Gender, Safeguarding and Inclusion (GESI) Director, Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Nigeria

Description

**Contingent upon Donor Funding**

Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Position Status: Full-time, Exempt or Non-exempt, Regular

Risk Level: X Level 3 ☐Level 2 ☐Level 1

(Level 3: Frequent contact with participants, direct contact with children, access to sensitive data, and/or high level of accountability.

Level 2: Some contact with participants; unplanned non-direct contact with children.

Level 1: Likely to have no contact with participants or sensitive data)

Barely enough is not enough for anyone. Prosper Global is a humanitarian organization working alongside communities facing conflict, climate change, and economic hardship to meet urgent needs and create the conditions for lasting progress. Today's challenges demand new solutions, so we pair local knowledge with global resources to help communities build what's needed, test what's possible, and scale what's proven so that people everywhere can pursue a full life on their own terms. In 2026, we changed our name from Mercy Corps to Prosper Global, to reflect our belief that when every community can prosper, all of humanity moves forward.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, and its influence spreads across the continent. Yet, inequality and insecurity have consistently undermined Nigeria's development. Prosper GlobalNigeria was established in 2012 to respond to these challenges. The Nigeria team is headquartered in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and has programs across 16 states. Prosper Global works with communities to build economic opportunities, enhance water security, drive peace and good governance, and ensure food security. Our activities aim to build resilience through an integrated approach, helping communities and the most marginalized within them cope, adapt, and thrive in the context of numerous shocks and stresses. With a strong and growing team, Prosper Global works to achieve the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient, and secure.

The Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Portfolio is a three-year Mastercard Foundation investment designed to enable 200,000 young Nigerians, particularly young women, to access and sustain Dignified and Fulfilling Work through climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agrifood systems. The CSA Portfolio is of five complementary programs that respond to a structural disconnect between the growth potential of Nigeria's agrifood economy and its ability to generate D&F Work at scale. Each program contributes through its geographies, value chain while agrifood markets continue to grow, many enterprises, employers, financial institutions and market actors remain constrained in their ability to expand, invest and create jobs, while young women, youth, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) face barriers that limit their participation in emerging opportunities. The Portfolio addresses both challenges simultaneously by strengthening the systems that generate work opportunities while helping marginalized populations access and sustain them. Prosper Global is seeking an experienced and dynamic GESI Director to drive forward the anticipated USD 45 million Mastercard Foundation-funded Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) investment program for the next three years. The Offer is contingent on securing donor funding and approval of the candidate.

The Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion Director will oversee the work of addressing gender and other social dimensions of food security and community resilience across all Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) investment program activities. S/he will be responsible for leading the implementation of gender integration strategies aimed at ensuring that program activities result in positive outcomes for male and female participants of different age groups. S/he will have overall responsibility for building team members’ and partners’ capacity to integrate a GESI perspective into activities, and raising awareness of the importance of GESI integration. The GESI Director will work closely with other team members to ensure the effective and timely execution of activities related to gender and age-based access to opportunities. During the first year of the program, in alignment with Mercy Corps’ best practices and Master card Foundation requirements, the GESI Director will conduct a gender analysis to inform and guide program implementation and to ensure that men, women, girls and boys have equitable opportunities to engage in and benefit from program activities. S/he will promote innovative initiatives for inclusiveness in conformity with the donor and Mercy Corps’ gender policy.

• Provide strategic leadership and vision for the integration of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), youth empowerment, and safeguarding across the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) portfolio.
• Lead the development and implementation of the portfolio-wide GESI and Safeguarding Strategy, ensuring alignment with Mastercard Foundation priorities, Prosper Global standards, and national frameworks.
• Ensure gender-transformative, youth-centered, disability-inclusive, and safeguarding approaches are embedded throughout the program lifecycle, from design and partner onboarding through implementation, adaptation, learning, and closeout.
• Serve as the principal advisor to portfolio leadership and Portfolio partners on GESI, youth inclusion, protection, and safeguarding priorities, risks, and opportunities.
• Drive the development of strategies that increase equitable access to dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young women, young men, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
• Provide technical leadership to ensure safeguarding considerations are incorporated into program design, implementation plans, partnership agreements, participant engagement approaches, and monitoring systems.
• Lead the identification, assessment, and mitigation of gender, inclusion, protection, and safeguarding risks across portfolio activities and partnerships.
• Establish portfolio-wide standards, tools, indicators, and accountability mechanisms to measure and track GESI, youth empowerment, and safeguarding outcomes.
• Collaborate with technical leads and Portfolio partners to ensure GESI, youth, and safeguarding commitments are reflected in annual work plans, budgets, learning agendas, and performance targets.
• Promote evidence-based decision-making by leveraging data, research, participant feedback, and learning to continuously strengthen inclusive and safeguarding-centered programming.
• Champion a culture of inclusion, safeguarding, accountability, and participant-centered programming across all Portfolio partners and stakeholders.
• Represent the portfolio externally on GESI, youth empowerment, and safeguarding matters with Mastercard Foundation, government institutions, private sector actors, technical working groups, and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure that safeguarding, inclusion, and participant well-being remain central to portfolio strategy and decision-making, enabling young people to safely access, retain, and thrive in dignified and fulfilling work opportunities.

