***IMPORTANT ELIGIBILTY CRITERIA:
- Be a Canadian Citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
Crossroads International is a leading Canadian international cooperation organization, advancing equality for women and girls and eradicating poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries in Africa where women and girls face great adversity: unequal access to resources and economic opportunities, gender-based violence and limited participation in political and public life. Crossroads International works in partnership with local organizations in 9 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, to draw on the skills, expertise, and resources, from the North and the South, required to enable people, particularly women and girls, to overcome poverty and defend their rights.
Crossroads is a registered charity supported by government and non-government funders, and many individual donors around the world.
OUR VISION
ONE WORLD where poverty is eliminated, equality prevails, and the rights of women and girls are fulfilled.
Project description and context:
Crossroads International’s 2020-2027 Volunteer Cooperation Program (VCP) entitled Championing Gender Equality Together, funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), will engage Canadian women and men, Canadian stakeholders, Crossroads staff and volunteers, local partner organizations and women and men in sub-Saharan Africa to become Gender Equality Champions. Collectively these Gender Equality Champions constitute a global community of strong change agents and advocates for the advancement of gender equality both in Canada and overseas.
The Project aims to reduce gender inequalities and alleviate poverty by addressing gender-based violence, inequalities in access to resources and economic opportunities, and barriers in exercising strategic forms of choice, voice, and influence, which are the culmination of unequal and discriminatory power relations entrenched in society. Crossroads will address the root causes of gender-based inequalities and discrimination through a multidimensional holistic approach in the VCP that will, 1) promote women’s rights; 2) advance access to justice and the reduction of gender-based violence (GBV), 3) promote equal representation of women and men, and 4) target inequalities that limit women’s ability to participate in and benefit from economic activities. Crossroads applies a rights-based approach to programming, which extends to promoting, protecting, and defending women’s rights, including strengthening the capacity of women’s rights organizations to participate in and influence policy formulation and hold accountable those who have a duty to act.
Description of the partner
Crossroads collaborates with iSpace whose mission is to support the tech, business, and creative start-up community with resources to accelerate innovation in Ghana. These efforts work towards the broader agenda of creating sustainable, inclusive growth by fostering competitiveness and promoting entrepreneurship. We have supported more than 3500 individuals and 158 businesses in business, technology, creative, digital literacy, financial empowerment, mental wellbeing, and other development areas. Of the individuals served, 63% are women and 58% of the ventures are founded or managed by women. iSpace also delivers STEM-based training for primary – secondary children and teens to help them learn technical and soft skills that could improve their test scores and capacity.
Description the volunteer mandate The volunteer is expected to lead, co-ordinate, facilitate and provide technical support in alignment with iSPACE’ s Gender Equality Policy and the project Gender Equality Strategy and to provide technical support to the project team, local partners and other stakeholders on mainstreaming gender equality in the implementation and management of Projects.
Main responsibilities
Includes but not limited to the following:
- Support the Project Manager and all other project team members to integrate gender equality in the design, management and monitoring of projects.
- Lead the development and implementation of the project Gender Equality (GE) Strategy and annual work plans.
- Lead the development of all project audience specific trainings (project staff, partners, government and community stakeholders, health professionals, managers, and frontline workers etc.), guidelines, resources and other collateral for the effective mainstreaming of all iSPACE’s Organization’s activities.
- Recommend gender related activities to be carried out under the project aligned with iSPACE’s Strategy and annual plans to the Project Manager
- Conduct community visits to monitor the promotion of gender equality in the project activities in the project districts to ensure quality supervision and monitoring leading to improvement in programme delivery and submits reports of such visits.
- Lead periodic reviews, including quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reviews with a gender lens to identify success stories, gaps/challenges relating to gender equality promotion and areas of improvement.
- Provide gender-related inputs to the Project Manager for compilation of best practices and project outcomes as part of contractual reports.
- Ensures that project action plans and budget are gender sensitive and provides assistance to implement them to achieve project goals and expected results.
- Provide top quality analysis and integration of gender in all project documents, promotional materials, and other strategic documents.
- Under the direction of the Project Manager, facilitates capacity building of partners; religious and traditional leaders etc. on gender equality and power related dynamics of households, families, and communities to ensure quality and timely delivery of the project activities relating to the empowerment of women and girls, male engagement and gender responsive MNCH service delivery.
- Facilitate the building of partnerships, networks, coalitions and alliances with other stakeholders in the area of gender equality particularly at the project level.
- Collaborate with other project teams in and outside iPSACE to ensure effective integration of other ongoing sector programmes such as, Health, Water and Sanitation, Child Protection and Household Economic Security Programmes in project activities, where feasible.
- Ensure gender equality considerations are mainstreamed in the Child protection and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities, where applicable.
- Comply with ISPACEl’s Child Protection Policy to prevent children from all forms of child abuse.
Qualification criteria for selection include:
- Post-graduate degree in Social Sciences or related field, background in Gender Studies or a related field will be an asset.
- At least 5 years’ experience in a similar position in an NGO
- Demonstrable experience and technical skills of developing and implementing gender transformative and gender integrated strategies and programmes.
- Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management, and reporting
- Demonstrable experience in advocacy, especially around gender related issues.
- A thorough understanding of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other human rights instruments.
- A thorough understanding of the various tools and techniques for mainstreaming gender in a project cycle including gender analysis, programming, monitoring and evaluation;
- Knowledgeable in the overall gender and related landscape of Ghana including key issues, policies, programmes and activities;
- Knowledgeable in the relationship between gender and MNCH issues
Eligibility criteria
- ***IMPORTANT: Be a Canadian Citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
- Willing to conduct fundraising and public engagement activities before, during and after the placement
- Share the commitment of preventing and addressing sexual misconduct
- In good physical and mental health (medical examination required)
- The volunteer needs to bring their own computer.
- The volunteer must be available to attend an online pre-departure trainings: May 25th to June 1st.
Personalized support before, during and after the mandate provided by an experienced and welcoming team. The Crossroads’ experience includes the following:
- Daily living allowance (depending of the country of assignment)
- Plane ticket and local transport
- Medical insurance and vaccinations
- Pre-assignment online training.
Crossroads International is committed to addressing gender-based violence by supporting the innovative work our partner organizations in ending violence against women and girls.
APPLICATION
To apply for this position, we kindly ask that you fill out Crossroads’ online application form.
Please contact our volunteer mobilization team if you have any question: volunteer@cintl.org
We thank all applicants but only those selected for interviews will be contacted.
