Women Economic Empowerment Officer

1. Background Information

The Afghanistan Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project is an initiative supported by the World Bank and Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF). The Project has a total budget of US$ 419 million with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) as its implementing Partner (IP). Actual ground-level Project support will be provided by non-governmental organizations contracted as Facilitating Partners (FPs) for three Components, and through private sector infrastructure contractors for the urban component.
Note: The CRLP original project (referred to hereinafter as “Parent Project” (PP) was approved on 29th April 2022, for a total of US$ 265 million from the ARTF, with an original closing date of 30th April 2024. It was restructured in April 2023, with minor revisions to its design, additional reporting indicators, and an extension of its closing date to 31st August 2024. It then underwent a further restructuring with Additional Financing (AF), in January and April 2024, with the addition of US$ 70 million from the ARTF and US$ 84 million from IDA, bringing the total project budget to US$ 419 million, and the extended closure date to 30th June 2025.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

Women Economic Empowerment Officer will support the CRLP Rural Team Lead and the team as required in liaising with the local community and authorities to ensure the project can be implemented as per schedule and scope, addressing the day to day concerns of the community, updating on project’s progress, project’s plans, etc. The responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

Women Economic Empowerment Officer will support the CRLP Rural Team Lead and the team as required in liaising with the local community and authorities to ensure the project can be implemented as per schedule and scope, addressing the day to day concerns of the community, updating on project’s progress, project’s plans, etc. The responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Key Responsibilities

● Conduct Training of Trainers (ToTs) for staff and community groups, including Community Development Councils (CDCs), Community Resilience Groups (CRGs), and farmers, focusing on kitchen gardening techniques.

● Provide technical training on the jam-making process and pickling to enhance local food preservation skills.

● Deliver practical training sessions to farmers on innovative farming techniques to optimize agricultural practices and productivity.

● Train farmers in the selection and cultivation of crop varieties that are well-suited to their specific farming conditions.

● This addition ensures that the activities are clearly outlined as responsibilities of the Women Economic Empowerment Officer without being overly specific in the Work Experience section.

Planning and Coordination:

● Plan, organize, manage meetings/focus groups for UNOPS with stakeholders and or with any other agencies or person if so requested, including organizing meeting spaces, agendas, methodologies of running the events, preparation of relevant material, post processing of the results of the events such as mapping the results, reporting, sharing with team and follow up activities;

● Facilitate the smooth liaison between coordination entities, working groups, stakeholders from civil society, international and local NGOs,

● Organize and implement activities of collection of information and strategy definition for the implementation of the project. (examples: stakeholders mapping, interviews/focus group with stakeholders, collect best practice examples, contextualized inputs, work with UNOPS team and transfer the acquired knowledge to colleagues, and similar);

Community Engagement and Implementation:

● To review the women economic empowerment related documents such modules, manuals, technical guidelines and step by step guidelines

● To provide the technical assistance in the areas of poultry/jam making and pickling

● To ensure the quality of technical trainings provided to women headed households in the areas of income-generating and/or production activities kitchen gardening and food processing activities (e.g. jam/pickle making, other vegetable/fruit processing,) and poultry rearing

● To see whether asset production packages has been transferred to targeted women headed households beneficiaries

● To confirm whether the the women economic empowerment beneficiaries have practically started the utilization of asset production packages

● To have close coordination with FPs and provide full support to fi eld technical colleagues if needed

● To provide guidance to the fi eld colleagues on technical issues

● To ensure the smooth implementation of component 3b women economic empowerment activity in fi eld ● Conduct fi eld visits according to approved plans to monitor and evaluate project effectiveness and success.

Communication and Reporting:

● Report to the CRLP Rural Team Lead on a daily and weekly basis on community issues and the project’s performance in relation to those issues;

● Keep up with the weekly and daily developments of the project;

● Inform CRLP Team Lead when there is issue between the community members and the project staff ;

● Acting as a focal point for the project on behalf of the CRLP Rural Team Lead within UNOPS and other stakeholders as required;

● Assist UNOPS in the identification of potential implementation problems and bottlenecks,

● Perform other duties as may be assigned

● Collaborate with community members and CRGs leaders to ensure effective execution of women economic activities to achieve the project objectives.

4. Qualifications and Experience

A. Education

● Bachelor’s Degree in Economic/ Development Studies /Social Science or related fi eld is required ;

B. Work Experience

● A minimum of 2 years of experience in women’s economic activities, including providing training and capacity-building support in agriculture, farming, and related subjects.

● Experience in conducting technical training sessions for community groups, including but not limited to kitchen gardening, food processing, and other income-generating activities.

● Proven ability to work with local communities in the creation and execution of humanitarian and development projects.

● Prior experience with government development bodies, NGOs, INGOs, UN/UNOPS, or similar humanitarian and development actors is a significant advantage.

C. Languages

● Excellent English language writing, editing, and verbal skills.

● Knowledge of Pashto and/or Dari language will be an asset.

Rural Team Lead

Key Competencies

● Proven ability to work independently with minimal supervision and direction;

● Capable of working with others in a participatory and capacity building manner;

● Ability to establish and maintain excellent contacts with colleagues, government officials, community representatives and contractors;

● Self-motivated, versatile and adaptable to different cultures and people;

● Ability to multitask and prioritize work schedules;

● Strong community liaison, mobilization and negotiation skills required;

● Working knowledge of MS Office Applications required;

● Fluent in both oral and written English;

● Good analytical skills; resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment;

● Strong communications skills and ability to work with a team to achieve organizational goals;

● Good negotiation skills, and the ability to bring consensus amongst people.

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