Consultant - Gender Equality & Social Inclusion-SNV IAP Project

• Excellent verbal communication, facilitation, and presentation abilities.

• Capable of working independently as well as collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.

• Good command of MS Office applications, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, along with basic data management tools.

• Willing and able to travel regularly to field locations based on project requirements.

• Strong written and spoken proficiency in both English and Bengali, with the ability to prepare clear, accurate, and professional technical documents in both languages.

• Strong alignment with iFarmer’s core values, particularly inclusion, gender equality, and ethical financial practices.

• Demonstrates a high degree of integrity, accuracy, professionalism, and attention to detail.

Project: Breaking Barriers for Women in Agriculture, SNV-IAP
Duration: 24 working days over 3 months (8 days per month), starting from mid-September
Team: Impact & Partnership
Reporting To: Development Project Coordinator & Impact Evaluation Manager

The “Breaking Barriers for Women in Agriculture” inclusive business project, implemented by iFarmer and supported by the Innovations Against Poverty (IAP) challenge fund of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, aims to improve agricultural productivity, strengthen farmers’ livelihoods, and encourage sustainable farming practices.

The project focuses on creating greater opportunities for marginalized women farmers in Bangladesh by connecting them with formal financial services, quality agricultural inputs, customized farming guidance, and improved market access. Through greater participation in sustainable agricultural activities, the initiative seeks to strengthen women farmers’ resilience and support them in building more secure and sustainable livelihoods.

iFarmer Centres will function as trusted, community-based service hubs where women farmers can register and access agricultural advisory services, training programs, quality inputs, financing opportunities, and other services related to homestead vegetable cultivation and livestock farming.

Women already make up a significant portion of iFarmer’s farmer network. Recognizing their growing importance as a key customer segment, iFarmer aims to expand services such as livestock financing, animal health advisory support, and access to climate-resilient vegetable seeds specifically to meet the needs of women farmers.

Key Responsibilities – Paraphrased

• Provide technical guidance to strengthen Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) across iFarmer’s products, services, and delivery channels, with particular emphasis on improving women’s access to and engagement with iFarmer Centres.

• Conduct a comprehensive and practical GESI assessment of iFarmer’s business model, customer journey, products, and services to identify barriers, opportunities, and priority areas for increasing women’s participation.

• Develop a Women-Friendly iFarmer Centre Framework containing practical standards, guidelines, tools, and recommendations to enhance accessibility, service quality, outreach, customer experience, and engagement with women farmers.

• Review and improve customer acquisition, onboarding, and retention strategies to better address the specific needs and circumstances of women farmers and women-led agri-businesses.

• Develop a Women-Focused Market Engagement and Outreach Strategy, along with relevant SOPs, to improve awareness, customer onboarding, engagement, and retention.

• Assist iFarmer in refining and effectively communicating its value proposition for women farmers, including access to agricultural inputs, advisory services, finance, training, climate-smart solutions, and market opportunities.

• Develop actionable recommendations and implementation plans to improve women’s access to financial services, agricultural inputs, advisory support, digital tools, information, and markets.

• Design and facilitate training, coaching, and capacity-building programs for iFarmer staff, field teams, advisory personnel, and Centre retailers on gender-responsive customer service and inclusive business practices.

• Develop and update gender-responsive training materials covering areas such as climate-smart agriculture, livestock, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and women’s economic empowerment.

• Integrate gender-responsive approaches into customer service systems, advisory programs, outreach initiatives, marketing activities, operational processes, and technical assistance programs.

• Assess existing customer feedback and engagement mechanisms and recommend effective systems for collecting, analysing, and responding to women customers’ experiences and feedback.

• Develop practical gender-responsive tools, guidelines, communication materials, SOPs, implementation frameworks, and learning resources to institutionalize inclusive practices across the organization.

• Support the development and monitoring of gender-sensitive indicators, targets, feedback mechanisms, and performance measurement systems.

• Organize and facilitate stakeholder consultations, validation workshops, review meetings, and other engagement sessions throughout the assignment.

• Document lessons learned, case studies, success stories, and best practices related to women’s economic empowerment, inclusive service delivery, and inclusive business development.

• Contribute to project planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting, evaluation, and organizational learning activities.

• Ensure that all project deliverables, recommendations, tools, and interventions are aligned with gender equality, social inclusion, safeguarding, and responsible business principles.