Consultancy: Gender Advisor

Background

The African Risk Capacity was established as a Specialized Agency of the African Union (AU) in November 2012 to help Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare and respond to extreme weather events and disasters and to assist food insecure populations.  Operating under the privileges and immunities of the AU, the ARC Agency, through its Secretariat, provides Member States with capacity building services for early warning, contingency planning and risk finance. The ARC design and establishment phase was managed by WFP and WFP continues to provide administrative services support to the ARC Agency through an administrative services agreement.

In late 2013 the Agency established a financial affiliate called ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd). ARC Ltd is a specialist hybrid mutual insurance company that issues policies to governments, and which aggregates and transfers risk to the international market.  ARC, through ARC Ltd. and after its capacity building activities, provides financing in form of insurance to African governments to execute pre-approved contingency plans in the event of severe disasters. In order for a country to purchase an insurance policy through ARC Ltd. and thus become a member of the Company, the country must demonstrate through a peer review process its ability to effectively use potential payouts.

In May 2014, with initial capital provided by the governments of Germany and the United Kingdom, ARC Ltd issued drought insurance policies to a first group of African governments – Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal – marking the launch of the inaugural ARC pool. Due to a poor rainfall season in the Sahel during the 2014/ 2015 season three of these four first countries received a payout from ARC Ltd to be used for the implementation of pre-approved contingency plans designed to reach those in need. In its second year of implementation ARC Ltd offered insurance coverage to nine countries for the 2015/ 2016 rainfall season.  ARC Ltd uses the satellite weather surveillance software Africa RiskView, developed together with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), to estimate needs and trigger insurance payouts to those countries affected by poor weather. By allowing Member States to capitalise on the natural diversification of weather risk across the continent, premiums are significantly more affordable than they would be for countries approaching the market alone. Additional countries are in the queue to join future pools with the target to insurance 30 countries by 2020 through drought, flood and tropical cyclone products. 

As a specialized agency, ARC adheres to the African Union’s Gender Policy and its commitment to gender equality through (among others) the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) and the vision of Africa as expressed in the Agenda 2063. At the global level, ARC is committed to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 5 that aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”.

Responsibilities and expected deliverables

The Gender Advisor is responsible for providing strategic, policy, operational and technical guidance and oversight to the Organisation’s activities. Under the supervision of the Chief Operating Officer, S/he oversees leading and coordinating the development and the implementation of the ARC’s Gender Equality Strategy, including a gender equality results based management within the organisation, its operations and, programs.  

Specifically, the Gender Advisor will:

Policy and strategy

• Develop and lead the implementation of ARC gender equality strategy;
• Promote the mainstreaming of gender equality at all stages of ARC program cycle;
• Revise ARC’s Standard Operating Procedures to take into account gender equality;
• Contribute to the development of project proposals to ensure that gender equality is adequately addressed;

Management, monitoring and evaluation

• Collaborate with other Departments within ARC to ensure the incorporation of gender equality in their work;
• Work with the HR to develop and/ amend HR related policies to adequately reflect gender parity or equity
• Assist in the M&E Department in developing indicators to monitor the gender equality in ARC programs;
• Coordinate with the M&E Department to collect and report on gender-disaggregated data and other gender-related information;
• Participate in operational missions to promote the implementation of the gender strategy and enhance the level of gender analysis in Member States;

Capacity building

• Conducting gender training sessions and other related capacity building for ARC staff and partners
• Support and guide the inclusion of gender in all ARC activities especially gender equality among staff team, training, and beneficiaries;
• Support government counterparts and in-country partners to incorporate gender equality in the Technical Working Groups, in contingency planning and the implementation of ARC payout;
• Coordinate with other Departments within ARC on issues related to gender equality in capacity building and technical support provided to ARC Member States;
• Contribute to ARC semi-annual and Annual Report;

Strategic partnership

• Liaise with key gender-related NGOs, multilateral organizations and national institutions in ARC Member States for purposes of information-sharing, networking and operational collaboration;

Knowledge management

• Ensure that lessons learned and best practices in mainstreaming gender equality in ARC programs are systematically documented;
• Contribute to research and studies relevant to gender equality in the context of disaster risk management in Africa;

Representation

• Advocates for and represents ARC in his/her area of expertise as requested by the Chief Operating Officer or ARC Management.

Qualifications

Education:

• At least a Master’s degree in Gender studies, economics, rural development, social development, social studies or related areas with a focus on Gender Equality.

Experience:       

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience (of which three is international) in gender analysis, Gender Equality strategies and policies development, research and advocacy skills, conducting gender assessments and designing/implementing/evaluating gender in development projects and/or programs.
• Demonstrable outstanding understanding of gender issues, gender based analysis and strategy formulation in the context of emergency and/or disaster risk management; extensive knowledge of the practices of major bilateral and multilateral partner development agencies in African countries is an advantage;

Functional competencies

• Proven capacity to lead and to coordinate;
• Proven capacity to conduct a Gender Equality and Result Based Management with clear accountability mechanism;
• Ability to establish strategic networks and partnerships, including with Regional Economic Communities, African Union, Government. and Civil Society Organizations, etc.;
• Effectiveness in leading negotiations;
• Proven intellectual and research capacities, especially in risk and disaster, food security, and climate change.

Language:

Fluency in English and French is required.  Limited knowledge (intermediate/level B) of another AU official language – Arabic or Portuguese – desirable.