Livelihoods Technical Advisor

Location: Dnipro/Kyiv (with frequent travels to CARE and Partner field offices)

Reporting line manager: Program Quality Lead

Duration: 8 months

Conditions:

Starting date: As Soon As Possible

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union, and with other external stakeholders.

Background

CARE International has been present in Ukraine since March 2022 responding to the humanitarian consequences of the conflict while supporting pathways toward recovery and resilience. CARE’s work in Ukraine spans protection, gender equality, WASH, shelter and NFI, cash and voucher assistance, sexual reproductive health, and health. Women’s Economic Justice (WEJ) and Livelihoods is a central pillar of CARE Ukraine’s strategy and CARE’s Vision 2030, aiming to ensure women have equitable access to, and control over, economic resources and opportunities. In Ukraine, gender inequalities have deepened due to conflict-driven displacement, economic disruption, and shifts in household dynamics. The Livelihoods Technical Advisor will play a pivotal role in integrating women’s economic empowerment and rights across CARE Ukraine’s programs, partnerships, and advocacy

Role Objective

The Livelihoods Technical Advisor will provide technical leadership, strategic direction, and capacity strengthening to ensure CARE Ukraine’s programs advance women’s economic justice. This includes designing and supporting interventions that enhance women’s access to decent work, livelihoods, financial services, and decision-making power, while addressing systemic barriers such as gender-based discrimination, unpaid care work, and harmful social norms.

Position Summary:

This position requires a deep understanding of the socioeconomic factors influencing women’s economic justice and the ability to lead initiatives that bridge gaps in employment, training, and advocacy for better working conditions. It also requires an in-depth understanding of donor interests in reconstruction and resilience programs that support Ukraine’s private sector, workforce, and inclusion of women. The main objective of this role is to launch and grow a portfolio of work which delivers impact at scale towards CARE Ukraine’s Women’s Economic Justice Strategic Objective. The post holder will work with colleagues across CARE Ukraine to scale up the number of women economic justice projects CARE is implementing with its partners. The Livelihoods echnical Advisor will promote and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to achieve high quality, high impact interventions that are informed by evidence and best practice, contextually appropriate, driven by women and partner voices, and widely inclusive. The ideal candidate will possess expert knowledge of the relationships between economic trends, household economic security, women’s rights and access to services and socio-economic resilience in different national contexts. This knowledge should include current research, and international trends. The Livelihoods Technical Advisor will be the primary focal point with the FSL national Cluster and CASH Working Group.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Leadership and Technical Guidance

• Lead the development and implementation of CARE Ukraine’s Livelihoods and WEJ strategy, ensuring alignment with the CARE Global WEJ Framework and Ukraine Country Strategy.
  • Provide technical advice to program teams in designing and adapting interventions that promote women’s economic rights and participation in market systems, livelihoods, and recovery programs.
  • Ensure conflict-sensitive, gender-transformative approaches are embedded in all Livelihoods-related programming.
  • Identify and champion opportunities for linking Livelihoods programming with Protection, Gender equality, WLiE, WASH, Shelter, Cash, SRH and Health programming.
  • Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, national partners and development partners:
  • Support the building of strategic alliances and partnerships for women’s economic justice related strategies and initiatives.

Program Development and Quality

• Support program design and proposal development, ensuring Livelihoods and WEJ is integrated into multi-sector interventions and donor submissions.
  • Lead technical review of Livelihoods and WEJ-related project components, logframes, indicators, and budgets.
  • Develop and promote tools, guidelines, and approaches for measuring women’s economic empowerment outcomes.
  • Provide technical support for market assessments, labor market analysis, and value chain studies with a gender lens.

