Inclusion Associate (Disability & Girls Skills)

Job Description

Title: Inclusion Associate (Disability & Girls Skills)

Company Name: Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO)

Vacancy: 01

Age: At most 40 years

Job Location: Cox`s Bazar (Teknaf, Ukhia)

Salary: Tk. 50000 (Monthly)

Experience:

• 4 to 6 years
• The applicants should have experience in the following business area(s): NGO

• Master's degree in Social Work, Sociology, Development Studies, Education, Psychology, Social Sciences, Public Health or a related discipline (with focus on disability and gender) from a recognized university.

• Candidates with specialization/ additional certification in Disability-Inclusive Programming, Inclusive Education, Gender and Development, Child Rights, Community Development, child protection, or rights-based will be given preference.

• 4 to 6 years
• The applicants should have experience in the following business area(s): NGO

• Age At most 40 years

Experience Requirements

• Minimum 4 to 6 years of professional experience in disability and gender-responsive programming, child protection, adolescent development, community development, or humanitarian programmes.

• Demonstrated experience working directly with adolescents with disabilities, adolescent girls, and other vulnerable groups in humanitarian or protracted crisis settings.

• Demonstrated experience applying the Washington Group Child Functioning Module or equivalent screening approaches at community or facility level, with sound understanding of dignity, consent, and confidentiality in disability identification.

• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering disability-inclusive and gender-responsive interventions across enrolment, delivery, and monitoring.

• Experience designing and leading community engagement strategies with parents, caregivers, male household decision-makers, community leaders, and religious leaders on gender and inclusion, with proven ability to shift attitudes and behaviours over time.

• Familiarity with UNICEF inclusive education guidance, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child General Comment No. 20 on adolescents, the UNICEF Gender Action Plan, and safeguarding standards in a partnership context.

• Experience working with UNICEF, UN agencies, INGOs, or donor-funded programmes will be highly preferred.

• Experience working in the Cox's Bazar Rohingya humanitarian response is an advantage.

Additional Requirements

• Age at most 40 years.

• Strong understanding of disability-inclusive programming, gender-responsive programming, adolescent development, and safeguarding principles.

• Excellent facilitation, community engagement, and stakeholder coordination skills, with proven ability to work sensitively with parents, caregivers, community leaders, and traditional community structures.

• Strong report writing, documentation, and analytical abilities, including experience working with data disaggregated by sex, age, and disability.

• Ability to work effectively with adolescents with disabilities, adolescent girls, and diverse communities with cultural sensitivity and respect for dignity.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.

• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities.

• High integrity, confidentiality, and professionalism.

• Strong commitment to child rights, inclusion, safeguarding, and gender equality.

• Must possess a valid driving license.

Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO) started its journey in 1988 with a noble vision to stand in solidarity with the poor and marginalized. Being a people` centered organization, ESDO envisioned for a society which will be free from inequality and injustice, a society where no child will cry from hunger and no life will be ruined by poverty. Near about three decades of relentless efforts to make this happen, ESDO has embraced new grounds and opened up new horizons to help the disadvantaged and vulnerable people to bring meaningful and lasting changes in their lives. During this long span, ESDO has adapted with the changing situation and provided the most time-bound services especially for the poor and disadvantaged. A community focused and people centered approach has been adapted by ESDO while consideration was given to the national policy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its guiding principle. ESDO is one of the most dynamic organizations expanding its development interventions across 422 upazilas under 56 districts of Bangladesh covering over 10 million poor and vulnerable people.

ESDO is going to implement a UNICEF-supported project titled "Provide quality, inclusive skills development and Myanmar Curriculum STEM education for adolescent learners aged 15-18, and portable skills training for education volunteers in Cox's Bazar" in Rohingya camps of Ukhia, Cox's Bazar. The project aims to improve access to quality foundational literacy numeracy (FLN), trade skills, employability skills, leadership skills, entrepreneurship training, STEM Education and portable skills opportunities for Rohingya adolescents and youth through Multi-Purpose Centers (MPCs), Science and IT Labs, and SKILFO-based portable skills interventions.

The Inclusion Associate leads the operationalization of the project's inclusion agenda so that every adolescent, regardless of gender, disability, or family circumstance, has a meaningful, safe, and equal opportunity to enrol, participate, complete, and transition into livelihoods. The position applies a twin-track approach that mainstreams inclusion across every component of the project while delivering targeted support for adolescents with disabilities and adolescent girls facing structural barriers to participation. In collaboration with Education Sector implementing partners already operating disability programming in the same camps, and with technical organizations, and disability-focused civil society actors in the camp, the position ensures that learners with disabilities are identified, assessed, referred, and accompanied through their learning journey with appropriate reasonable accommodation and assistive support. In parallel, the position will lead a Father-Brother engagement strategy to shift household-level attitudes and behaviours that constrain girls' access to skills development, and ensures that safe, dignified, and gender-responsive learning environments are in place across every multi-purpose centre.

The Inclusion Associate will work under the direct supervision of the Skills Development Technical Lead and coordinate closely with the Adolescent Officer, Market Linkage and Business Development Officer, Skills Development Field Officer, Trade Experts, Skills Development Field Assistants, the PSEA, CSG and AAP Officer.

Reporting to: Direct reporting to Skills Development Technical Lead (ESDO)

Job Responsibilities

A. Inclusion Leadership and Technical Guidance

• Lead the operationalization of the project's inclusion commitments so that disability-inclusive and gender-responsive programming is embedded across planning, enrolment, delivery, monitoring, and reporting, not treated as a separate activity.

