Position Title: SRHR & EVAWG Officer
1.About FEMNET.
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is pan-African women’s rights network with over 800 individual and institutional members in 50 countries in Africa and the diaspora. FEMNET continues to inform and amplify African women’s voices and advance women’s rights in policy and practice. Since 1988, FEMNET has continued to make remarkable strides toward promoting the meaningful and structured participation of women in Africa to influence the design, implementation, and monitoring of development frameworks and policies at local, national, regional, and global levels to ensure the realization of women’s and girls’ rights. At the heart of FEMNET’s work is the commitment to progressively push for and sustain a strong and vibrant women’s movement in Africa that catalyses social and gender justice. FEMNET remains at the fore of mobilizing and enhancing the capacities of women’s rights advocates to challenge inequalities and dismantle negative power structures and push for accountability for gender equality and women’s human rights.
FEMNET’s vision is “African women and girls thrive in dignity and well-being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices”. In line with this, FEMNET’s mission is to **“**mobilize African women for the achievement of gender equality and the realization of women’s and girls’ rights at all levels through policy advocacy, strategic communication, strengthening of capacities and feminist movement building”. For more information, visit www.femnet.org .
2. Background of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG).
SRHR and EVAWG is one of FEMNET’s core thematic focus area, which also has 3 priority areas of :
- Ending FGM, CEFM and eradicating harmful practices,
- Access to Safe and Legal Abortion and
- Bodily Autonomy and Integrity work.
To accomplish the above, FEMNET has developed innovative and agile approaches including the Men-to-men programme, which seek to engage with men to combat gender-based violence (GBV) and increase access to Sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa. This is done through sharing information, tools, men-friendly activities, and skills-building ideas and methods to support organizations and individuals to better understand the need of working with men to address GBV and the unmet need of SRHR in collaboration with women’s rights organisations in Africa.
The overall goal of the Men-to-Men approach is to create a critical mass of African men who are able to influence communities, organisations, and the public to embrace gender equality and women’s human rights as a norm. It provides men with easy-to-apply practical guidelines on how to work with fellow men to combat gender-based violence (GBV) as part of their contribution to enhancing gender equality. It further provides a platform and space to understand the dynamics of working with men on SRHR and GBV issues. It unpacks and shares the myths and misconceptions, fears, and strengths and suggests some of the tested and working ideas that can be adopted, domesticated, or improved for a greater impact. It addresses how to engage men to change negative socio-cultural attitudes that make them look down on women and girls as lesser human beings. It also builds a constituency of men to address other social issues that relate to human development and more specifically the intersection between GBV and SRHR in Africa.
3.Job Purpose.
Working closely with the FEMNET SRHR & EVAWG Lead and team members, Finance, MEAL and other thematic areas and/ or offices, as well as with the FEMNET members and partners within the African region and beyond, the Officer will coordinate activities in the field of capacity strengthening, lobbying, and advocacy of SRHR through the consortium partners and local organisations and other stakeholders.
Functionally Reports to: SRHR & EVAWG Lead – FEMNET(Kenya)
4.Terms of Reference.
Main duties and responsibilities:
a)Policy and Advocacy
- Design advocacy and influencing strategy for the engagement of men and boys in policy influencing in spaces including the UN Headquarters, African Union, national governments, and local levels.
- Design and support the implementation of or localizing global campaigns for engaging men and boys in promoting gender equality.
- Participation in media and presenting the Men-to-Men Strategy on mainstream and social media platforms.
- Developing a policy framework to increase knowledge on priority issues related to men to men and support stakeholders to translate this into better policies, guidelines, and programming decisions.
- Developing, collating, and disseminating advocacy resources, and providing advocacy guidance to the project.
- Identifying key areas for research on relevant policy issues and opportunities to implement such research in collaboration with program and technical staff and other stakeholders.
- Handling processes for sharing lessons and drawing out experience from field activities, including synthesizing learning from monitoring and evaluation, and responding to policy opportunities emerging from the program work in collaboration with the FEMNET team.
b)Project Coordination.
