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About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long-term impact.

Despite good gains in gender equality, work is still needed to ensure that every woman and girl experiences full gender equality. Gender discrimination and social exclusion are pervasive and hold everyone back in all dimensions of social and economic development. Women play an essential role in creating stability, driving progress, and achieving long-term development goals. Investing in them is key to accelerating sustainable development.

At the same time, Mercy Corps recognizes that men and boys play key roles in sustainable solutions to achieving gender equality. Through our programs, we engage communities in active dialogue on gender and social inclusion issues. We also recognize that true equality can only be achieved by acknowledging how other forms of discrimination overlap with and exacerbate gender discrimination. That’s why we design strategies to identify and respond to the differences between people both in terms of needs and opportunities. We believe that efforts to create secure, productive, and just communities result in more lasting, transformational change when everyone is engaged.

 The Program Summary

Mercy Corps has been responding in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022. The team is providing emergency assistance to refugees in neighboring countries and people displaced inside Ukraine so they can meet their basic survival needs. We also fund local organizations that know their community best and are working quickly to address their most urgent needs.

Building on the successes and lessons learned from the response so far Mercy Corps aims to enhance its partnership work with national and local Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to deliver a comprehensive package of emergency assistance to the most vulnerable conflict-affected individuals and communities in Ukraine. With a focus on reaching those most in need in the frontline, recently deoccupied, or hard-to-reach areas, Mercy Corps and our local partners aim to reach significant numbers of individuals with emergency cash, protection, and other appropriate humanitarian aid, and to ensure that this aid is delivered in a gender, age, and ability responsive way.

General Position Summary

This role is part of Mercy Corps investment in the fields of Gender and Protection as part of the organisation’s Ukraine Response. The Senior Gender Officer will focus on working with partners and their activities to assist in promoting and enacting gender equality, throughout all Mercy Corps’ sectoral responses and operations, ensuring that Mercy Corps and partner programs are properly guided on how to include gender through consultations with local actors, community members, and other colleagues The work also involves supporting and providing technical assistance to Mercy Corps program initiatives to ensure high-quality programming that will advance gender equality and women/girls’ empowerment. The incumbent will be under the supervision of the Programme Quality and Standards (PaQ) Director, will line manage a gender officer and work closely with the Protection Coordinator.

The post holder’s responsibilities will cover four key areas: mainstreaming; capacity building; monitoring evaluation and learning; and, coordination and representation.  The successful candidate will be expected to develop their skills to be able to lead strongly on certain aspects of these activities within the remit of this role. The post holder will also be expected to engage in and co-facilitate knowledge uptake and behaviour change activities including workshops and trainings for partner organisations and within Mercy Corps. Other responsibilities will include ensuring meaningful engagement of women through the Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms (CARM) and ensuring that teams are aware of vulnerabilities and capacities of women and girls are acknowledge in design, data collection, learning and adaptation.

Essential Responsibilities:

Gender Mainstreaming Activities

• Working with Mercy Corps’ Technical Advisers, support the program and implementing partners with gender mainstreaming in alignment with Mercy Corps’ global Gender Equality, Diversity, and Social Inclusion Strategy and GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) minimum standards.
• Working with Mercy Corps’ Technical Advisers and the PaQ Director, undertake gender assessments and reviews while suggesting appropriate intervention adaptations to both Mercy Corps staff and partners.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and contribute to an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed, where the project teams work together, exchange information and coordinate activities.
• Participate in the development and implementation of program learning activities.
• Support the protection and information teams in Mercy Corps and partner organizations with mapping of local services and establishing safe referral mechanisms in line with the referral protocols.

Capacity Building

• Engage in the development and review of gender-sensitive training curriculums and materials.
• Deliver GESI-related capacity-building initiatives as per the capacity gaps of staff in Mercy Corps and partner organizations.
• Facilitate regular community and partner consultations, group meetings, events, roundtable discussions and training sessions to ensure programming remains gender sensitive and inclusive, working together with local partners and relevant Mercy Corps teams.
• Lead on the capacity building of the gender officer.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

• Support the integration of GESI aspects into MEL tools and processes by coordinating with MEL staff in the area offices.
• Work with MEL team to incorporate questions related to access and safety of services in post-distribution monitoring.
• In coordination with program focal points, undertake field visits to monitor and track progress of program activities with a GESI perspective.
• Promote the use and analysis of sex, age, and ability disaggregated data and analysis for marginalised and vulnerable groups where safe and appropriate.

  Coordination & Representation

• Coordinate and collaborate with counterparts in GESI and Protection teams as well as program teams.
• Represent Mercy Corps at relevant coordination meetings based in the program implementation areas as requested.
• Promote an inclusive work environment by coordinating frequently with other colleagues in the office on gender equality and social inclusion commitments (as per Mercy Corps policies).
• Other tasks as necessary.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: PaQ Director.

Works Directly With: Technical program officers, Technical Advisers, MEL team, CARM team.

Accountability to Participants & Stakeholders:

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field programs.

Minimum Qualification and Transferable Skills:

• Degree in social sciences, social work, education, or related fields.
• Experience working with NGOs and or private sector organizations focused on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion
• Experience working with marginalized or vulnerable community members
• Understanding of barriers for women and girls and other marginalized individuals and groups
• Experience in organizing and assisting with events and trainings.
• Strong personal interest in gender issues, social inclusion, and human rights.
• Fluency in Ukrainian and English required. Preferred fluency in Russian but not essential.

Success Factors

The Senior Gender Officer will have the ability to work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a highly fluid work and security environment. S/he will have the capacity to support ambitious and innovative gender-responsive approaches while helping to strengthen understanding of the sensitivities of the cultural context.

The successful candidate will have strong communication and interpersonal skills and must be adept at building strong partner relationships and advocating for change at all levels. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living and Environmental Conditions

We are recruiting one officer and offering three locations options to choose from: Kyiv, Odesa or Dnipro. Note that the ability to travel is a required part of this post and travel may be up to 50% of the post-holder’s time. The location within Ukraine may be subject to reassessment given the security context. Given the emergency response nature of this role, this position may require exceptional work schedules including occasional evenings and weekends.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Only pre-selected candidates will be contacted for an interview.  

People with disabilities and veteran status are welcome to apply.  

Please, apply: Senior Gender Officer (Odesa/Dnipro/Mykolaiv/Kyiv) | Mercy Corps Ukraine (ultipro.com)