Senior Program Officer, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion at Breakthrough ACTION

General Position Summary / Purpose

• The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is seeking a Senior Program Officer for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion to provide technical assistance on gender integration and gender transformative programming and develop staff and institutional capacity in gender integration across the organization’s global portfolio of programs.
• The Senior Program Officer will strengthen gender integration in CCP’s flagship Social and Behavior Change (SBC) program (Breakthrough ACTION), as well as provide technical guidance to other CCP projects across the globe.
• The Senior Program Officer will also lead efforts to mainstream gender equality into CCP business practices, including hiring, promotion, supportive policies and anti-discrimination, ensuring connections with CCP’s Anti-Racism work.
• The Senior Program Officer will contribute to the Center’s overall strategic plan, business development and specific Center-wide initiatives, as well as working with the Communications Director to expand the promotion of the Center’s work on gender equality and social inclusion.
• In all aspects of the work, the Senior Program Officer is expected to provide leadership and direction, whilst ensuring a collaborative, inclusive and participatory approach with CCP’s diverse staff around the world in order to foster a culture of shared commitment to gender equality.

About CCP

• At CCP, we believe in the power of communication to save lives, by empowering people to adopt healthy behaviors for themselves, their families and their communities. Through decades of experience, innovation and research we have proven that communication works.
• What we do has increased the use of modern contraceptive methods to better space pregnancies and the use of bed nets to prevent the spread of malaria and inspired more people to be tested and treated for HIV. It has helped people access clean water and helped more children get vaccinated. It has provided lifesaving information on threats such as Ebola, Zika and COVID-19, giving people the knowledge they need to protect themselves from serious harm.
• With projects in more than 40 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America along with work in our hometown of Baltimore, CCP’s portfolio spans the globe.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

Technical:

• Generate and envision new activities, ideas, frameworks, and strategies that further high-level goals of ensuring CCP engages in gender equality practices, develops and implements gender transformative programming and is recognized as a leader in the field of SBC and gender.
• Facilitate the co-creation and implementation of innovative and impact-driven SBC gender transformative and intersectional approaches that can be incorporated into Breakthrough ACTION and other SBC programs for a variety of different health areas, including family planning, maternal and child health, HIV, and infectious diseases.
• Lead the development and documentation of GESI-related programming tools, models and guides to support program implementation.
• In consultation with gender experts at the Center, co-champion the implementation of the gender workflow in CCP’s five-year strategic plan, provide guidance on updates and adjustments, and establish systems to track implementation of the strategy.
• Guide Breakthrough ACTION and other project teams to test new approaches, expand innovations and build strategic partnerships that challenge and shift the structures that perpetuate inequality.
• Coordinate with key program staff to support the development of project-level gender strategies and their implementation, including the use of intersectional gender analyses, across a broad range of health programs.
• Co-lead CCP’s Gender Community of Practice (CoP) and work with the group to leverage the existing gender expertise among CCP staff.
• Serve as a technical resource for staff to elevate, advance and strengthen knowledge and programming across gender priorities.
• Integrate feminist thought from multiple cultural contexts, ensuring that the Center’s gender equality work is informed by the full spectrum of thought leadership from across the globe.
• Lead in-country STTA, including trainings, workshops, and program support, independently.
• Strengthen internal gender mainstreaming through the review and development of relevant organizational policies and procedures related to gender equality and work with CCP’s Anti-racist Action Group (ARAG) to ensure CCP adheres to both anti-racist and gender-equal practices.

Learning, Knowledge management and dissemination:

• Partner with research staff to integrate gender and intersectionality into monitoring and reporting metrics and processes, building gender-responsive M&E systems and supporting a culture of gender-responsive evidence-based decision making.
• Collaborate with the research division to develop and track gender indicators, survey modules and new techniques to better understand the influence of gender on health and development outcomes as well as paths to gender transformation.
• Strategically ensure programs are learning and sharing from each other through a variety of knowledge management techniques and monitor trends in CCP programming.
• Support the development of knowledge products such as journal articles, reports, blogs, conference abstracts and other communications to disseminate learnings.
• Promote knowledge exchange among CCP and Breakthrough ACTION country-based gender advisors and gender focal points.
• Actively foster external relationships with a range of gender stakeholders, including implementing partners, advocacy organizations, researchers, donors, and governmental entities, identifying opportunities to elevate existing national or regional gender equality organizations and/or movements, in line with CCP’s core principles for partnership and gender integration.
• Represent CCP in external fora, including technical working groups and regional/global conferences.

Capacity Strengthening:

• Support the worldwide roll-out of existing CCP-led training and capacity-strengthening efforts related to gender equality for CCP’s global and country teams.
• Design additional/advanced training and capacity-strengthening methodologies to further staff skills and knowledge, including face-to-face and virtual formats that use participatory and adult-learning approaches.
• Identify and share additional opportunities for staff capacity strengthening opportunities related to gender.

Professional and Organizational Growth:

• Keep abreast of literature and latest developments related to gender equality and share pertinent developments with CCP staff.
• Support the proposal development team to integrate approaches related to gender inequality into proposals; conducting rapid gender analysis, leading strategic partnership development; writing relevant sections; and building out proposal-level gender strategy and approaches.
• Pursue new business in gender-specific technical areas, identifying opportunities to grow gender portfolio through new donors or funding streams and lead or co-lead proposal development.
• Initiate and lead center-wide initiatives (may include brown bags, communities of practice, etc.).
• Proactively seek opportunities to expand leadership and management skills.
• Request or initiate quarterly check-in meetings with supervisor to assess performance, strengths and areas for improvement in your current position, and establish professional goals.
• Identify opportunities for bringing new skills into the Center, including attending JHU courses and seminars, conferences, other external trainings etc.
• Coach, and mentor staff independently. Potentially assume supervisory duties at a later stage.

Minimum Qualifications (Mandatory)

• Masters degree (M.A., MHS, MPH) in relevant field required.
• Five years related experience in gender integration and SBC in international settings required (see special knowledge, skills, and abilities below for what is considered relevant experience).
• English language fluency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ten years of related experience strongly preferred.
• French working proficiency strongly preferred.

Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Demonstrated knowledge of gender integration and gender transformative programming and experience in applying an intersectional lens across diverse areas of work.
• Significant experience in designing and implementing social and behavior change programming in international development, with knowledge of relevant theories, frameworks and best practices.
• Familiarity with gender frameworks and strategies in the literature and in use by donors.
• Strong background in creating and implementing capacity building programs (e.g. with staff, partners, public sector stakeholders) on gender equality and gender integration.
• Experience with gender program monitoring and evaluation, including the design of tracking systems, development of indicators, and mechanisms to capture gender-sensitive and gender-transformative data.
• Ability to lead collaborative and participatory processes for decision-making and action.
• Technical knowledge and experience in at least one of the Center’s health areas - including family planning/sexual and reproductive health; HIV/AIDS; malaria; TB; infectious diseases; and/or Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a range of cultural settings, with appreciation for diverse perspectives and opinions.
• Experience with business development and contributing to the design of technical proposals.
• Highly effective written and oral communication skills to address a wide variety of audiences.
• Self-directed and highly organized with an ability to multi-task and manage deadlines.
• Effective relationship-building and collaboration skills with a diverse range of partners and donors, both in-person and virtually.
• Ability to travel internationally (10-20% of time).

Salary
Commensurate with experience.