• Develop targeted GESI capacity building interventions for program staff.
• Support program team in the delivery of training and capacity building on key gender and social inclusion topics to project participants.
• Conduct periodic monitoring of field activities; ensure quality delivery of GESI interventions and coach/mentor staff technically on this.
• Document processes and achievements to ensure impact and best practices are captured and disseminated. This will include the continual re-evaluation of program activities and information, with resulting activity adjustments in keeping with new insights.

REPRESENTATION

• Develop relationships and linkages with organizations implementing other donor-funded programs focused on GESI in Nigeria.
• Conduct regular community consultations to ensure programming remains GESI sensitive and on track.
• Collect and share learnings and best practices from this program both internally and externally.
• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with portfolio partners, donors, local governments and other stakeholders.
• Communicate effectively to ensure overall program targets and donor obligations are met.

SECURITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT

• Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.
• Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members.
• Ensure that activities are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

• Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practices the values of Prosper Global including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Supervise gender, and Safeguarding team for Prosper Global and from the Youth and Women Led organizations

Accountability

Reports Directly To: CSA Chief of Party (CoP)

Works Directly With: Portfolio team members, Climate Director, MSD Director, MEL Director, Finance Director and research teams, partner organizations, HQ Regional Program Team, HQ Technical Support Unit

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Prosper Globalteam members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• MA/S or equivalent experience in development studies, international relations, women’s studies, gender studies, sociology or other social science discipline.
• At least seven years’ experience in gender, youth and social dynamics development work at the community level.
• Experience developing and conducting gender training, gender/youth/social dynamics mainstreaming and engaging in gender advocacy.
• 10 plus years in Senior Program level positions
• Understanding and knowledge of Mastercard Foundation regulations and program administration, management, and reporting procedures and systems is preferred.
• Past positions in Gender, Safeguarding, Inclusion, Women empowerment or Youth Director positions
• Preference for experience with projects addressing youth employment and women empowerment
• Demonstrated capacity to lead the collection, analysis and utilization of information from a broad range of sources to ensure effective integration of gender and youth concerns throughout the program’s duration.
• In-depth understanding of gender, age and other locally significant socio-cultural factors in the context of food and nutrition security and resilience programming.
• Skills in participatory learning and facilitating collaborative problem-solving.
• Prior humanitarian and/or development experience working in a context similar to Nigeria.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Excellent computer skills (especially Microsoft office applications) and ability to use information technology as a tool and resource.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will be a highly strategic and influential leader with a strong commitment to gender equality, social inclusion, youth empowerment, and safeguarding. As the GESI Director, they will provide portfolio-wide leadership to ensure that gender-transformative, youth-centered, and inclusive approaches are embedded throughout the Climate-Smart Agriculture portfolio, from program design and partner onboarding through implementation, learning, adaptation, and closeout. Working across all Portfolio partners, they will drive a shared vision and accountability for achieving equitable outcomes and ensuring that young women, young men, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups can access dignified and fulfilling work opportunities.

The GESI Director will serve as the portfolio's principal steward of safeguarding and inclusion, ensuring that participant safety, dignity, well-being, and meaningful participation remain central to all program decisions, systems, and processes. They will establish and uphold high standards across partners, ensuring that safeguarding principles, risk mitigation measures, and survivor-centered approaches are consistently reflected in program design, implementation, monitoring, and reporting. The successful candidate will be an exceptional influencer, collaborator, and thought leader, capable of engaging senior leadership, government institutions, private sector actors, communities, and implementing partners to advance systemic change and sustainable inclusion. They will foster a culture of accountability, learning, and continuous improvement, ensuring that gender equality, youth empowerment, and safeguarding are not standalone components but are fully integrated into the portfolio's strategy, operations, partnerships, performance, and impact, ultimately enabling young people to transition into dignified and fulfilling work in a safe, equitable, and empowering environment.

The GESI Director will be based in Abuja Nigeria. This position requires at least 40% of time traveling by flight or road to field offices in areas with varying degrees of insecurity.

Prosper Global team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs, and Mercy Corps’ policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Prosper Global is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out different backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Prosper Global is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Prosper Global Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Prosper Global Integrity Hotline ([email protected]).