THIS IS A LOCAL POSITION

BACKGROUND:

IUCN and UNEP-DHI will jointly implement the Climate Resilient Eastern African Transboundary Water Management for Environmental Sustainability (CREATES) project, which will operate in Sio-Malaba-Malakisi (SMM) and Mara transboundary river basins in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) and support selected regional water organisations over the period 2025 to 2030.
CREATES will be delivered through a Project Management Unit (PMU) based in Nairobi, Kenya with two Basin Coordinators one each based at the NELSAP basin offices (for SMM – Kakamega and for Mara - Musoma) and other technical staff. The TLs will manage the PMU on a day-to-day basis.
The project is guided by the IUCN ESMS procedures and policies as explained in the ESMS Manual and the standards available at www.iucn.org/esms.This This is interconnected with the IUCN Gender Equality and Women Empowerment policy also available at https://iucn.org/our-work/topic/gender-equality. For the environmental aspects of safeguards, the GESS will work in close coordination with the respective Basin Coordinators for technical inputs.
The Gender, Environmental and Social Safeguards (GESS) Specialist, CREATES will be responsible for applying the IUCN ESMS and Gender policies across the project portfolio. This position will contribute to the region’s leadership in safeguard quality assurance, supporting gender transformative programming and will play a key role in improving IUCN’s Environmental and Social sustainability practices.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

As the CREATES specialist for the application of the ESMS and Gender Principles, this position is responsible for ensuring that ESMS and Gender procedures, standards and principles are applied across all phases of the project implementation. The GESS specialist will lead the sustainability framework for the active projects, responsible for implementing the crucial cross cutting functions of the project ensuring that all activities of the project are socially and environmentally sustainable and comply with Denmark and IUCN Policies and Standards related to Gender, Environmental and Social Safeguards, and Indigenous People Frameworks.
Key responsibilities include the preparation of ESMS screening reports for projects, advising proponents on safeguard-related improvements of project design, support the preparation of ESIAs and safeguard documents and coordination of the ESMS clearance process. The specialist will also provide ongoing implementation oversight to guarantee that ESMS requirements are complied with. Where a safeguard related grievance is raised, he/she will be instrumental in solving the matter proactively. He/she will also build ESMS capacity to enhance ESMS compliant and Gender transformative project design and ensure effective implementation of the risk management strategies. This involves coaching and training of project team members and partners.
This position will also monitor the application of safeguard tools, distil lessons learned and support the regional ESMS Coordinator in system development and refinements to increase the system’s efficiency.
The GEES specialist will provide support to the project team (technical and MEL), partner organizations partners, private sector entities, and other stakeholders on effective integration of cross cutting (women, youth and environment) considerations beyond compliance, by identifying opportunities to add value to the system changes, transformation and paradigm shifts that lead to long term impact and sustainability of CREATES.

SPECIFIC DUTIES;

CREATES ESMS application;
Application of ESMS procedures on the regional project portfolio, specifically;
Environmental and social due diligence at project design stage;
Screen projects on environmental and social impacts, define risk category, identify necessary impact studies and safeguard tools/plans.
Advise proponents on stakeholder engagement during project design and implementation phase.
Support proponents in contracting experts for environmental and social assessments.
Appraise the quality of final ESIA reports, environmental and social management plans (ESMP), gender action plan (GAP) and other safeguard tools.
Ensure appropriate budgeting for ESMS activities.
Conduct final compliance check and prepare ESMS clearance of projects.

ESMS support during project implementation;
Provide ESMS training for executing agency (EA) and relevant partners at project inception.
Appraise any ESMS deliverables that are due in the inception phase.
Support the EA in monitoring safeguard tools and reporting progress on implementation and compliance with all ESMS/GAP requirements.
Contribute to annual project implementation reviews/ supervision missions and to the development of the ESMS specific aspects of the mid-term review and terminal review.
Manage ESMS project data including entries to the Project Portal to assure maintenance of ESMS records.

Grievance management and serious incident reporting;
Support the EA in setting-up a project-level grievance mechanism.
Register and report incoming grievances, monitor progress solving grievances and, where applicable, work with EA to solve grievances;
Ensure timely reporting of serious incidents and implementation of corrective actions.

Build ESMS and Gender capacity in the project jurisdiction;
To enhance ESMS-compliant and Gender-sensitive project design and ensure effective implementation of the risk management strategies, it is essential to strengthen capacity in those crosscutting functions. This involves:
Train and coach staff and project proponents on ESMS and gender related procedures, principles and standards to ensure not only consistent application but also pro-active integration of ESMS and gender principles into project design;
Support the regional ESMS Coordinator and gender specialists in the development of training materials and delivery of training sessions for ESMS and Gender;
Build the capacity of projects staff, implementing partner organizations, and other stakeholders to effectively integrate GAP into their workplans.
Contribute to the recruitment, hiring and on-boarding of new project ESMS/gender personnel in the region.

ESMS development, refinement and learning;
Supporting the regional ESMS Coordinator in system development, refinements and learning. This involves:
Monitor ESMS and GAP implementation in the project to capture lessons learned and feed-back.
Contribute to refining tools, templates, guidance notes based on project experience.
Support documentation of good practices, success stories and case studies for regional knowledge sharing.

Development, refinement and learning of Gender-in-conservation concepts and applications
Ensure that principles of gender equality and youth engagement in nature and natural resources conservation are integrated into all aspects of the project. This involves:
Develop and/or review, implement and monitor the implementation of Gender Action Plan in the project areas,
Support the MEL Officer, CREATES to track, analyse and report against Gender and Youth disaggregated data within the project output as appropriate and on regular basis - quarterly, semi-annual, and annual.
Develop and propose evidence-based policy and project interventions to reduce gender disparities, particularly focusing on enhancing women’s role in nature and natural resource management efforts,
Contribute to enhancement of the system (including development of tools, templates, guidance notes etc) to increase effectiveness of application of gender principles.
Generate lessons on the gender application identifying good practices and synthesising these practices for dissemination to stakeholders.