Women Lead in Emergencies Adviser (National Position) / Радник/ця Жіноче лідерство

Location: Ukraine – Lviv, potentially in Kyiv, with travel across Ukraine
Duration:12 months renewable
Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary €4,099.35 – €4,596.27 depending on demonstrated experience.
Starting date: ASAP

Presentation of CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development Confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its Members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union, and with other external stakeholders.

Context

On 24th February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas controlled by Russian forces as well as cities under siege. Aerial attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with 6.24 million displaced within Ukraine and 7.68 million refugees having fled to neighboring countries. By October 26, OCHA had counted 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Amid the upcoming winter, which is anticipated to be the worst in decades, at least one-third of the country’s energy infrastructure is damaged, leaving millions without heating and access to water. In October, the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian oblasts, further increasing the challenge of access to these areas. Therefore, in addition to preparing the population for the approaching winter, an ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to secure access to recently liberated and recaptured areas in the East and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine.

Presentation of CARE UKRAINE

As a new actor in Ukraine, CARE prioritizes a locally led response and is partnering primarily with Civil-Society Organizations (CSOs), National NGOs, local authorities, and when needed, INGOs with a longstanding presence in the country and access to hard-to-reach areas. CARE Ukraine deliberately and strategically prioritizes partnerships with local and national Women Led and Women Rights organizations (WLO’s/ WRO’s), further strengthening the Gender in Emergencies (GiE) principle and the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE) approach.

In the first few weeks after the escalation of the war, virtually all humanitarian aid inside Ukraine was organized and implemented by local actors. These groups (together with local authorities) remain the principal aid providers but are quickly being exhausted of funds, fuel, and physical energy. Thereby, a considerable proportion of CARE’s resources is dedicated to strengthening and supporting the capacities of local partners.

As of November 2022, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with twelve local/national organizations (incl. four WLO’s/WRO’s) and five international NGOs. From the more than 28 million that have been raised for Ukraine thus far, more than half is allocated to local/national partners. Through the activities that have been implemented so far, CARE Ukraine has been able to reach 550,030 people, including IDPs and affected populations in hard-to-reach areas.

While CARE Ukraine’s office is currently located in Lviv, we are continuously working on strategically expanding CARE’s presence and reach and have recently opened an office in Kyiv as well as field offices in Dnipro and Odessa, covering both the East and South of the country.

General objectives

To provide guidance, coordination, and overall technical support for the integration of CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies programming, women’s voice and leadership, and feminist principles, and enhancing the quality and capacity of CARE’s Ukraine Response.

The Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE) Adviser will lead the integration of women’s voice and leadership in emergencies concepts, in particular the WLiE model and gender-transformative approaches throughout CARE Ukraine programming. The post holder will have advanced knowledge and skills related to feminist principles, women’s voice and leadership and working in partnership with WRO/WLOs in development and humanitarian contexts. Skills expected will be applicable to advocacy, coordination, and program development, and partnership with local grassroots and national WLOs. They will support the CARE Ukraine thematic sectors with mainstreaming of gender transformative approaches in support of women’s voice and leadership in emergencies, including proposal development, design and implementation of activities, partner support and monitoring and evaluation of programs.

The WLiE Adviser will directly support PQ and operational staff at the area-office level, as well as collaborating with all other CARE Ukraine departments (Program Support, Finance, Human Resources, Program Quality, etc.), liaise internally with CARE Partnership and with external stakeholders, and ensure that CARE Ukraine delivers quality gender-integrated humanitarian response, according to CARE and international standards. The WLiE Advisor will coordinate and work in close collaboration with CARE’s local WLO partners as lead of the WLiE initiatives. This post will work closely with the Gender in Emergencies (GiE) Adviser to ensure coordinated mainstreaming of GiE and WLiE approaches. The WLiE Adviser will report to the Head of Gender & Protection Unit.

