Gender / Women’s Economic Empowerment Specialist

SRD Center is seeking a qualified Gender / Women’s Economic Empowerment Specialist to contribute to a proposed final external evaluation of a development programme in Madaba Governorate, Jordan.

The programme focuses on strengthening women’s participation in economic opportunities related to cultural heritage, tourism, crafts, entrepreneurship, creative industries, and local economic development, while also promoting gender-responsive municipal and local development approaches.

The specialist will provide technical expertise on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment and contribute to the design, data collection, analysis, and reporting of the evaluation.

Tasks:

• Provide technical expertise on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment throughout the evaluation.
• Contribute to development of the evaluation methodology, evaluation matrix, indicators, and data collection tools.
• Assess the relevance and effectiveness of programme approaches intended to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship and economic participation.
• Examine barriers and opportunities affecting women’s participation in heritage, tourism, entrepreneurship, and local economic activities.
• Conduct and/or support interviews, focus group discussions, and consultations with women beneficiaries, entrepreneurs, artisans, producers, programme stakeholders, and institutions.
• Assess participant experiences, perceived benefits, barriers to participation, market-access outcomes, and sustainability prospects.
• Analyse the extent to which the programme strengthened women’s skills, confidence, business readiness, networks, and access to economic opportunities.
• Assess the gender sensitivity, inclusiveness, accessibility, and appropriateness of programme interventions.
• Review gender-responsive approaches to municipal planning, tourism development, institutional capacity-building, and local development.
• Identify any unintended positive or negative effects affecting women or other groups.
• Contribute to analysis of sustainability, institutional ownership, and opportunities for strengthening future programmes.
• Support preparation of evaluation findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations.
• Ensure gender-sensitive, participatory, ethical, confidential, and inclusive approaches are applied during data collection and analysis.

Qualifications:

• University degree in gender studies, social sciences, development studies, economics, business development, community development, or another relevant field.
• Demonstrated professional experience in:
- Women’s economic empowerment; - Gender equality; - Entrepreneurship development; - Inclusive economic development; - Community-based development or related fields.
• Proven experience applying gender-sensitive research, monitoring, and evaluation methodologies.
• Experience conducting stakeholder consultations, interviews, focus group discussions, and gender analysis.
• Demonstrated understanding of barriers affecting women’s participation in economic activities.
• Experience related to tourism, cultural heritage, local economic development, entrepreneurship, or women-led businesses is highly desirable.
• Strong analytical, communication, facilitation, and report-writing skills.
• Experience with development programmes implemented by international organizations, donors, NGOs, municipalities, or public institutions is an advantage.
• Experience in Jordan or the MENA region is desirable.
• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary evaluation team.