Program Manager - Gender and Markets

iDE (ideglobal.org) and The Asia Foundation (asiafoundation.org)are looking for skilled and ambitious candidates for Manager – Gender and Markets (one position) for a new women’s economic empowerment program in Bangladesh. This position relates to a grant recently awarded to the partners by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida to implement the “Women’s Economic Empowerment through Strengthening Market Systems” (WEESMS) project in Bangladesh from 2016-2021.

The USD 7.5 million WEESMS initiative will focus on increasing women’s opportunities for economic participation and decision-making through improved access to productive employment options with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) led by women entrepreneurs. Following a rigorous market research and sector selection process, the WEESMS project will aim to i) increase the number of women entrepreneurs and growth of women-led SMEs, ii) improve women’s access to formal and informal employment opportunities, and iii) increase retention rates of women already in the labor market across the 2-4 targeted sectors.

The Manager – Gender and Markets will responsible for ensuring that the perspectives of gender (and also minority, disability and conflict sensitivity, and good governance) are prioritized and delivered within the market development approach and strategy WEESMS project. The Manager will lead efforts across the project to assess inclusive market challenges and seek out related opportunities, designing and implementing interventions as necessary. The Manager will also help ensure that the project’s policies and operations at the Dhaka and field level are sensitive to the needs of staff regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, physical and mental health and sexual orientation. Under the supervision of the WEESMS Team Leader, s/he will:

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Lead the development of women’s economic empowerment (WEE) strategies and interventions as related to a Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach for the WEESMS project, in conjunction with the respective project management team and under the oversight of the Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader, with a strong focus on adapting and integrating WEE and M4P with the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) Standard for Results Measurement with iDE’s Human-Centered Design and Corporate Partnership methodologies;
• Ensure that the perspectives of gender, minority, disability and conflict sensitivity, and good governance are institutionally prioritized and incorporated within the project;
• Champion inclusive markets and provide technical assistance to all teams working to develop market systems;
• Play an active role in tools development, data collection and analysis; report development; strategy; business development, and client relationship management;
• Contribute to M&E efforts, increasing the ability of those efforts to capture indicators of gender and inclusion;
• Lead outreach efforts to present iDE’s work at national and international forums on creating inclusive markets;
• Support monitoring of the achievement of assigned projects’ results as related to WEE against set indicators across four distinct types of result data: i) Outputs, ii) Outcomes, iii) Performance, and iv) Impact.
• Lead capacity building of the WEESMS project team in understanding WEE-related results data, and ensuring the M&E system of the project operationally and intellectually captures, analyzes and utilizes this data for continuous improvements in decision-making across project managers, project teams and relevant iDE institutional stakeholders.
• Maintain close relationships with different units of iDE (including but not limited to Operations, Programs, Inclusive Markets and Gender, Communications, and Strategic Partnerships) regarding M&E and research issues; and
• Perform other relevant duties as required.

Required Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Gender Studies/Business/Economics/ Social Sciences/Development Studies, or other relevant disciplines;
• Demonstrable prior training in M4P, Value Chain Development, Market Facilitation, or the DCED Standard for Results Measurement are preferable.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in development or other relevant field with experience in women’s economic empowerment, gender analysis, markets, rights based approaches, and inclusion;
• Demonstrated understanding of gender and development issues in Bangladesh and more broadly;
• Must have demonstrated expertise/experience in development programming and implementation;
• Proven, practical experience in monitoring methodologies such as the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) Standard for Results Measurement
• Understanding of rural markets, trading relationships, and rural service provision;
• Knowledge on the roles of the private sector, government and civil society/NGOs within market systems;
• Experience of value chain approaches and/or market systems development; in particular, sub-sector analysis;
• Demonstrable managerial and leadership skills, with experience of developing and supervising small teams, especially multi-disciplinary teams; and
• Experience in business development and client relationship management;
• Ability to cohesively work with various team members of development partners, and the flexibility to adapt to different work conditions;
• Proven experience working on bilateral donor agency-funded programs (mandatory);
• Experience working with the private sector, understanding trading relationships, and an ability to apply this experience in development initiatives;
• The role will require fieldwork in rural contexts as and when required (upward of 40% at times) and sometimes extended hours of work (including nights and weekends as required);
• Strong ability to multi-task and handle complex programming challenges; and
• Excellent speaking, writing and oral communication skills in English.

Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrable performance management and leadership skills, particularly influencing and communications skills;
• Practical experience managing Sida-funded programs;
• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills;
• Demonstrated understanding of the range of capacity building approaches and their applicability to different contexts and needs;
• Self-motivated, energetic and a team player;
• Prepared to undertake frequent field visits and extensive travel;
• Demonstrated strong management skills and experience in supervising multi-disciplinary teams;
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; and
• Proven interpersonal and intercultural skills, including flexibility and sensitivity.

HOW TO APPLY:

Candidates are encouraged to submit a CV of maximum 4 pages along with a 1-page cover letter detailing your experience and suitability for the role to bangladesh-jobs@ideglobal.org by Wednesday, September 14.The subject should be “Application for the position of Manager – Gender and Markets, WEESMS”.Applications will be reviewed as they are received. We thank all applicants, however only those making the shortlist will be contacted.