The main responsibilities include:

Program Management and Support

• Provide strategic vision, guidance, and supervision of mainstreaming of women’s voice and leadership concepts and CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies specific model in Ukraine programming.
• Work closely with the Gender in Emergencies (GiE) Adviser to ensure WLiE and GiE approaches are complimentary and mainstreamed in a collaborative approach.
• Build technical sector teams’ (Protection, SRH, WASH, Shelter, Cash and Food Security) understanding of WLiE and women’s voice and leadership concepts through trainings and reflection sessions.
• Contextualise WLiE tools, resources and learning for the Ukraine context, to be used by project staff across all sectors.
• Work with relevant program staff to ensure the inclusion of women’s voice and leadership and WLiE specific approaches and support and coordinate the development proposals.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Coordinate the effective execution of Rapid Gender Analysis on Power & Participation as well as ensuring integration of women’s voice and leadership concepts into standard RGAs and needs assessments.
• Support CARE Ukraine’s MEAL team with effective monitoring and planning system for gender-sensitive and gender-transformative programming, with a focus on feminist approaches, which informs reporting and project design, in collaboration with the MEAL Manager.
• Work with the team to identify and document projects’ learning and success cases in relation to CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies programming and disseminate learning on the adaptation of this approach and women’s voice and leadership within the humanitarian response.
• Ensure that the monitoring framework in relation to women’s voice and leadership programming is implemented, including baseline data, secondary data, reviews, end line surveys, donor reporting and internal/external evaluations and capitalization of activities.
• Contribute to the preparation of WLiE partner and project reports, such as progress reports, annual reports, interim and final reports for donors.
• Contribute to learning across CARE International on the adapted Women Lead in Emergencies model and how it is applied in Ukraine, through learning papers, webinars, and general communication and collaboration with the Global WLiE team.

Capacity Building and Support to Partners

• Identify and coordinate learning and training opportunities for project staff, including on CARE’s women voice and leadership concepts, WLiE model, and feminist principles approaches to working in partnership with WRO/WLOs.
• Working closely with the GiE Adviser, ensure continual capacity building and mentoring processes are in place to support partner staff in gaining key skills and experience required for WLiE integrated programming.
• Participate in local partners’ assessment and capacity building, including support to partners with activity implementation where relevant (I.e., implementation of WLiE model through activities)
• Support the Head of Gender and Protection with the integration of women’s voice and leadership concepts into CARE Ukraine recruitment processes and onboarding.
• Supervision of external consultants where relevant.

Representation & Advocacy

• Ensure that CARE’s work is coordinated with efforts of other agencies and Government, and support Interagency Coordination forums, advocating for the specific needs of project participants and affected populations. This may involve supporting coordination working groups.
• Participate proactively in and contribute to the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) group, as well as cluster technical working groups meetings as required, including contribution to gender-related sections of HNO and HRP.
• Share information on CARE activities and promote good relations and collaboration with other actors working on the humanitarian response, including presenting and disseminating findings and recommendations from the Rapid Gender Analysis on Power and Participation and WLiE programming.
• With support from the Head of Gender & Protection Unit and other senior program staff, assist in advocacy activities that target decision-makers in-country.
• Contribute to communications and media work as required, including relevant moments e.g. International Women’s Day.

General

• Deliver high quality results in line with the terms of reference agreed in advance – to do this in a way which maintains the reputation of CARE.
• Comply with CARE policies and practice with respect to PSEA, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.
• Help be responsible for the security of all staff. Ensure that the security, health and wellbeing of staff are ensured, and staff management and other processes and policies and systems reflect CARE ‘s principles of equity and fairness.

Additional job responsibilities

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties assigned by the Head of Protection and Gender Unit within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Requirements

Essential criteria

• A minimum of 5 years’ prior experience as technical or programmatic lead working in partnership with WRO/WLOs and leading the integration of women’s voice and leadership concepts in a technical advisory capacity. Strong and recent knowledge of Ukraine context is an asset.
• Strong understanding of international standards and agreements related to women’s voice and leadership including experience developing technical guidance in line with these.
• Knowledge of institutional donors and experience of designing projects, including ability to develop clear and well-argued assessments, proposals, and log frames, and demonstrated monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Proven capacity to supervise, train and coach staff and partners in technical skills, knowledge, and theory to identify and respond to women’s voice and leadership programming needs.
• Proven experience in developing collaborative partnerships with national organizations, CBOs and CSOs, including WROs and WLOs to support their leadership, especially WROs and WLOs.
• Experience of, and commitment to working through systems of community participation and accountability.
• Demonstrated commitment to women’s voice and leadership, empowerment of WROs/WLOs, and feminist principles.
• Strong leadership, people management, and team-building skills, including political and cultural sensitivity with qualities of patience, tact, and diplomacy.
• Excellent communication skills, including full professional proficiency in written and spoken English and Ukrainian.
• The capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.

Accountability within CARE:

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of our activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Gender equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices.

How to apply

Please send your complete application package (CV, motivation letter, references) only in English to [email protected], no later than 22nd March 2023 with WLiE Adviser LVIV as the subject title of your email. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. References will only be contacted after the interview.