Mission and objectives

In support of the Government of Zimbabwe, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has embarked on the implementation of a five-year Country Programme Document (CPD) 2022-2026. UNDP focuses on areas that have a multiplier effect through a targeted build-up of capacities, policies, the creation of dialogue space, and scalable downstream interventions. Proposed downstream interventions will seek to provide platforms for citizen engagement in democratic processes and facilitate access to skills, knowledge and new technologies for increased income generation. In so doing, UNDP Zimbabwe renders its support through the following three programmatic areas: 1. Democratic Governance 2. Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Livelihoods 3. Climate Change and Resilience Building Zimbabwe received funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for the project entitled “Building climate resilience of vulnerable agricultural livelihoods in southern Zimbabwe” The objective of the proposed project is to strengthen resilience of agricultural livelihoods of vulnerable communities, particularly women, in southern Zimbabwe in the face of increasing climate risks and impacts. The project will contribute to the following GCF Fund-level impacts for adaptation: 1.0 “Increased resilience and enhanced livelihoods of the most vulnerable people, communities and regions” and 2.0 “Increased resilience of health and well-being, and food and water security” for vulnerable smallholder communities in southern Zimbabwe. The project outcome will strengthen the adaptive capacities of vulnerable smallholder farmers, especially women, to climate change induced impacts on their agro-ecosystems and livelihoods. Implemented through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (MoLAFWRD) in partnership with UNDP for 7 years from June 2020 to May 2027, the project intervention builds the climate resilience of vulnerable agriculture livelihoods initially with 6 900 dryland and 630 irrigation lead farmers in 15 districts across three provinces of Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland South through the following strategic components: (i) Increasing access to water for climate-resilient agriculture through climate-resilient irrigation systems and efficient water resource management. (ii) Increasing access to climate-resilient inputs and practices, as well as stronger market linkages. (iii) Improving access to weather, climate, and hydrological information for climate resilient agriculture.

Context

The project aims to enhance the water security for smallholder farmers in light of evolving climate risks by enabling revitalization and climate-proofing of irrigation schemes and improving water use efficiency and enhancing soil moisture management on rain-fed lands. It will strengthen the capacities of vulnerable smallholder farmers through Farmer Field Schools and peer-to-peer support to scale up climate-resilient agriculture, with access to resilient inputs, markets, and actionable climate information. The project has a gender marker of 2, implying that gender equality is a significant objective. The project’s design works towards advocacy for women’s equal active participation and representation in agricultural activities – gender parity in access to land, equal participation in decision making, and equal enjoyment of proceeds from agriculture. The women’s empowerment agenda for the GCF project is anchored in working through already existing women’s groups. The climate-resilient agriculture project provides an opportunity to place gender equality and women empowerment at the centre of agricultural policy, research, development, capacity building and the institutional development agenda. Against this background, the project seeks the services of a Gender Officer. The officer with experience and/or knowledge of gender programming and mainstreaming with emphasis on gender analysis and gender responsive reporting in agriculture-based interventions, will guide the project team in championing interventions that will increase address of challenges that women including those with disabilities face in responding to immediate threat of water scarcity to vulnerable agricultural livelihoods and to building climate resilience. In addition to mainstreaming gender equality principles into the existing project’s results framework, a women empowerment result framework with respective and explicit project intervention support for women farmers, paying particular attention to farmers from female headed households, in the project areas will be included. Dedicated results for women farmers will also ensure equitable allocation of resources from the project to support women farmers. The Gender Officer will guide gender related activities including capacity building of farmers and relevant institutions, Mainstreaming, and integrating safeguarding issues especially around Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in close collaboration with the Safeguards Expert. The main objective of this assignment is to provide support through collaborating with the PMU and the Responsible Partners, implementing the gender action plan and mainstreaming gender equality in project activities. Support includes the training of implementing partners, development of tools, indicator definition and tracking, gender responsive implementation and reporting as well as budgeting for gender activities, specifically those described in the gender actin plan which itself is to be updated based on field based assessments of project activities.

