Project Description

The Strengthen Skills Training Ecosystems & Pathways (STEP) project in Kenya is a seven-year initiative led by World University Service of Canada (WUSC), which supports economic development and youth employment initiatives globally. The ultimate outcome is improved economic well-being for displaced and host-community youth in Kenya. STEP will leverage Canadian expertise and market linkages to strengthen pathways to technical, vocational, and digital employment for refugees and host community youth in Kakuma, Kalobeyei, and Dadaab displacement settings in Turkana and Garissa counties. The project design provides a uniquely Canadian approach to economic inclusion, connecting displacement-affected youth to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in Kenyan, Canadian, and global markets. It will support over 10,000 young refugees and host community members to access quality market-oriented technical and vocational education and training (TVET), acquire in-demand technical, vocational, and digital skills, and access contextually relevant business incubation services and support. It places a critical focus on creating sustainable conditions for and delivering programs that link young people to meaningful work.

Role Purpose

The Senior Gender Equality, Social Inclusion and Safeguarding (GESI) Officer provides technical leadership to ensure the STEP project is inclusive, equitable, safe, and responsive to the needs, capacities, and aspirations of displaced and host-community youth, particularly young women, young people with disabilities, and other groups facing intersecting barriers. The role leads the operationalization of the project’s GESI and safeguarding commitments across program design, implementation, partnerships, monitoring, learning, and external engagement.

The candidate will work closely with project staff, implementing partners, TVET institutions, employers, community structures, women-led organizations (WROs), refugee-led organizations (RLOs), and local authorities to identify and address exclusion risks, strengthen accountable and accessible programming, and promote safer pathways to skills, employment, and entrepreneurship.

Responsibilities

GESI Mainstreaming, Technical Leadership, & Strategy Implementation

• Lead implementation of STEP’s GESI and Safeguarding strategy and action plan across project components, translating commitments into practical approaches, tools, annual work plans, budgets, partner expectations, and field-level actions.
• Provide technical advice to project teams and partners on gender equality, disability inclusion, youth inclusion, displacement considerations, conflict sensitivity, and intersectional analysis in program design and delivery.
• Identify structural, institutional, social, cultural, and practical barriers affecting participation, retention, progression, and outcomes for displaced and host-community youth, and support teams to implement mitigation measures.
• Ensure project interventions, especially TVET, digital skills, entrepreneurship, and market linkage activities, are designed and delivered in ways that are inclusive, accessible, contextually relevant, and responsive to risk.
• Support integration of inclusive selection criteria, reasonable accommodation, accessible communication and learning materials, referral mechanisms, flexible delivery options, and measures that reduce barriers such as care responsibilities, mobility, safety, stigma, and documentation constraints.

Safeguarding and Safe Programming

• Support implementation of safeguarding, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and do-no-harm standards across STEP activities, partners, events, and engagement with participants.
• Work with project leadership and partners to identify and monitor safeguarding and protection risks in training environments, digital engagement, internships, work placements, entrepreneurship support, community outreach, and private-sector engagement.
• Strengthen awareness of safe disclosure, confidential complaints handling, survivor-centred response, referral pathways, and safeguarding roles and responsibilities among staff and partners.
• Contribute to risk mitigation plans for women, girls, young men, young people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+, and other participants who may face heightened exposure to harassment, exploitation, abuse, backlash, or exclusion.
• Promote safer and more inclusive learning and work environments, including attention to accessibility, transport, sanitation, assistive needs, psychosocial well-being, online safety, and dignity.

Capacity Strengthening, Partner Support, and Key Actors Engagement

• Design and facilitate practical learning sessions, coaching, and accompaniment for staff, partners, TVET providers, employers, and community actors on GESI, safeguarding, accessibility, and inclusive service delivery.
• Support refugee-led organizations, community-based organizations, and training providers to strengthen their internal policies, staff capacity, outreach approaches, and accountability mechanisms related to inclusion and safeguarding.
• Work with public and private sector actors to promote inclusive recruitment, retention, workplace practices, and support systems for displaced and host-community youth, particularly young women entering non-traditional sectors.
• Engage community leaders, caregivers, youth groups, and other influencers to address harmful norms, reduce backlash risks, and strengthen enabling environments for young women’s economic participation and leadership.
• Represent STEP in relevant technical forums, coordination mechanisms, and learning spaces on gender equality, inclusion, disability inclusion, safeguarding, youth employment, and displacement.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL)

