Gender and Youth Specialist – SC6

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Gender Studies, Law, Development Studies, Sociology, Social Sciences, Rural Development, or a related field from a recognized university is required, with demonstrated specialization in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
  
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressive work experience in gender and social inclusion programming, ideally in the context of agriculture, climate change, natural resource management or rural livelihoods
  
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and Swahili
  
• National of Kenya
  

• Provide technical and coordination support to integrate gender equality and social inclusion across all project components (climate-resilient value chains, ecosystem restoration, governance and capacity development).
  
• Lead or coordinate the implementation, periodic updating and operationalization of the Project Gender Action Plan (GAP), ensuring alignment with FAO and GCF requirements.
  
• Conduct or coordinate gender analyses and gender-sensitive/context analyses at county, value chain and community levels, and ensure findings are incorporated into workplans, site selection, cooperative support, CSA packages and restoration activities.
  
• Support implementing partners, counties, cooperatives and service providers to design and implement gender-responsive and youth-inclusive activities, including training, enterprise development, climate services, and access to finance and inputs.
  
• Provide hands-on support for gender and youth-responsive trainings and multi-stakeholder workshops, including development of training materials and facilitation at county/community level.
  
• Work with project team to ensure that risk mitigation measures related to gender-based violence (GBV), sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) and other gender-related risks are integrated into field activities and partner agreements.
  
• Provide technical advice to the project team, implementing partners and county partners on national and county-level policy frameworks related to gender equality, youth, social protection and climate-resilient agriculture, and support their integration into FP255 interventions.
  
• Support county governments and relevant institutions to strengthen gender-responsive policies and strategies in areas such as cooperatives, natural resource governance, extension and climate responses.
  
• Contribute gender inputs to annual workplans, budgets, procurement documents, ToRs and partner agreements, ensuring they reflect project gender commitments.
  
• Work closely with the M&E team to ensure sex- and age-disaggregated data (SADD) is systematically collected and analysed for all relevant indicators, in line with the IRMF and project logframe.
  
• Support the development and use of gender-sensitive indicators and qualitative measures to capture changes in women’s and youth’s participation, decision-making, access to resources, workloads, benefits and resilience.
  
• Provide consolidated gender and social inclusion inputs for key project reports, including GCF APRs (Annual Performance Reports), semi-annual/annual progress reports, missions and supervision reports.
  
• Ensure that GRM (Grievance Redress Mechanism) processes are gender-responsive and accessible, and that project teams understand and apply appropriate referral pathways for GBV/SEAH cases in line with FAO protocols.
  
• Maintain an updated record of gender-related achievements, challenges and lessons, and contribute to risk registers and adaptive management discussions.
  
• Develop or adapt knowledge products and tools on gender, youth and social inclusion in climate-resilient agriculture, value chains, cooperatives and ecosystem restoration (briefs, case studies, training modules, checklists).
  
• Document and disseminate good practices, success stories and lessons learned on gender-transformative and youth-inclusive approaches within the project, for use at county, national and global levels.
  
• Lead or support capacity-building for project team, county teams and partners on gender equality, GBV/SEAH risk mitigation, gender-responsive value chain development and participatory approaches.
  
• Facilitate or contribute to communities of practice/networks on gender and climate-resilient agriculture within FAO and with external partners in Kenya and the region.
  
• Collaborate with FAO communications staff to ensure visibility and messaging on gender and social inclusion aspects of the project across FAO and partner platforms.
  
• Liaise regularly with FAO Country Office Gender Focal Point and relevant regional/HQ gender officers to ensure consistency with FAO corporate guidance and to share project experiences.
  
• Participate in project coordination meetings, technical working groups and field missions as required.
  
• Perform any other gender and social inclusion-related tasks required to support effective implementation and reporting.