Capacity Strengthening and Partnership Support

• Build the capacity of CARE staff and local partners in Livelihoods concepts, program models, and gender-transformative economic empowerment approaches
  • Support partner organizations—especially women-led and women’s rights organizations—to design, implement, and scale Livelihood initiatives
  • Facilitate peer learning and exchange on Livelihoods good practices among partners and staff
  • Collaborate with women-led organizations to implement mentorship programs that enhance leadership skills among women, enabling them to ascend to senior roles within their professions.
  • Develop and deliver Livelihoods capacity building strategy for CARE and partners
  • Coordinate the dissemination of key technical material and organize training with a special focus on standards and best practice.

Coordination, and External Engagement.

• Engage with government, donors, UN agencies, and coordination bodies to position CARE as a leader on Livelihoods and WEJ in Ukraine.
  • Contribute to evidence-based advocacy on barriers and opportunities for women’s economic participation in Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction.
  • Represent CARE in relevant clusters, working groups, and technical fora, particularly the Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster and the CASH Working Group.
  • Ensure that CARE’s work is coordinated with efforts of other agencies and Government, and support Inter agency coordination forums, advocating for the specific needs of beneficiaries. This may involve supporting coordination working groups.
  • Participate proactively and contribute in the FSL cluster and technical working groups meetings.
  • Share information on CARE’s activities and interventions and promote good relations and collaboration with other actors working on the humanitarian response

Research, Learning, and Impact Measurement

• Oversee the generation, documentation, and dissemination of learning from Livelihoods and WEJ programming.
  • Support research and assessments to inform program design and policy engagement.
    Ensure robust monitoring of Livelihoods and WEJ indicators and contribute to CARE’s global WEJ impact reporting. Monitor and evaluate project outcomes, adapting strategies as necessary to meet targets and maximize impact.
  • Contribute in the preparation to all the necessary reports such as progress reports, annual reports, and Interim and final reports for donors.
  • Oversee the production of WEJ-related research papers including advising on research design and methodology in collaboration with the MEAL team, recruiting required expertise where necessary.
  • Conduct monitoring visits to project locations, develop field reports and follow up on critical issues in a timely manner.

Key Working Relationships
Internal: Program Quality Team (Gender, Protection, WLiE, WASH/Shelter, MEAL, SRH Advisors), Program Managers, Area Managers, CARE Global WEJ Technical Team.

Additional job responsibilities

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties assigned by line manager.

General

• Deliver high quality results in line with the terms of reference agreed in advance and to do this in a way which maintains the reputation of CARE.
  • Comply with CARE policies and practice with respect to PSEA, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.
  • Contribute to the responsibility of the security of all staff. Ensure the security, health and wellbeing of staff and contribute to staff management and other processes and policies and systems reflect CARE 's principles of equity and fairness.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Advanced degree in economics, gender studies, development studies, business, or related field.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in designing and implementing women’s economic empowerment or livelihoods programming in humanitarian or recovery contexts.
• Proven experience in integrating gender-transformative approaches into economic and livelihoods programming.
• Strong understanding of Ukraine’s socio-economic context, especially gender and labor market dynamics and employment trends.
• Demonstrated ability to work with partners, build capacity, and facilitate multi-stakeholder processes.
  Strong skills in market analysis, livelihoods assessment, and monitoring of WEJ outcomes.
• Practical experience of implementing small grants programs, vocational training interventions and employer engagement.
• Proficiency in English. Experience of training and capacity building.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Experience of representation and ability to represent CARE effectively in external forums.
• Knowledge of institutional donors and experience of developing proposals.
• Computer skills (including Excel and Word)
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills
• Good organizational skills
• Ukrainian and/or relevant regional language would be an asset

Accountability:

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate

offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedureswith respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health andsafety,

  confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behavior protocols.

• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.

• Report any concerns about inappropriate behavior of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of CARE activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Gender equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit

How to apply

Please send your complete application package only in English to application@care.de no later than 07 September 2025, with “Livelihoods Technical Advisor – CARE Ukraine" as the subject title of your email.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please note that only shortlisted candidate will be contacted. References will only be contacted after the interview.