Required Languages: Excellent oral, written, and interpersonal skills, including fluency in English (equivalent to R4/S4)
Travel: Up to 30% travel to field offices and project sites
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Ability to work both persuasively and diplomatically in a team-based environment with a high degree of complexity and ambiguity.
- Ability to communicate complex youth and gender issues with clarity and precision.
- Must be able to work across teams to influence behavior and build capacity.
- Experience in adult learning techniques, excellent in-person and virtual facilitation skills.
- A deep, demonstrable commitment to gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
- High standards of personal integrity and a flexible, laid back personality with an excellent sense of humor required.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
- One Gender Specialist
We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe’s vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.
With our commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.
We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff, partners, and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.
If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact the Human Resources at [email protected] or call +1 202 785 4515.