I.             Job Summary:

Who are we?

As a global leader, CARE is shaping the future of the humanitarian and development sector. Each year, we deliver support and services to millions of people in over a hundred countries. We do this by focusing on our mission and living the values that drive our organization. A career at CARE is an opportunity to be part of a movement that brings communities together to solve complex problems and foster lasting change throughout the world. We seek individuals who are passionate about humanitarian and development work, collaborate well with others, embrace learning and innovation, and deliver results.

What it’s like to work at CARE?

CARE is a mission-driven international humanitarian aid and development organization that offers an opportunity to work with people across the world. Not a day will go by that you won’t learn something profound, meet an expert, or write a sentence that can change a life. We are committed to an environment where everyone can succeed.

Bangladesh has made impressive strides in its social and economic development, achieving lower middle-income status in 2015 through stable macroeconomic conditions and substantial poverty reduction. The nation adeptly navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining positive real GDP growth through prudent macroeconomic policies and effective stimulus measures. However, challenges persist, particularly for its youth population. With an overall unemployment rate of 8.9% among those aged 15-29, around 27% of this group is labeled as NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). Notably, this NEET issue is predominantly a gender concern as approximately 90% of NEET youth are female. Social norms emphasizing women's household roles and movement restrictions contribute to these disparities which is evident in the significantly lower female labor force participation.

The EARN Project in Bangladesh aims at economic engagement of the NEET youth, especially women, in rural and semi-urban areas of the country. The project offers education and skills development with a focus on women-centric facilities, employment and enterprise development support, enhanced employability through creating employer linkages and upskilling of Socio-Emotional Behavior (SEB) and Entrepreneur Development (ED) skill, incubation support for employment and entrepreneurship. In order to ensure participation of women and other underserved segment, the project will promote an enabling environment, especially for the women, through targeted awareness raising and communication programs, family-based planning, counseling and involving the communities and families in planning and monitoring of implementation.

EARN project takes a comprehensive approach to tackle the barriers for NEET female through activities such as communication campaigns that address constraining social norms, establishing childcare facilities so that female beneficiaries with children can feel encourage to actively part in the training program. As most of beneficiaries are women there is a possibility of SEA/SH/GBV risk considering the negative social norms.

The project will undertake climate resilience programs and enhance institutional capacity to improve the understanding of the responsiveness to disruptions from climate change and geophysical hazards. All skills development training will incorporate climate sensitization courses that will include adaptation and mitigation measures. The proposed competitive innovation funds will also be used to customize the new climate responsive awareness among the beneficiaries.

II.   Responsibilities and Tasks:  

% of Time

Responsibility # 1: Lead Social Norms Research and Analysis

40%

• Design and implement comprehensive studies to identify gender and social norms affecting women’s labor force participation, mobility, and training access, with a focus on youth, persons with disabilities, and vulnerable groups.
• Conduct desk reviews, FGDs, KIIs, and field surveys to generate baseline and needs assessment data.
• Analyze qualitative and quantitative data using statistical tools (SPSS, STATA, R, etc.) and prepare high-quality reports.

Responsibility # 2: Strategy Development and Stakeholder Mapping

25%

• Identify rules, roles, and actions of key stakeholders including implementing agencies, service providers, local officials, and community actors.
• Contributes to the development of norm-shifting strategies and communication plans to influence behavior and promote gender equity.
• Support the mapping of GBV service providers and existing grievance redress mechanisms in project areas.

Responsibility # 3: Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

20%

• Develop an evaluation framework to track changes in gender and social norms over time, including designing longitudinal and impact evaluation studies.
• Ensure integration of gender and youth perspectives into all research outputs and contribute to learning agendas through periodic follow-up studies.

Responsibility # 4: Knowledge Sharing and Advocacy

15%

• Disseminate research findings and strategies to key stakeholders and gather feedback to refine approaches.
• Provide technical support to implementing partners and contribute to capacity-building efforts around gender-sensitive, inclusive programming.

General Responsibilities on Safety and Security, and Safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults

As part of this role, the job holder must adhere to and support CARE Bangladesh’s Safety and Security policy and systems as part of their day-to-day duties and comply with safety & security protocols and directives, including reporting. Staff must maintain situational and self–awareness and be aware of the safety – security-related consequences of their actions upon themselves, their team, and the organization.

CARE is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behavior at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity, and financial misconduct, and expects staff to promote the welfare of children, young people, and adults always.  CARE expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our Code of Conduct.  We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate this commitment are recruited to work with us.

All CARE staff must uphold ethical standards, following codes of conduct to prevent abuse, including sexual harassment, exploitation, and neglect. Regular monitoring ensures accountability to uphold these principles and support our mission of social justice and poverty alleviation.

III.           Reporting to:  

Team Leader

IV.           Working Condition:  

To be declared

V.     Qualification:

• At least 10 years of relevant work experience in any reputable national/ international NGO/relevant agency in a similar position.
• Post-graduation from sociology, social work, anthropology, development studies, or other relevant disciplines. PhD degree will be considered as an additional qualification.
• Report writing both Bangla in English, analyze data for decision making and participation.
• Minimum ten (10) years specific experience in a similar field from a social perspective and have a proven track record on research related work.
• Experienced in leading, designing and conducting study specially on gender sensitization, social norms that impact female labor force participation.
• Have proven experience in demonstrating knowledge and successful ability to conduct gender and youth analyses and gender and youth integration programming including addressing the GBV, SEA/SH
• Clear knowledge and understanding of social and gender norms in the context of Bangladesh.
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills.
• Proven Skill in statistical software packages.  SPSS, STATA, R, MS Access and Excel is essential.
• Strong commitment to accountability, social justice, promoting gender awareness and equality.
• Experience to conduct mapping of GBV service providers, especially for project areas where there are gaps in mapping of such service providers and SEA/SH Grievance Redress Mechanism and referral pathways in partnership with the identified GBV service provider.
• Strong communication skill in both verbal and written in English and Bangla.