Lead Women s Empowerment Specialist

Islamic Development Bank

JOB PURPOSE

The Purpose of this position is to: (i) lead and coordinate the operationalization and implementation of IsDB s Women Empowerment Policy and the related Operational Strategy of the Women Empowerment Policy while providing specialised technical support and expertise to Country Operations Managers (COMs), Operational Team Leaders (OTLs), Project Management Specialists and Executing Agencies (EAs) in in the Regional Hubs in identifying, mainstreaming and monitoring women empowerment in Bank operations during the identification, preparation, appraisal, implementation, and completion stages (throughout project lifecycle); (ii) lead the design and operationalization of specific programs and projects on women empowerment in close coordination with the regional hubs, relevant business units and strategic development partners in a proactive manner; (iii) coordinate the operationalization and implementation of the 5-years action plan linked with the IsDB Youth Development Strategy and any other relevant operational strategies and policies of the bank; (iv) lead to establishment of new partnerships for the mobilization of technical and financial resources in order to complement and strengthen the Bank s women initiatives; (v) lead the coordination, improvement, evaluation and dissemination of the Women Empowerment Policy; and (vi) lead the formulation, development and effective implementation of IsDB s strategic initiatives relevant to women empowerment including knowledge products, capacity development activities, and provide high level advisory, guidance and tools to the Regional Hubs and Member Countries; (vii) provide coaching and training to the Women Empowerment and Senior Women Empowerment Specialists in the division and advise them on their work, integrate them into relevant projects/programs in their design and implementation stages in close coordination with the manager of the division.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategic and Operational Planning and Implementation:
Lead the Bank s efforts to support the member countries to empower women from a technical point of view.
Contribute as an expert and participate in project appraisal, design as well as processing and approval process as team member along with relevant regional hubs.
Lead the contributions of the WYE division on the provision of inputs on youth empowerment while ensuring that the Bank s policies, strategies, and interventions are adhering to the IsDB Women Development Strategy and the associated action plans.
Lead the internal efforts to mainstream women empowerment in Member Country Partnership Strategy (MCPS) formulation, country dialogues and engagements with relevant departments at HQ and regional hubs.
Lead in the development of strategic policies, plans, guidelines, analytics, and other products related to women empowerment with Women and Youth Empowerment division and with other Global Practices in Director General Global Practices and Partnerships Complex.
Lead the design and development of women empowerment initiatives, programs, and projects of the Bank to support the member countries.
Implement the frameworks, tools, and operational guidelines of the Bank to guide the Bank s staff in supporting the member countries to empower women.
Monitor and assess initiatives related to women empowerment programs and projects
Contribute to the formulation of the operational programs/portfolios which maximize the utilization of resources and concentrate on results-based impact on women empowerment in the member countries.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Capacity Development:

Identify, assess, and monitor overall capacity development needs of internal stakeholders in the IsDB Group, the hubs as well as relevant external partners on the subject of women development and empowerment with the aim to design and administer relevant capacity development interventions when needed.

Develop and administer as needed technical assistance (TA) and women empowerment grants and other training programs for capacity development in cooperation with other partners whenever possible.

Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization:

Lead the resource mobilization efforts to increase concessional and grant resources for the Bank to strengthen and promote women development and empowerment. Continuously search for and identify opportunities to create/formulate/participate in mechanisms for co-financing women empowerment initiatives of the Bank

Liaise with the international, regional and national women development and empowerment institutions in order to promote and increase the visibility of IsDB s interventions on women development and empowerment in the member countries.

Knowledge Sharing & Innovation:

Track external issues and processes relevant to the best practices in addressing women empowerment. Keep abreast of external developments and provide technical support to management on engagement in key external processes on these issues. This includes, among others, IsDB partnership with specialized UN agencies, multilateral development banks, bilateral finance institutions.

Lead the organization of forums for knowledge generation, exchange and dissemination on issues of women development and empowerment across the bank functions (with relevant GPs and Regional Hubs).

Reporting & Communication:

Contribute to the preparation of progress reports on thematic related activities in compliance with the Bank rules and procedures.

SKILLS & NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE

Demonstrable knowledge and experience of women empowerment.

Demonstrable professional experience in socio-economic development, women empowerment, civil society organizations and their work on women development, and mainstreaming women issues in development programs and projects, developing results-oriented partnerships, resource mobilization

Experience working with IFIs/Development Agencies/Multilateral Development Banks preferred

Demonstrable analytical skills to assess institutional and country capacity and to design/review practical arrangements for implementing complex projects women empowerment aspects.

Demonstrated ability to contribute to high-level analytical work and policy dialogue in IsDB Member Countries.

Planning & organizing / project management skills

Analytical thinking

Problem solving