Spo Social Protection and Care Policies

Expertise France is the public agency for designing and implementing international technical cooperation projects. The agency operates around four key priorities:

- democratic, economic, and financial governance ;
- peace, stability, and security ;
- climate, agriculture, and sustainable development ;
- health and human development ;
In these areas, Expertise France conducts capacity-building initiatives and manages project implementation, leveraging technical expertise and acting as a project coordinator. This involves combining public sector expertise with private sector skills to drive impactful results.

Under the direction and supervision of the EF Head of Project, the Senior Project Officer Social Protection and Care Policies is in charge of the design, implementation, oversight and monitoring of the activities of Component 1, action line 1.2. The Senior project officer will supervise a team composed of a Project Officer and/or Project Assistant.

The SPO is responsible for day to day operational and technical implementation of the project in the 33 countries of the LAC region.

The SPO will search, recruit, coordinate and oversee high quality short-term experts. He/she is responsible for mobilizing the necessary resources to implement the project activities and for identifying and mobilizing necessary service providers.

The SPO will be responsible for the following non-exhaustive responsibilities and tasks:
** Project operational implementation**:

- Identify the demands of the beneficiary countries in his/her area of competence and in relationship with the GGIA. Evaluate the relevance of these demands (political, sustainability, impact and high institutional priority) and its coherence with the objectives of the Project. Validate the demands which fulfil the above mentioned criteria;
- Elaborate an annual action plan consistent with the other Action lines of the Project, gathering all the activities (national and regional) based on the demands identified and submit to the EF Head of Project;
- Ensure the implementation, monitoring, technical justification and follow up of these activities;
- Bring its own expertise in all aspects of the implementation of the activities of his/her component;
- Identify and mobilize specific expertise from different EU and LAC countries;
- Work closely with the Coordination Unit teams, other Senior Project Officers and Project Officers, in order to ensure a complementarity between activities, develop common activities and work procedures and share good practices;
- Work closely with other Components teams mainly in Component 3 on the action lines related to his/her thematics;
- Ensure the representation of its thematics (and possibly of the Project) on relevant activities and/or in regional or international meetings and forums;
- Work with a gender and inequality perspective following guidance and support of the Key Expert and Gender Help Desk team;
- Ensure the visibility of the Project and the European Union in all the activities implemented in his/her Action Line;
- Maintain a constant dialogue with the relevant authorities of the participating countries.

**Capitalisation and event management**
- Organize and manage events related to the project, ensuring effective planning, execution, and follow-up.
- Capitalize on the outcomes of project activities by documenting and disseminating best practices, lessons learned, and success stories.
- Participate to the evaluation of the activities under a double scope: for the Project, steered by the Coordination Unit, and for Expertise France, through the Head of Project which collaborates with CHDS/GOUV evaluation expert.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are currently facing a challenging global geopolitical and economic environment characterised by uncertainty and a series of crises. The region is struggling to recover from the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and return to the financial levels of 2019. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2022), inflation rates are high, and labour informality is growing. Fiscal space remains limited. The pandemic added almost 50 million more people to the poverty line, and the region is trying to reduce poverty and inequality while experiencing a precarious recovery of jobs. The region continues to face high levels of inequality, particularly regarding income, making it one of the most unequal regions in the world. To collaborate in addressing these challenges, this Project aims to promote social cohesion, gender, socio-economic equality and tackle social issues.

This Project based on the long-standing strategic partnership of the European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean, aims to foster the social dimension of the Global Gateway (GG) in LAC, bringing a participatory and multistakeholder approach to the GG Investment Agenda (GGIA) and providing an opportunity for collaborations among the public, private,