Task Description

The Gender Officer will be responsible for the refinement (through annual updates) and implementation of the Gender Action Plan of the project by integrating it with project work plans, monitoring progress on the Gender action Plan, regular reporting on the progress including in the annual performance report, capacity needs assessment, capacity building on gender mainstreaming in climate resilient agriculture, support management and co- across the project’s three outputs. His/her tasks will be distributed across areas defined under scope of work below, in close collaboration with the PMU and project Responsible parties; AGRITEX, Department of Irrigation, MSD, ZINWA and DR&SS. The officer’s work will also incorporate cross cutting issues such as social and environmental safeguards and climate related gender sensitive issues in liaison with the project resilience advisor, irrigation and safeguards experts and the project Responsible Parties. S(he) will additionally review and advise on the dissemination strategies adopted for the project components, including those pertaining to climate information and the innovation platforms and will ensure gender mainstreaming in the different communication and knowledge management products of the project. Broad functions to be performed by the Gender Officer include: • Implementation of gender-related activities and budgeting in line with the project 3 key outputs and the gender action plan with contributions to the work plans (annual and quarterly) • Carry out gender-based capacity needs assessment and train staff and partners on gender mainstreaming • Capacity building of farmers with equal access to skills, knowledge, training, and opportunities for taking up leadership, accessing finance by women and equal opportunity for participation in the project key outputs • Gender responsive monitoring and reporting to ensure changes in gender relations and access to resources by women are tracked, including ensuring that contributions made by the project towards the GoZ’s key policies/strategies on Gender in Agriculture are documented. • Contributing to the relevant sections of GCF Annual Performance Report (APR) which specifically includes reporting on the implementation of the Gender Action Plan but also strategic level actions for gender mainstreaming across the project. • Mainstreaming and integrating safeguarding issues on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse across the project and in the design and rollout of the Grievance Redress Mechanisms • Regular review and annual updating of the of the project Gender Action Plan • Support the review of all consultants TORs, reports from consultants and experts and other project generated reports to ensure that adequate gender considerations are fully incorporated. • Supporting the design and implementation of strategies being implemented by the project components, specifically including the dissemination strategy for climate information services and the sustainability and scale-up strategies being developed for innovation platforms • Support to the communications expert by mainstreaming gender in communications and knowledge products. More specifically 1 Provide support for the project to implement, monitor and report on gender-related activities and budgeting in line with the Gender action plan. – Mainstreaming of gender in the organisation and operationalisation of 251 Farmer field schools for promotion of climate resilient agriculture in 15 districts in consultation with the Department of AGRITEX, Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender, Community Development and SMEs, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Commerce. – Developing strategies for gender mainstreaming and gender responsive interventions in: – Irrigation management committees, their composition and roles of women member/farmers in agriculture. – Innovation platforms and how they address gender differentiated needs of communities through their technological and market related interventions and capacity building programmes. – Design and dissemination of climate information products and early warnings by both the MSD and ZINWA. -Support the development of a targeting matrix for the project activities to achieve 50% women and 30% Female headed households’ participation. -Provide technical assistance in the development of project monthly, quarterly and annual reports to ensure reporting of gender activities. -Facilitate participatory training workshops and on-site assistance by farmers, farmer groups and committees to ensure that gender considerations are made during implementation. -Participate identified monitoring activities. – Develop gender check lists for GCF Management Unit and Implementing partners. -Support the documentation of knowledge and harvesting of lessons on gender across all project activities. -Facilitate budgeting for implementation of the Gender action plan and its integration with the annual and quarterly work plans. 2. Support identifying project gender-based capacity needs assessment and addressing some of the underlying factors that lead to gender disparities. • Carry out gender-based capacity needs assessment of IPs and RPs to implement the GAP • Develop a capacity development strategy to address knowledge and gaps for the mainstreaming of gender in project activities across components. • Train Implementing partners and Responsible Parties to implement the GAP. • Develop a gender equality action learning program. 3. Gender responsive monitoring and reporting to ensure changes in gender relations and access to resources by women are tracked. • Support the development of Monitoring and Evaluation tools and ensure that sex and age disaggregated data is collected – Carry out a Gender Action Plan baseline data assessment and update baseline indicators and targets. • Support the development of M&E reporting templates and protocols. • Capacity building of partner staff in Gender responsive reporting. • Give input into Impact Baseline, Mid-Term and End line Evaluation terms of reference, tools development and data analysis plan to ensure that changes in gender relations and access to resources are reported. • Ensure that Gender Action Plan targets and indicators are defined and tracked. – Reporting on the relevant sections of GCF Annual Performance Report (APR) on the implementation of the Gender Action Plan and, with the Safeguards expert, on the social and environmental safeguards. – Contributing to the APR to ensure gender responsive strategies and gender mainstreaming efforts are captured in relevant sections. • Support Development of measurement methods and identification of data sources for the gender action plan, in conjunction with the GCF Project M&E Officer to Support the measurement of anticipated Quantitative gender outcomes such as Gender equity in leadership positions in Irrigation Management Committees and Qualitative outcomes such as increased opportunities to generate additional income by women. • Give input to the project communication and Knowledge Management Plan and ensure gender sensitive communication and that changes in gender relations and access to resources by women are documented for learning within and outside the project. • Support in sharing knowledge in sectoral or national platforms. 4. Mainstreaming and integrating safeguarding issues especially around Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse across the project Implementing partner and responsible partners • Training and certification of implementation partners on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse across. • Support establishment of the project Grievances Redress Mechanism in liaison with the safeguards expert. • Provide technical assistance to reporting on gender issues within the context of safeguarding for improved accountability. 5.Cross cutting issues • Closely work with the Project Steering Committee, Project Technical Working Group and Project Management Unit in the implementation and periodic (annual) review of the gender action plan. • Liaise closely with respective Responsible Partners providing technical guidance on Gender mainstreaming across the activities managed by each of the Responsible Partners under the project to assigned sector staff. • Liaise closely with the M&E Officer, environmental & social safeguard expert, irrigation expert, Project Resilience advisor and innovation platforms consultant to ensure smooth implementation of the Gender Action Plan. • Prepare quarterly and Annual status reports for projects Gender Action Plan implementation.