• Work closely with the MERL team to strengthen the collection, analysis, interpretation, and use of sex-, age-, disability-, and status-disaggregated data, as well as other relevant inclusion indicators.
• Contribute to inclusive and ethical research, assessments, focus group discussions, and learning processes, ensuring methodologies are accessible, appropriate, and safeguarding-sensitive.
• Document emerging risks, lessons learned, good practices, participant feedback, and evidence of change related to GESI and safeguarding across the project lifecycle.
• Draft and review GESI- and safeguarding-related inputs for call for proposals, work plans, partner tools, annual reports for donor submissions, and learning products.
• Support adaptive management by translating evidence and community feedback into concrete improvements in project design, implementation, and partnership management.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Social Work, International Development, Education, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in gender equality and social inclusion programming, preferably within skills development, economic empowerment, market systems, TVET, or youth employment initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience working in refugee, displacement-affected, or fragile contexts and applying conflict-sensitive and context-responsive approaches.
• Strong practical experience in integrating disability inclusion and accessibility into project design and implementation, including reasonable accommodation and inclusive participation strategies.
• Demonstrated experience in safeguarding, PSEA, protection mainstreaming, and do-no-harm approaches, including risk identification, mitigation, and referral considerations.
• Experience supporting partners, institutions, or employers to strengthen inclusive policies, practices, and service delivery.
• Experience facilitating training, coaching, and engagement processes with diverse audiences, inc

• Lead implementation of STEP’s GESI and Safeguarding strategy and action plan across project components, translating commitments into practical approaches, tools, annual work plans, budgets, partner expectations, and field-level actions.
• Provide technical advice to project teams and partners on gender equality, disability inclusion, youth inclusion, displacement considerations, conflict sensitivity, and intersectional analysis in program design and delivery.
• Identify structural, institutional, social, cultural, and practical barriers affecting participation, retention, progression, and outcomes for displaced and host-community youth, and support teams to implement mitigation measures.
• Ensure project interventions, especially TVET, digital skills, entrepreneurship, and market linkage activities, are designed and delivered in ways that are inclusive, accessible, contextually relevant, and responsive to risk.
• Support integration of inclusive selection criteria, reasonable accommodation, accessible communication and learning materials, referral mechanisms, flexible delivery options, and measures that reduce barriers such as care responsibilities, mobility, safety, stigma, and documentation constraints.
• Support implementation of safeguarding, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and do-no-harm standards across STEP activities, partners, events, and engagement with participants.
• Work with project leadership and partners to identify and monitor safeguarding and protection risks in training environments, digital engagement, internships, work placements, entrepreneurship support, community outreach, and private-sector engagement.
• Strengthen awareness of safe disclosure, confidential complaints handling, survivor-centred response, referral pathways, and safeguarding roles and responsibilities among staff and partners.
• Contribute to risk mitigation plans for women, girls, young men, young people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+, and other participants who may face heightened exposure to harassment, exploitation, abuse, backlash, or exclusion.
• Promote safer and more inclusive learning and work environments, including attention to accessibility, transport, sanitation, assistive needs, psychosocial well-being, online safety, and dignity.
• Design and facilitate practical learning sessions, coaching, and accompaniment for staff, partners, TVET providers, employers, and community actors on GESI, safeguarding, accessibility, and inclusive service delivery.
• Support refugee-led organizations, community-based organizations, and training providers to strengthen their internal policies, staff capacity, outreach approaches, and accountability mechanisms related to inclusion and safeguarding.
• Work with public and private sector actors to promote inclusive recruitment, retention, workplace practices, and support systems for displaced and host-community youth, particularly young women entering non-traditional sectors.
• Engage community leaders, caregivers, youth groups, and other influencers to address harmful norms, reduce backlash risks, and strengthen enabling environments for young women’s economic participation and leadership.
• Represent STEP in relevant technical forums, coordination mechanisms, and learning spaces on gender equality, inclusion, disability inclusion, safeguarding, youth employment, and displacement.
• Work closely with the MERL team to strengthen the collection, analysis, interpretation, and use of sex-, age-, disability-, and status-disaggregated data, as well as other relevant inclusion indicators.
• Contribute to inclusive and ethical research, assessments, focus group discussions, and learning processes, ensuring methodologies are accessible, appropriate, and safeguarding-sensitive.
• Document emerging risks, lessons learned, good practices, participant feedback, and evidence of change related to GESI and safeguarding across the project lifecycle.
• Draft and review GESI- and safeguarding-related inputs for call for proposals, work plans, partner tools, annual reports for donor submissions, and learning products.
• Support adaptive management by translating evidence and community feedback into concrete improvements in project design, implementation, and partnership management.

• Gender equality
• Social inclusion
• Safeguarding
• Disability inclusion
• Youth inclusion
• Displacement considerations
• Conflict sensitivity
• Intersectional analysis
• Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA)
• Do-no-harm approaches
• Risk identification and mitigation
• Referral pathways
• Capacity strengthening
• Training facilitation
• Coaching
• Partner support
• Community engagement
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Data analysis
• Research methodologies
• Communication
• Report writing

• Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Social Work, International Development, Education, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in gender equality and social inclusion programming, preferably within skills development, economic empowerment, market systems, TVET, or youth employment initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience working in refugee, displacement-affected, or fragile contexts and applying conflict-sensitive and context-responsive approaches.
• Strong practical experience in integrating disability inclusion and accessibility into project design and implementation, including reasonable accommodation and inclusive participation strategies.
• Demonstrated experience in safeguarding, PSEA, protection mainstreaming, and do-no-harm approaches, including risk identification, mitigation, and referral considerations.
• Experience supporting partners, institutions, or employers to strengthen inclusive policies, practices, and service delivery.
• Experience facilitating training, coaching, and engagement processes with diverse audiences.