Gender Specialist

Position: Gender Specialist

Duty Station: Lebanon- Al Shouf Cedar Society -Park House

Executing Agency: Al Shouf Cedar Society (ACS)

Duration:12 months, renewable subject to performance and funding

Overview: To address pressing environmental and climate resilience challenges in the Upper Litani Basin and the Shouf-West Beqaa-Mount Hermon corridor, the following two complementary projects have been designed and will be implemented over a four-year period:

• The Restoring Ecosystem Connectivity for Biodiversity and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Litani Watershed Project (ECONNECT), financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), with the aim of restoring ecological connectivity and improving ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods in the Upper Litani Basin through mosaic-landscape restoration and sustainable agriculture and aquaculture.
• The Climate Change Resilience and Ecosystem Connectivity (CC-REC) Project, financed by the Adaptation Fund (AF) and implemented by (IFAD), with the aim of restoring climate-smart landscapes and supporting resilient livelihoods in the Shouf-West Beqaa-Mount Hermon corridor through the adoption of nature-based solutions

The recruited project team will be part of ACS, which is the Executing Entity of both projects. The Executing Entity will be responsible for the day-to-day management and execution of project activities, including operational oversight of implementation, timely reporting, overall administration, fiduciary responsibilities, procurement, and monitoring and evaluation.

Role Description
The Gender Specialist will ensure that gender considerations are integrated into all aspects of the project. This position is responsible for promoting gender equity, ensuring the participation of women and youth in project activities, and addressing social inclusion issues in the project’s planning, implementation, and evaluation phases. The gender specialist will provide ongoing support and guidance to management and project teams to ensure gender considerations are addressed in their work. The Gender Specialist will support coordinated implementation across CC-REC and ECONNECT, ensuring appropriate attribution and reporting of gender-related activities and results for each project.

Specific duties:

• Support and guidance to management on social inclusion issues and strategies
• Advice on policy and facilitation of knowledge-building on gender issues
• Conduct training and sensitization sessions for stakeholders, implementers, and the community on the Gender and Social Inclusion Plan
• Collaborate with component leads to facilitate the implementation of the Gender and Social Inclusion plan
• In line with the gender and social inclusion action plan prepared at design, develop a detailed Gender and Social Inclusion Action Plan with clear activities, deliverables, budget and roles and responsibilities. The Gender and Social Inclusion Plan will provide a consolidated view of the different gender- and youth-related activities and targets planned at design and outlined in the Project Implementation Manual (PIM) providing further details on their implementation. The first draft Action Plan will be reviewed and approved by IFAD, and its implementation will be systematically monitored during the supervision missions.  
• Developing the project’s gender targeting strategy and providing a concept and methodology for involving different target groups (women, poor households, women-headed households) in the social mobilization process at the local level.
• Support and follow up on the recruitment and supervision of gender-related experts in any project's assignments.
• Coordinate capacity building and training sessions on gender-sensitive and youth-sensitive interventions for project staff and implementers.
• Conduct a constant review of project implementation processes to ensure the best possible project outcomes with respect to targeting, gender equality, women’s empowerment, and social inclusion, with a key focus on youth and vulnerable categories.
• Collaborate with an M&E specialist to ensure data is disaggregated by sex and age. Ensure that lessons learned on inclusion are captured, documented, and highlighted in reports.
• Provide inputs to project progress reports and donor reporting on gender, youth, and social inclusion outcomes, in coordination with the M&E Specialist
• Contribute to identification of gender and social inclusion related risks and mitigation measures, coordinate implementation of these measures with relevant team members and provide relevant reporting.