Project Description:

USAID Boresha Afya – Southern Zone is a five-year project that aims to support the Government of Tanzania (GoT) in increasing access to high quality, comprehensive and integrated health services, with a primary focus on HIV/AIDS, maternal, neonatal, child and reproductive health, malaria and nutrition outcomes. USAID Boresha Afya – Southern Zone covers geographic areas with high disease burden in Tanzania, namely Iringa, Njombe, Morogoro, Lindi, Mtwara and Ruvuma.

Job summary:

The Program Officer Gender and Youth based in Morogoro regional project offices and reports to the Regional Technical Managers. He/she will support  implementation  and review of an integrated strategy focused in high HIV prevalence areas, where targeted efforts are required to shift the gender-related barriers to the health and well-being of vulnerable individuals. S/he will provide technical assistance on a) gender, including gender norms affecting health-seeking behaviors and interventions promoting gender positive roles, rights and responsibilities of the target communities, and b) youth and gender, including improving access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services for adolescent girls and boys and young women and men to address multiple risk and protective factors at key transition points in their development.

Responsibilities:

• Support the implementation and review of a gender and youth strategy in collaboration with Boresha Afya staff and Manager-Gender and Youth at the at the region and/or district level.
• Contribute to all aspects of strategy and capacity building activities on gender norms and norms around sexuality and youth for Boresha Afya staff.
• Implement gender and age-differentiated approaches to address social norms, GBV and contextual drivers, and capacity building tools.
• Support regional project staff to build capacity of the regional and district government authorities, and local CBO/NGO partners to reach youth, engage them in SRHR education, and provide access to services.
• Support the scale up gender and youth friendly services at facility and community levels.
• Strengthen integration of GBV prevention and response services into health facilities and community based programming.
• Contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of integrated gender and youth activities.
• Contribute to the preparation of annual project work-plan, budgets, performance reports and quarterly reports.
• Represent the project in relevant donor meetings, working group meeting and other fora as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualification:

• Must possess a university degree (BA, BSc) in a related, relevant field (e.g. gender studies, public health, international development, social sciences, anthropology, or a related field).
• A minimum of three (3+) years of experience in gender programming in the health sector, including integration of gender into the continuum of SRH services from facilities into communities.
• Must have a strong theoretical understanding and implementation of synchronized gender and male engagement interventions, GBV prevention and response, and working with youth on SRHR are essential.
• Experience in presenting findings, results and lessons learned to a variety of audiences is desirable.
• Experience working for international agencies and USAID-funded health programs is preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal skills (e.g., active listening, cultural competence, responsiveness).
• Strong written and verbal communications skills in English are a must.
• Fluency in Kiswahili and spoken and written English is required.
• Ability to travel approximately 30% of his/her time to supervise and support field activities.