Background

UN Women is the United Nations’ entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women and works with government and non-governmental partners to help them put in place policies, laws, services, and resources that women require to move towards equality. Women Economic Empowerment is one of the key result areas under the UN Women Kenya Strategic Plan with a focus on Access to Government Procurement Opportunities, Agriculture and Extractive Industries value chains.  Kenya's vision to become a middle-income country with a sustained annual economic growth rate of at least 10 percent by 2030 is highly dependent on the transformation of its agricultural systems to make them more productive, resilient, and competitive in generating incomes under a changing climate.  In agricultural systems, gender issues remain an unresolved challenge but also an untapped potential for ensuring gender-transformative development processes that target women and other marginalized members of the community. In line with its mandate to support member states, UN Women in Kenya is supporting the implementation of the “Big Four Agenda”, which includes Food and Nutrition Security, Manufacturing, Universal Health Coverage and Affordable Housing within the framework of United Nations Development Assistance Framework and Kenya Vision 2030.

Although women’s contribution in the agriculture sector is substantive and vital, gender-based inequalities in access to and control of productive and financial resources inhibit agricultural productivity and undermine resilience and sustainability efforts.  According to FSDK (2013), women use of formal financial services has lagged behind that of men. Lack of ownership creates barriers to not only accessing mainstream agricultural finances as land is the most widely accepted collateral, but also prevents women from accessing market platforms such as contract farming and farming cooperatives that would help them interact with other people who could help them improve production or sales. Women are therefore restricted from accessing start-up capital, working capital, expansion capital or equipment financing and hence a continued circle of poverty among women. Similarly, women living in rural areas have lagged behind those in urban areas in accessing financial services[1]

UN Women therefore is supporting the strengthening of the gender capacity at the Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) to ensure their lending mechanism to benefit rural women engaging in small scale farming takes into account the gender dimensions. Agricultural Finance Corporation is therefore ambitiously undertaking affirmative financing that will seek to propel the women’s loan portfolio from approximately Ksh. 25 million to Ksh.1 billion in 2 years through the Women Affirmative Access Window (WAAW) and which targets all the 47 counties. The Women Affirmative Access Window initiative will enhance the financing of women in agriculture at production, mechanization, post-harvest management, value addition and access to local and export markets. 

In this regard therefore, UN Women is looking for a qualified Gender and Agri-finance specialist to support the Agriculture Finance Corporation to roll out their projects, particularly the WAAW project in a gender responsive way.  The Gender Advisor will also work closely with the State Department of Agriculture who work closely with AFC and link them with the State Department of Gender Affairs and create synergies geared towards promoting women access to agriculture financing.

 

[1]Financial regulation in Kenya:Balancing inclusive growth with financial stability, Francis M. Mwega November 2014https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9279.pdf last accessed 2 July 2018

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Consultancy

UN Women seeks the services of a consultant to support gender mainstreaming and the gender capacity of the Agriculture Finance Corporation.

Details of the Assignment

Under the overall guidance and direction of the AFC Managing Director, the Gender and Agri-finance Gender Advisor exercises overall responsibility for supporting AFC to integrate gender in planning and implementation of their programmes. She/he will work closely with the UN Women Deputy Country Director and the Team Leader Socio- Economic Development in ensuring AFC programmes, particularly the WAAW project take into account the relevant gender dimensions.

Technical Assistance

  • Provision of technical advice in carrying out a gender /analysis of existing AFC related legal, policy and regulatory frameworks and make recommendations;
  • Ensure robust mainstreaming of gender into AFC programming and operations, including systematic age and gender analysis, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, and policy advice on specific gender issues that impact on AFC operations;
  • Provide technical support in engendering the lending mechanisms of AFC to ensure targeting of rural women and develop engendered guidelines/policy for gender responsive agri-finance lending to rural women;
  • Support AFC in resource mobilization efforts to ensure increased financing to women.

Strategic Advice

  • Provide analysis and strategic advice to the AFC Managing Director and UN Women Country Director on Gender and Agri-financing including through preparation of regular analytical briefs; making gender relevant inputs to AFC documents;
  • Identify and advise on entry points for new initiatives for UN Women to strengthen national and local capacities for engendered responses to agriculture financing;
  • Advise and support the MD AFC on forging strategic partnerships at all levels to promote women access to agriculture financing and women economic empowerment opportunities;
  • Provide relevant and timely input in progress on gender statistics on SDG indicators that touch women and agriculture/land resources i.e. 1.4.2 proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure. This is a tier 3 SDG indicator. 5.a.1 (a) proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; and (b) share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure. This is tier 3 SDG indicator;
  • Provide strategic advice to UN Women Kenya on how their women’s economic empowerment work can integrate support to agriculture focused initiatives in the new country Strategic Note 2019 – 2022.

Coordination and Knowledge Management:

  • Act as a resource person in relevant capacity building, knowledge sharing events and other similar activities on gender equality and women's empowerment by AFC, Ministry of Agriculture and the UN;
  • Ensure knowledge sharing, documentation and dissemination of good practices on Women participation in agri-preneurship, access to agriculture financing and women economic empowerment initiatives;
  • Develop and maintain a database of rural women who have been supported through the WAAW initiative and highlight the participation of young women.  The database will include women participating in the agri-value chain;
  • Participate in the Socio-economic empowerment sub working group under the Gender Sector Working Group (GSWG).

Representation and Partnership Building:

  • Support the AFC’s MD to maintain active relationship/partnerships with relevant stakeholders including inter-government and non-governmental organizations, institutes and academia on Gender and CSA to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and share and influence agenda and priority setting.

 

Competencies

Core

  • Innovation-Ability to make new and useful ideas work;
  • Leadership- Ability to persuade others to follow;
  • People Management-Ability to improve performance and satisfaction;
  • Communication-Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform;
  • Delivery-Ability to get things done.

Technical/Functional  

  • Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice on gender equality, women's access to finances, women rights and women's empowerment;
  • Knowledge of Government and UN System and understanding of inter-agency coordination processes;
  • Ability to analyse financial data from a gender perspective, make conclusions and make recommendations;
  • Ability to lead strategic planning, programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting;
  • Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships;
  • Knowledge of methodologies and best practices for promoting gender equality in agriculture financing, equity and women empowerment in Kenya;
  • High degree of political acumen and sensitivity and demonstrated ability to achieve results in politically and operationally complex environments;
  • Outstanding communication and presentation skills.

Values:

  • Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
  • Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work;
  • Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff; Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating the difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in Agricultural Economics or Rural Technologies, or another related field; PhD degree preferred. 

Experience:

  • A minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in development, focused on providing policy advice, technical assistance and/or programming around gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights issues; part of which should include previous field experience with the UN or an international development organization;
  • Experience writing analytical documents and reports;
  • Experience in coordination and advocacy;
  • Strong public speaking skills and representational experience;
  • Knowledge of and experience in Kenya desirable;
  • Good knowledge of the Government of Kenya system;
  • Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in gender equality and women's empowerment issues at policy and programming level;
  • Experience with implementing gender mainstreaming agendas across a variety of sectors, including experience gender mainstreaming in governmental bodies;
  • Experience working with the UN in development contexts;
  • Experience working with women’s movements, and civil society and familiarity with women's rights organizations and networks in the region and globally.

Language Requirements: Excellent spoken and written skills in English

Other requirements:           

  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages