Gender and Inclusive Development Advisor - Bangladesh IAF

Palladium is seeking a Gender and Inclusive Development Advisor in Dhaka for the USAID Feed the Future (FTF) Bangladesh Inclusive Access to Finance Program. The Feed the Future Bangladesh Inclusive Access to Finance Activity (IAF) is a $34 million, USAID-supported project that will unlock finance for small businesses and farmers, make agricultural supply chains more inclusive and sustainable, and improve inclusivity in the financial sector in Bangladesh. To accomplish this, IAF will engage strategic partners to deploy innovative solutions to address constraints in agriculture value chains and agriculture financing; deploy incentives and capacity building to financial institutions to expand appropriate and inclusive lending to or investment in agriculture; and engage the private sector to advocate for systemic improvements and scale social impact. From 2024 to 2029, The Bangladesh Inclusive Access to Finance Activity will unlock $420 million in finance, driving sustainable agricultural lending and promoting inclusive growth.

The Gender and Inclusive Development Advisor will take the lead in integrating gender equality and inclusivity considerations and approaches into IAF’s technical interventions.

​Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Assume overall charge of gender, youth, LGBTQI+, and inclusivity components of the project and provide overall strategic direction and technical oversight across all relevant project results.
• Lead efforts to identify and overcome gender, youth, LGBTQI+, and social inclusion barriers in investment and inclusive growth opportunities in the agricultural sector and be responsible for leading gender and social inclusion assessments.
• Lead the development and refinement of the Standards for Gender, Food Security and Nutrition, Climate-Smart Agriculture and youth inclusion criteria to support the Catalytic Fund framework.
• Contribute to the Access to Finance Financial Landscape and Inclusive Development Assessment and annual revisions.
• Lead development and the implementation of IAF’s Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) action plan, piloting, testing, and adapting WEE-specific interventions .
• Review existing and conduct new gender analysis and identify access constraints to economic participation.
• Support partners to understand and utilize Palladium’s inclusion toolkit.
• Facilitate knowledge-building on gender integration in development of inclusive business models with project partners.
• Develop and ensure timely implementation of Annual Workplans .
• Provide cross-cutting leadership in identifying gender, youth, LGBTQI+, and social inequities within programs and developing strategies for strengthening the integration of relevant lens across all activities.
• Build staff capacity on the application of a gender and youth lens across project initiatives.
• Participate in and contribute to external technical working groups on issues related to gender, youth, LGBTQI+ opportunities and inclusive development.
• Provide unconscious bias training to FI partners and support them in internally advancing women in leadership.
• Provide ongoing technical support for the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs with gender-, youth-, and LGBTQI+-focused outcomes.
• Travel to various regions of Bangladesh as needed.
• Any and all other project-related tasks as required by the Chief of Party and Palladium HQ.