• Provide day-to-day technical guidance to programme colleagues, instructors, and field teams on inclusive facilitation, reasonable accommodation, non-discriminatory practice, and rights-based programming, in alignment with UNICEF, UN and relevant national and international guidance.

• Support the Skills Development Technical Lead in ensuring the project meets its enrolment, retention, completion, and outcome commitments for girls and for adolescents with disabilities.

• Contribute inclusion perspectives to project planning cycles, curriculum reviews, and cross-functional decision-making, pedagogical process, monitoring process so that inclusion is designed in from the start rather than retrofitted.

B. Disability Identification, Assessment, and Individualized Support

• Ensure the Washington Group Child Functioning Module (WG-CFM) is used systematically at enrolment and periodically thereafter to identify adolescents with functional difficulties, in a manner that respects dignity and confidentiality.

• Work with the Field Assistants and Inclusion Volunteers to identify, register, and follow up on adolescents with disabilities, and to accompany them through the learning journey.

• Coordinate individualized support plans covering reasonable accommodation in the classroom and workshop, adapted learning materials, assistive devices where required, and referrals for specialist services.

• Ensure adolescents with disabilities are represented across every trade, laboratory, leadership, and employability component, and that no trade or activity becomes structurally inaccessible for reasons that can be addressed with accommodation.

C. Cross-Sectoral Liaison with Education Partners and Technical Partner

• Establish and maintain active working relationships with the Disability Inclusion Officers of Education Sector implementing partners operating in the same camps where the project delivers, so that joint identification, assessment, and support of adolescents with disabilities is coordinated rather than duplicated.

• Coordinate with technical partners and other disability-focused actors on assessment protocols, referral pathways, capacity building, and assistive device provision.

• Participate in relevant sector, sub-sector, and inter-agency forums on disability inclusion, adolescent programming, and gender, and bring back learning that strengthens the project.

• Coordinate with the Protection Sector and Child Protection sub-sector on referral pathways for MHPSS, case management, and specialist support, and with the Nutrition Sector on referral for nutritional needs of learners with disabilities where relevant.

D. Girls' Access, Safety, Equal Participation and Empowerment

• Ensure adolescent girls have equal, safe, and dignified access to enrolment, learning, assessment, and post-graduation transition, with particular attention to girls in trades and laboratory settings that are traditionally male-dominated.

• Support the recruitment and deployment of female instructors so that girls have visible role models and trusted points of support at every multi-purpose centre.

• Ensure Adolescent Action Groups (AAGs) achieve balanced gender participation and that girls' voices influence decisions that affect their learning experience.

• Coordinate with the PSEA, CSG and AAP Officer on any protection concerns raised by or affecting adolescent girls, and ensure sensitive, confidential handling of referrals.

E. Community Engagement for Children with Disabilities and Girls' Access to Skills

• Engage systematically with Community Education Support Groups (CESGs), parents and caregivers of adolescents with disabilities and adolescent girls, community leaders, religious leaders, camp majhis, and youth-serving community structures to strengthen access, retention, and safe participation for both groups.

• Design and lead a Father-Brother engagement strategy that targets male household decision-makers, community elders, and religious leaders to shift attitudes and behaviours that restrict adolescent girls' access to skills development, using structured community dialogues, household visits, testimonial-based awareness sessions, and community champion engagement.

• Conduct dedicated outreach with parents and caregivers of adolescents with disabilities to address stigma, encourage enrolment, agree on reasonable accommodation arrangements, and sustain attendance across the learning cycle.

• Work with CESGs, Adolescent Action Groups (AAGs), and community-based volunteer networks to sustain inclusion and gender messages beyond one-off events and to build community ownership of both girls' participation and children with disabilities' participation

• Track and document changes in household- and community-level attitudes, enrolment and retention patterns for girls and adolescents with disabilities, and community engagement outcomes over the life of the project.

F. Accessibility of Facilities, Materials, and Team Capacity Building

• Conduct accessibility assessments of multi-purpose centres, laboratories, workshops, and communication materials, and recommend practical, cost-effective accessibility improvements aligned with Universal Design for Learning principles as feasible.

• Support the Associate Construction Engineer on inclusive design considerations for any facility works or adaptations.

• Support adaptation of learning materials, teaching approaches, and assessment methods for diverse learning needs.

• Deliver orientation and refresher training for project staff, instructors, and volunteers on disability-inclusive facilitation, gender-responsive practice, girls' safeguarding, and inclusive classroom conduct.

G. Data, Monitoring, Documentation, and Reporting

• Ensure enrolment, attendance, assessment, participation, and outcome data are consistently disaggregated by sex, age, and disability, and coordinate with the Information Management Manager and Skills Development Monitoring and Data Associate on data quality for CwD and adolescent girls.

• Track inclusion-related indicators throughout the project cycle and flag emerging gaps early so that course corrections can be made in time.

• Maintain records of adolescents with disabilities and adolescent girls receiving targeted support, and document case studies, success stories, and lessons learned in a manner that protects dignity and confidentiality.

• Contribute to donor reports, sector reporting, evaluations, and knowledge products with credible inclusion evidence

H. Safeguarding, Accountability, and Other Responsibilities

• Uphold the highest standards of Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), Child Safeguarding (CSG), Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), and gender-responsive conduct in every interaction with learners, families, and communities.

• Ensure community feedback and complaint mechanisms are accessible to adolescents with disabilities and to adolescent girls, and that feedback from these groups is acted upon with documented follow-up.

• Support donor visits, monitoring missions, evaluations, and external reviews with inclusion evidence and community engagement facilitation.

• Any other duties assigned by the Skills Development Technical Lead in the interest of the project and it’s participants, especially those with disabilities and for gender responsive approach.

As per project allocation