Institution / Project Owner	DRC, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development/Sustainable Development Department (DDD)
Implementation Institution	Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Project	Elaboration of the national strategy 30×30 plan
Vacancy	National Consultant – Gender expert
Contract term	75 Days in Kinshasa with limited local travel
Report	GCF – Program Coordinator

Background 

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a private, nonprofit, tax-exempt U.S. organization, founded in 1895, that saves wildlife by understanding critical problems, developing science-based solutions, and taking conservation action that benefits nature and humanity. With over a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, a presence in more than 60 countries, and a track record of creating more than 150 protected areas worldwide, WCS has accumulated the biological knowledge, cultural understanding, and partnerships needed to ensure that wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, this knowledge is applied to address species, habitat, and ecosystem management issues critical to improving livelihoods that depend on the direct use of natural resources. 

Position Summary 

WCS is a GCF Readiness Delivery Partner (DP) in support of the DRC’s National Designated Authority (NDA), the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) as part of this work. WCS is seeking highly qualified and motivated gender experts to ensure that gender equality and social inclusion considerations are mainstreamed into all project activities, from planning and design to implementation. The expert will also develop a gender equality and social inclusion strategy and action plan. Working closely with the WCS social safeguard team, the experts will conduct a gender and social inclusion risk assessment and provide recommendations for gender equity-building opportunities throughout the strategy, and the concept note, and will provide inputs for the Environmental and Social screening.  

Technical Focus 

The incumbent will ensure compliance of the projects with the Gender equality and social inclusion policies of donors and WCS. 

1. Tasks and responsibilities 

• About gender strategy development, the expert will:  

• collaborate with project stakeholders to develop a comprehensive gender equality and social inclusion strategy that aligns with the objectives of the 30×30 conservation initiative. The strategy should include considerations for Indigenous Peoples (IP) and other vulnerable groups.  

• integrate gender and social inclusion perspectives into the overall project framework, ensuring a gender-sensitive approach at every stage. 

• Develop a gender equality and social inclusion action plan that ensures integration of the strategy into the project  

• on issues addressing risk assessment, the expert will work to:  

• Carry out a gender and social inclusion-specific risk assessment for developing and implementing the 30×30 strategy in the DRC. This should include considerations for IP and other vulnerable groups.  

• Provide recommendations for mitigating gender and social inclusion-related risks and capitalizing on opportunities for strengthening gender equality, focusing on the DRC’s context (legal, social, political, economic) about gender and inclusion and engagement with Indigenous Peoples (IPs). 

• On elements relating to Gender Mainstreaming in project documentation, it is expected that the expert: 

• ensure that gender and IP considerations are integrated into the project concept note, strategy papers, and other relevant documents. 

• provide input to the environmental review and safeguarding process, with a focus on gender and IPs. 

• About capacity building, it will: 

• organize training sessions for project staff and key stakeholders, as appropriate, to improve their understanding of 30×30 gender mainstreaming principles and strategies. 

• Provide recommendations and an action plan for gender equity opportunities to improve strategy development and implementation.  

• Referring to Monitoring and Evaluation, it will be responsible for developing recommendations for gender-sensitive and inclusive monitoring and evaluation indicators that can be included in the 30×30 strategy. 

Minimum Requirements 

The experts, or team of experts, will need to demonstrate: 

• At least a master’s degree in gender studies, international development, social science, economy, or related fields. 

• Extensive experience with stakeholder engagement processes focusing on target geographies. 

• Proven experience in conducting interviews with representative stakeholders (private sector, governmental agencies, IPs and LCs, civil society, academia, and research agencies, etc.), preferably in Central Africa 

• Strong ability to develop a synthetic report, summarizing lessons learned and providing recommendations that will feed into a knowledge product. 

• Demonstrated experience conducting gender analysis, writing gender strategies, and incorporating gender equity outcomes into project design 

• Successful experience working with diverse stakeholders with links to protected areas, rural livelihoods, IPs and LCs 

• Good knowledge of the GCF policy framework and especially gender policies will be strongly desired. 

• Ability to work and write in both French and English 

1. Selection Criteria 

As WCS is an equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and supporting a diverse workforce (qualified women and people from all ethnic backgrounds), interested candidates are invited to submit their CV, a cover letter outlining relevant experience, and a sample of a gender strategy or similar document developed for a previous project. Please send applications to wcsdrcongorecruitment@wcs.org by December 11, 2024. 

Application deadline: December 11th, 2024, at 11.59 Goma time.