Competencies and values

• Professionalism: demonstrated understanding of operations relevant to UNDP Zimbabwe; technical capabilities or knowledge relevant or transferrable to UDP Zimbabwe procedures and rules; discretion, political sensitivity, diplomacy and tact to deal with clients; ability to apply good judgement; ability to liaise and coordinate with a range of different actors, especially in senior positions; where appropriate, high degree of autonomy, personal initiative and ability to take ownership; resourcefulness and willingness to accept wide responsibilities and ability to work independently under established procedures; ability to manage information objectively, accurately and confidentially; responsive and client-oriented; • Integrity: demonstrate the values and ethical standards of the UN and UNDP Zimbabwe in daily activities and behaviours while acting without consideration of personal gains; resist undue political pressure in decision-making; stand by decisions that are in the organization’s interest even if they are unpopular; take prompt action in cases of unprofessional or unethical behaviour; does not abuse power or authority; • Teamwork and respect for diversity: ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries; excellent interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and harmonious working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, mixed-gender environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity; sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, nationality and age; commitment to implementing the goal of gender equality by ensuring the equal participation and full involvement of women and men in all aspects of UN operations; ability to achieve common goals and provide guidance or training to colleagues; • Commitment to continuous learning: initiative and willingness to learn new skills and stay abreast of new developments in area of expertise; ability to adapt to changes in work environment. • Planning and organizing effective organizational and problem-solving skills and ability to manage a large volume of work in an efficient and timely manner; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor (own) work; ability to work under pressure, with conflicting deadlines, and to handle multiple concurrent projects/activities; • Communication: proven interpersonal skills; good spoken and written communication skills, including ability to prepare clear and concise reports; ability to conduct presentations, articulate options and positions concisely; ability to make and defend recommendations; ability to communicate and empathize with staff (including national staff), military personnel, volunteers, counterparts and local interlocutors coming from very diverse backgrounds; capacity to transfer information and knowledge to a wide range of different target groups; • Flexibility: adaptability and ability to live and work in potentially hazardous and remote conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort; to operate independently in austere environments for protracted periods; willingness to travel within the area of operations and to transfer to other duty stations within the area of operations as necessary; • Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance; and commitment towards UDP Zimbabwe’s mission and vision, as well as to the UN Core Values.

Living conditions and remarks

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. National UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements