Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Adviser

Exciting opportunity to live and work in the young, South East Asian nation! Are you a dynamic, gender and disability inclusion specialist with experience in agriculture, market systems, savings/microfinance, and/or women’s economic empowerment? Do you have a passion for inclusive community development? Do you thrive in multi-disciplinary team environments? If yes, then this could be the role for you!

TOMAK is the Australian Government’s flagship agricultural livelihoods program, with a reputation for high quality program delivery and strong partnerships with the Government of Timor-Leste, NGOs and the private sector. The program is entering its second phase of implementation (2022-2026) and is seeking a long-term Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Adviser to be part of the TOMAK leadership team and oversee the development and implementation of the program’s GEDSI Strategy. The GEDSI Adviser will support the program to identify specific gender-transformative approaches and mainstream inclusion to ensure key target groups are reached (including women farmers, farmers with disabilities and youth).

The Adviser will supervise a small GEDSI team and manage a dedicated GEDSI-component budget allocation. The Adviser will also have the opportunity to oversee innovative GEDSI-related research and assessments, and will lead on capacity building, training and mentoring on GEDSI for the broader TOMAK team.

Duties and responsibilities

• In collaboration with TOMAK’s technical teams, develop and lead the implementation of the TOMAK2 GEDSI strategy, ensuring that this strategy is well integrated across all technical areas (incl. food systems, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, market systems development, resilience, policy and institutional strengthening);
• Provide high quality GEDSI technical input into TOMAK’s research and assessments, field implementation approaches, monitoring and evaluation, and policy/advocacy efforts including for activities implemented by TOMAK partners (GoTL, NGO, private sector);
• Together with the National GEDSI Specialist (and possibly one other disability-focused role) manage key GEDSI partnerships including with the Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEII), Rede Feto (the Timor-Leste women’s network), women’s organisations, youth organisations, and organisations of persons with disabilities;
• Ensure provision of high-quality support, training and refresher training for TOMAK staff and implementing partners on GEDSI principles and approaches;
• Ensure the program is adequately tracking inclusion outcomes through its monitoring, evaluation and learning systems, including through tools such as the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI);
• Directly supervise and support the National Gender Specialist and any other direct reports through provision of coaching, and support the GEDSI team in planning, implementation and monitoring of GEDSI activities;
• Support the ongoing capacity development of TOMAK’s GEDSI staff in relevant technical areas, and support the broader TOMAK team to improve program-wide GEDSI knowledge, skills and capacity;
• As a member of the TOMAK leadership team, play an active role in stakeholder engagement and the development of key deliverables including writing sections of the annual workplan and annual report, and presenting at donor briefings;
• Recruit and manage any short-term personnel required for key GEDSI assignments to ensure delivery of high quality deliverables (incl. research, training curricula, analysis, etc.);
• Liaise with and work in line with the DFAT Nabilan Program’s approaches on addressing violence against women and children, including prevention methodology endorsed under Timor-Leste’s National Action Plan on Gender Based Violence;
• Work in line with the Australia-Timor-Leste Partnership for Human Development (PHD) Program’s approaches on addressing disability, endorsed under Timor-Leste’s National Action Plan on disability;
• Review as required all TOMAK/ASI policies, procedures and other relevant documentation to ensure they are aligned to DFAT frameworks and adhere to principles of gender equality, disability and social inclusion;
• Participate in relevant GEDSI-related networks (including those convened by DFAT) to ensure regular communication and coordination with other programs, organisations and agencies.

Skills and experience required:

1. Demonstrated international development experience in gender equality and disability inclusion-related programming, particularly in the areas of agricultural productivity, food and nutrition security, market systems development, or women’s economic empowerment (at least 7 years);
2. Demonstrated ability to design and adapt program approaches and strategies that promote gender transformative programming and that support women’s economic empowerment in diverse contexts;
3. Excellent research skills with the ability to synthesise rich multi-methods data, and contribute to TOMAK’s research and learning agenda on gender and agriculture;
4. Demonstrated familiarity with participatory MEL approaches and strong knowledge of current gender-transformative measurement;
5. Demonstrated high level organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks, competing priorities and complete assignments within timeframes;
6. Experience in capacity building, including training and on the job mentoring of national staff, strong leadership and team management skills;
7. Excellent strategic communication and advocacy skills, analytical and report writing skills;
8. Exceptional interpersonal and cross-cultural skills and the ability to develop highly productive relationships within a large team and across key stakeholders;
9. Demonstrated capacity to work collegially with government, private sector, civil society, other partner organisations, youth and to manage effective partnership arrangements;
10. Post-graduate qualifications relating to international development, gender relations, agriculture, rural/development economics, or similar;