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Interested in becoming a mentor?

At The Girls' Network, we understand that 'you can't be what you can't see'. So we want to find relatable, real-life role models for girls and young women to act as their mentors.

Are you...

If the answer is yes, then mentoring with The Girls' Network could be for you! 

To be a mentor you'll need to have at least 3 years professional experience, be living or willing to travel to one of the regions we work in, and be able to commit to around one hour per month over a year for our 1-to-1 programme. Our 1-to-1 sessions happen in schools, outside of office hours. We also offer group mentoring and events and workshops, so if you can't commit to a full year, there maybe other ways to get involved.

We are committed to safer recruitment and seek mentors who share our commitment to safeguarding and child protection. Our application process involves numerous checks to ensure suitability for working with children and young people. Please read our Code of Conduct and Safeguarding Policy Statement.

To enable us to carry out a satisfactory enhanced DBS check, you must have resided in the UK continuously for the past five years. We can accept applications from people who have spent time abroad, however if time abroad exceeds three months in the last 5 years, you will need to provide a Criminal Record Certificate from that country/s, at your own expense in addition to the standard DBS.

We’re recruiting! There is no formal application at this time. We are hoping to find the right person through broad networking since the women's financial inclusion in Africa industry is so well connected (and relatively small!) 

GRID Impact is looking for a dynamic, strategic leader to guide a newly approved Secretariat focused on advancing women’s financial inclusion across Africa. 

This is a unique opportunity to lead a multi-stakeholder initiative backed by a coalition of global donors and institutions committed to building inclusive, digital financial systems for women. The role blends technical expertise in women’s financial inclusion and digital financial services with sharp relationship management, strategic coordination, and facilitation skills.

The Secretariat will serve as a backbone for this growing partnership—connecting funders, implementing partners, and country-level actors; facilitating high-trust dialogue; producing research and learning outputs; and ensuring collective progress and accountability.

The consultant we bring in to our Collective for this will be someone who:
> Lives in Western Europe or in Africa
> has a minimum of 8 recent years technical and programmatic experience in financial inclusion and gender equality in the Global South, especially Africa 
> Can navigate and align across institutions and personalities
> Thrives in complex, multi-stakeholder environments
> Has a strong sense for diplomacy and nuance
> Brings a strong equity lens and a collaborative, grounded leadership style
> Is a strong writer and communicator
> Is fluency in English and speaks French (although French proficiency can be a desired, not required skill)

This role will be housed at GRID Impact, where we’re known for combining strategy, facilitation, and design to drive systems-level change.

Some details:
> This is very part time and would be a great addition to someone's existing consulting portfolio
> Approximately 20 - 50 billable days over a calendar year
> One in-person meeting per year, either in Africa or Europe
> Several short written deliverables and one "annual report" deliverable each year
> All travel expenses covered
> Can start as a one-year commitment but we intend to continue this work for 3-5 years
> The consultant would be joining the GRID Impact Collective, with strong administrative and financial scaffolding behind them and the potential for accessing other work in the financial inclusion, gender, strategy and facilitation spaces

About Us

GOAL has responded to the world’s major humanitarian crises since its founding in 1977, working with vulnerable communities in 14 countries across the globe with a dedicated team of personnel. While GOAL continues to be an agile first-responder to humanitarian crises, it is also committed to working with vulnerable communities to help them survive crises and support them on the road to recovery. 

GOAL is committed to ensuring its programming and operations are responsive to the diverse needs and circumstances of all individuals and communities it serves. We are dedicated to promoting inclusive participation and seek to continually improve our ability to deliver effective, accountable assistance by identifying and addressing barriers that may limit access for particular groups.

Job Purpose

The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Advisor (GESI) is responsible for guiding approaches that ensure responsiveness to a range of social and contextual factors across GOAL’s strategies and operations. You’ll provide expert direction and support to enhance context analysis, program design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning, ensuring that no group is inadvertently left behind.

The Successful candidate will collaborate with multiple GOAL teams—across both Head and Country Offices, including senior management, program operations, technical specialists, and MEAL teams to develop, communicate, support, and track the integration of inclusive approaches, activities, and benchmarks.

This role Reports our Head of Programme Technical Team (PTT) is part of GOAL and will serve as a resource for technical guidance and external engagement, including donors, technical networks, and relevant fora.

Requirements

Desirable

 Purpose

Young Africa International (YAInt) is a federation of independently run and locally registered affiliate organisations operating across six countries. Our mission is to empower disadvantaged young people through a comprehensive and holistic approach, including imparting skills for employability and entrepreneurship. To achieve this, young people receive integrated vocational training layered with entrepreneurship, life skills, and SRHR education and services (through the wellness spaces).

 YAInt seeks a qualified Inclusion and Safeguarding Specialist to lead the development and implementation of gender and disability inclusion policies (including reviewing all existing policies) across our vocational training and education training (VET)-oriented youth economic empowerment initiatives. 

● Lead, design and conduct gender audits at YA training centres across the region.
● Analyse audit findings to identify barriers to gender inclusion and propose evidencebased solutions.
● Use audit findings, to develop a Gender Policy aligned with YA’s vision and programming priorities.
● Design a Gender Policy Roll-out Strategy with clear objectives, implementation plans, and M&E frameworks, and budgets.
● Provide technical guidance to YA programme teams to implement the policy and mainstream gender across all programming areas.
● Facilitate gender awareness sessions and capacity-building workshops for YA staff and partner organisations.
● Collaborate with stakeholders including ministries, training institutions, and youth networks to promote buy-in and sustainability.
● Promote the mainstreaming of gender inclusion at all stages of the programme cycles, from planning of the project through to the evaluation;

 Overseeing Disability and Social Inclusion

● Specifically use disability audit reports and recommendations to develop a disability inclusion policy guidelines, roll out plan.
● Lead and coordinate roll out of disability-inclusion response measures to ensure disability-inclusive programming.


Overseeing Safeguarding
● Lead and coordinate the implementation of the YA safeguarding policy, in collaboration with safeguarding focal persons in countries of operation.
● Collaborate with Safeguarding focal persons in YA’s countries of operation to design and deliver regular safeguarding awareness and training sessions to ensure all staff members and stakeholders understand YA’s safeguarding policies and procedures, as well as understand the behaviors that are expected of them.

Other expected tasks Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
● Develop and integrate gender, social inclusion, and safeguarding indicators into YA’s M&E systems.
● Work with the M&E team to ensure the collection, analysis, and reporting of sex-, age- , and disability-disaggregated data.

 Required qualifications and skills
● Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in Gender in Studies, Social Inclusion, Inclusive Education or related fields is required, or 
● A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in gender and development, and or disability inclusion in development work, particularly institutional strengthening, is required. ● Demonstrated experience conducting gender audits, especially within vocational or educational settings. 
● Proven track record in developing gender and disability-inclusion policies and strategic frameworks. 
● Fluency in English, both written and oral, is required. 
● Strong understanding of youth empowerment, gender equality, and disability inclusive development. 
● Excellent analytical, writing, facilitation, and writing skills. 
● Familiarity with regional and international gender frameworks and instruments.