- Provision of technical support to FEMNET members to nurture the Men-to-Men Strategy and Interventions in their countries and programs.
- Documenting and disseminating reports on the engagement of men and boys in collaboration with FEMNET members and other stakeholders at global, regional, and national levels.
- Development or updating of training materials and curriculum for the in-country and regional training on Masculinity and gender-based violence;
- Conducting training and capacity building for men and boys on the Men-to-Men Strategy and social change interventions;
- Expand the Men-to-Men Constituency to reach non-traditional partners including religious and cultural institutions among others.
- Developing, connecting, and networking of the Men-to-Men Regional stakeholders with each other and with other progressive initiatives that target men and boys for gender equality.
- Expand the scope of work with men and boys to include SRHR, economic justice, and Women’s leadership, Information & Communication, Climate Justice & Natural Resource Governance, Resource mobilisation and partnerships and Institutional Capacity Strengthening.
- Cocreation of interventions with men-dominated sectors and spaces in the target countries.
- Promotion and showcasing the Men-to-Men Strategy in meetings, forums, and media.
- Innovate new ways of reaching out to men and boys and engaging them on GBV and social change.
- Follow the project work plan and proactively contribute to the achievement of the strategic directions of the FEMNET; ensuring adherence to quality and timeliness of the deliverables.
c)Monitoring and Evaluation.
- Monitors progress towards established goals of the FEMNET Men to men program. Relates progress to the overarching FEMNET’s Periodic Work Plans and Strategic Plan.
d) Resource Mobilization
- Supporting and develop funding proposals for institutional support and expanding the Men-to-Men Strategy, programs, and interventions.
- Reporting and feedback with different funding partners for engagement of men and boys in promoting SRHR and elimination of all forms of gender-based violence.
5.Minimum Academic Qualifications and Requirements
Academic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies, Law, Social Sciences, Public Health, Political Science, Humanities Gender, and Law or any other relevant disciplines.
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
- A minimum of 5 years’ experience working with the Women’s Rights Movement, Positive masculinity, or civil society organizations, in Human Rights with a focus on project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and working in international teams.
- Expertise in working on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH-R) or Men and boys’ engagement.
- Keen on ensuring ownership by local organisations and finding innovative and creative solutions to realize goals.
- Work experience in a National, regional or international environment.
- Flexible attitude, creative, supports FEMNETs’ and We Lead values, has a progressive and positive view on SRH-R and the leadership of rightsholders.
- Solid technical knowledge of/expertise in SRHR programming and advocacy using a feminist frame of analysis**.**
- A critical understanding of and deep commitment to feminism, social justice, and human rights issues facing women and girls within the continent.
- Bilingual (English and French) will be added advantage.
Competencies
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills,
- Excellent writing and public engagement skills
- Ability to organize and work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders.
- Ability to communicate and work effectively in English and French.
- A high level of self-awareness, sound judgment, self-care, passion, and flexibility
- Ability to multi-task and work under limited supervision**.**
6.Renumeration.
Remuneration will be in line with the set procedures of the organizations which consider the experience and qualifications of the candidate.
How to apply
Interested applicants should send their application letter accompanied by a resume with names and addresses of 3 professional referees (including telephone and e-mail) Applications by e-mail only and should be addressed to the Executive Director, sent to: recruitment@femnet.or.ke. Please indicate the reference in the subject line **SRHR & EVAWG Officer (Ref: FNT/EOI/01/2023). The deadline for submission of applications on 25th January 2023, 21:00 GMT.
Please note: Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to equity, inclusivity, safeguarding and non-discriminatory principles and practices. FEMNET is committed to welcoming and working with all people irrespective of age, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, race, religious or political beliefs, disability, socio-economic background, or any other aspect of their background or identity. We will make any practical adjustments to enable persons with disability to participate fully in an inclusive working environment. Please let us know in advance if you require any support or assistive technologies in making your application.
Only complete applications will be reviewed, and only applicants who have been selected for an interview will be contacted.