Position Title: Gender and Land Tenure Specialist
Status: Full Time – Project-based Position (December 2024 - September 2026)
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Classification: Exempt (Not Eligible for Overtime Pay)
Date: October 2024
About Landesa
Grounded in the knowledge that having legal rights to land is a foundation for prosperity and opportunity, Landesa partners with governments and local organizations to ensure that those experiencing the most extreme forms of poverty have secure rights over the land they depend on. Founded as the Rural Development Institute in 1967, Landesa has helped more than 100 million families living in poverty gain legal control over their land. With secure land rights, these families can eat better, earn more, educate their children, practice conservation, and achieve dignity for generations. For additional information, visit the Landesa website at www.landesa.org.
About Stand for Her Land
Stand for Her Land (S4HL) is a global advocacy initiative for the accelerated implementation of women’s rights to land in practice. Women’s land rights are foundational to gender and climate justice, but women are frequently denied equal rights to land with men. Collective advocacy, led by grassroots women at local, national, and global levels, is a core solution to the challenges of women’s land rights, driving political will and supporting equitable, participatory transformation of land rights and governance. Landesa serves as the Secretariat of the S4HL Global Steering Committee, working in collaboration with 6 other global institutions to facilitate resourcing, coordination, and strategic direction for national S4HL Coalitions of grassroots and civil society actors in 9 countries.
About the Equal Stake in the Spoil Project: In 2021, Landesa was awarded a cooperative agreement by the United States Department of State to implement a four year project to strengthen and sustain the capacity of networked, women-driven civil society organizations (CSOs) in Bangladesh and Colombia, to create the enabling environment needed to recognize and promote women’s land rights (WLR) and improve sustainable land management (SLM), to further women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and climate justice. In 2024, the project was expanded to include Kenya until 2026.
Job Summary: The Gender and Land Tenure Specialist provides project leadership and gender expertise in the design, implementation, and learning related of S4HL in Kenya. This includes applying intersectional gender analysis to technical areas: legal and policy advocacy, communications and public advocacy, monitoring, evaluation, and learning, and social norms and behavior change interventions.
The GLTS will manage S4HL’s work with government, grassroots, and civil society actors in Kenya to achieve increased implementation of women’s land rights in practice, including: access to and control of land in the context of communal property and natural resource settings; supporting stronger and more equitable inheritance rights for women and girls; gender-equitable rural land tenure security on customary land; a range of land rights formalization approaches that include a gender justice and intersectional approach; increased and equitable access to land markets for rural land rights holders; land administration and management that prioritizes equal representation and treatment for women and girls; equitable access to government extension programs; access to justice; gender-based violence prevention and mitigation; gender-just resolution of land and related natural resource disputes; and climate change impacts and mitigation and adaptation approaches that integrate gender-equitable tenure. The S4HL model builds on existing initiatives and efforts to drive WLR implementation while ensuring that the voice, agency and leadership of grassroots women is surfaced, enhanced and prioritized to achieve the goal.
The Gender and Land Tenure Specialist will provide project management leadership for the S4HL Coalition in Kenya, working with the Landesa Kenya team, the Global S4HL Secretariat, and the S4HL Coalition members.
The Gender Specialist can also conduct gender analyses, drafts research and briefing papers, advisory memos, training modules, presentations, advocacy materials, and other products and participate in regional and global advocacy efforts focused on women’s land rights as a foundation for gender equality and climate justice.
Reporting and relationships: The GLTS reports to the Kenya Program Director, with a dotted line relationship to the Center for Women’s Land Rights Director, who also serves as the Global Lead for S4HL. The GLTS is expected to work closely with Landesa regional and global teams for the success of the project.
Availability: The GLTS is expected to work a standard workweek of 40 hours, plus additional hours as necessary. The position may require domestic and international travel.
Essential Job Functions
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
Required Education and Experience
Physical and Environmental Conditions
Work is primarily performed indoors with some potential for exposure to safety and health hazards related to electronics work. This position does not require unusual demands for physical effort. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts that require normal safety precautions typical of places such as offices, meeting or training rooms, residences, or commercial vehicles, e.g., use of safe workplace practices with office equipment, and/or avoidance of trips and falls, and observance of fire regulations and traffic signals.
Work Environment and Working Conditions
While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be exposed to working conditions and hazards which are prevalent for the location and/or country of assignment. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Work is primarily performed indoors with some potential for exposure to safety and health hazards related to electronics work. The employee may be required to travel overseas and domestically.
Additional Comments
The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made in appropriate circumstances to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.