Senior Program Manager, Rural Women’s Empowerment Project in East Africa

SeedChange is looking for a Senior Program Manager to lead a Rural Women’s Empowerment Project in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. This is an opportunity to work closely with a group of incredible staff and partners to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in East Africa.

Context

Rural women in East Africa play a significant role in agriculture and food production and are leaders in protecting local seeds and crop diversity, key aspects of community resilience in the region. Agriculture, for most women smallholder farmers, is also a key source of livelihoods. Despite this, rural women in farming communities in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa face a multitude of attitudinal, structural and societal barriers that disenfranchise women and undermine their rights leading to higher vulnerability to

Gender Based Violence and a lower capacity to effect change in their domestic and public lives.

SeedChange and eight partners specializing in women’s rights, agroecology, and rural livelihoods have designed a multi-year project to respond to identified systemic challenges facing rural women in order to enhance gender equality and empowerment of smallholder women farmers (adult and youth) in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. The project aims to strengthen women’s empowerment and agency within local food and seed systems in rural communities and transform gender relations within traditional agricultural based organizations, networks and policy and decision-making spaces at

local, national and regional levels. The project will be delivered in alignment with feminist principles and SeedChange’s core approach rooted in food sovereignty and agroecology.

SeedChange’s mission is to build food sovereignty by working with partners to enhance biodiversity, promote ecological food systems, and counter inequity. For more information, visit weseedchange.org. Interested candidates can read background on SeedChange’s work and approach in the preliminary report on a recently-concluded five-year program here.

Conditions of Employment

This is a full time contractual position from May 2021 to June 2026. Location is flexible, with a preference for time zones favourable to collaborate with Ontario and Quebec-based colleagues. The incumbent must be available and willing to travel for up to six weeks a year, conditions permitting.

Click here for additional details on the position.

Application instructions

To apply: email [email protected]and specify Senior Program Manager in the subject of the email. Please include a cover letter, your CV, and a written reflection, no longer than two pages, responding to the following:

Women’s empowerment in farming systems relies on a complex set of approaches and interventions. Choose one approach from the list below, and describe how you believe it contributes to enhancing women’s empowerment in farming communities in East Africa, and what knowledge, skills, or abilities you would personally contribute to that theme:

• Strengthening women’s leadership and agency within local food and seed systems using an agroecological approach.
• Supporting the development of agrobiodiversity-based value chains that foster women’s participation and leadership.
• Using a rights based approach to address discriminatory social and cultural norms and enhance women’s access to and control over productive resources.

If you have questions in advance of applying, please contact Kate at [email protected]

Deadline for applications is April 14th.

Interviews of short-listed candidates are anticipated to be held between April 23rd and 28th. We appreciate understanding that only candidates short-listed for the position will be contacted.

Thank you for your interest in working with SeedChange