National Gender Specialist

The National Gender Specialist will support the implementation and monitoring of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) for the GCF-funded project in Serbia, ensuring gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment in forestry and climate action. The role involves gender analysis, capacity development, awareness raising, and reporting to promote gender equality and social inclusion in line with FAO and GCF policies.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical/operational support in the further refinement and implementation of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) in alignment with the project workplan, ensuring consistency between GAP objectives, the project’s monitoring and evaluation framework, and overall workplan.
• Conduct dedicated gender analyses, including collection of gender baseline data on forest owners and users in the project areas and identification of barriers, needs and priorities; and gender-responsive forest management analysis to inform the institutionalization of gender considerations.
• Conduct regular field visits to monitor progress, identify and address barriers to women’s participation and access to project benefits, and support gender mainstreaming efforts as needed.
• Provide support in the drafting of a capacity development plan based on the findings of the gender analysis, GAP’s objectives, and in alignment with the project’s workplan.
• Contribute to the capacity development on gender equality and women’s empowerment targeting project staff, national government institutions and project partners, forest owners and users.
• Contribute to gender-responsive awareness-raising aimed at increasing understanding of gender equality issues and differentiated vulnerabilities, promoting inclusive practices, and encouraging gender-responsive forest management.
• Promote gender-balanced participation in stakeholder consultations, governance bodies, and decision-making processes through targeted awareness raising on gender equality and Gender Action Plan, engaging male leaders as allies, encouraging women’s participation: the incumbent will plan and track the list of invitees/participants by sex.
• Support the timely and systematic collection, analysis, and reporting of sex-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive indicators across project activities, ensuring alignment with the project’s monitoring and evaluation framework and reporting systems.
• Provide regular, results-oriented updates on the status of Gender Action Plan (GAP) implementation, including progress against targets and contributions to work planning.
• Maintain and quality-assure records of sex-disaggregated data, and design and implement pre- and post-capacity development assessments to track progress, measure outcomes, and identify priority areas.
• Contribute to corporate and project reporting, with a focus on gender equality and social inclusion results; identify implementation challenges and propose evidence-based corrective actions

Requirements

• University degree or specific technical specialization in social sciences, gender studies, rural development, agriculture or related field.
• At least 3 years of progressively responsible professional experience in gender mainstreaming and social inclusion in agriculture, forestry, rural development or natural resources programmes.
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and Serbian is required.
• National of Serbia or resident of the country with a valid work permit.
• Experience working with international organizations, development partners or climate finance projects is considered an asset.
• Practical experience in gender equality and women’s empowerment programming, conducting gender assessment in rural areas of Serbia.
• Familiarity with FAO Gender Equality Policy, GCF Equality Policy or other international institutions is considered a strong asset.
• Quality of both oral and written communication skills.

Skills

• Gender Mainstreaming
• Social Inclusion
• Gender Equality Programming
• Women’s Empowerment
• Gender Assessments
• Rural Development Policy
• Agriculture Programmes
• Forestry Programmes
• Climate Action
• Capacity Development
• Gender Analysis
• Gender Action Plan Development
• Monitoring and Reporting
• FAO Gender Equality Policy
• GCF Equality Policy
• International Development
• Climate Finance
• Oral Communication
• Written Communication

Languages

English, Serbian