Advocacy Coordinator and Strategic Communications Manager at Plan International

The Opportunity

• In this role as the Advocacy, Coordination, and Strategic Communication Manager you will lead in the engagement of donors and State Water Boards through existing platforms to strengthen knowledge management throughout the water sector; determine communication methods that will generate the political support required for reform and accountability; promote good practices; and effectively share knowledge and lessons learned.

Role Purpose

• The purpose of this position is to ensure that advocacy and outreach strategies are developed and implemented for E-WASH; technical assistance and training aimed at strengthening state teams and partners are provided; and advocacy and communication initiatives of the project at the national and state levels are effectively coordinated.
• In addition, the position aims to ensure that evidence based data are generated for informed decision making; and knowledge and lessons learned are effectively managed and shared.

Roles/Responsibility

• Coordinate activities and communication among a diverse set of stakeholders focused on federal ministries, unit heads, multilateral and bi-lateral donors; senior state government stakeholders; civil society; the media; and the private sector.
• Produce a wide range of high quality written outputs for various audiences including high-quality, well targeted research reports, policy briefings, key messages, blogs and other outputs.
• Foster strong relationships and work closely with internal and external stakeholders in policy and advocacy work to keep abreast of key policy changes and relevant external issues, and to maximize their role as advocates for the change E-WASH aims to achieve.
• Participate actively in building the capacity of national and state agencies to advocate for and conduct outreaches to urban consumers.
• Identify and build strategic partnerships and engagement with organizations, networks, political contacts and other key stakeholders to further E-WASH in the delivery of its transformation agenda.
• Provide regular updates to supervisor and other project team members to inform project programming decision making and advocacy efforts.
• Conduct and support researches to ensure better understanding of situations, evidence based decision making; to generate and share knowledge and learning; and to better appreciate the impact of development initiatives.
• Ensure strong linkages with the Monitoring, Evaluations and Learning (MEL) unit so that advocacy and policy approaches are based in evidence.
• Facilitate peer exchange at the mid-level of utilities and water board between states and countries.
• Engage the Steering Committee of the Community of Practice and other potential champions to create ownership and to strengthen Reform Champions’ Team.

Knowledge and Experience

• Graduate in social studies, preferably communication, political science, or sociology, water management, post-graduate education (master’s or higher) in development studies, environmental studies, or primary health and at least 5 years of experience in policy and influencing, strategic communication, or civil society strengthening, or a related field and demonstrated experience in project management.
• Proven ability to lead the planning, coordination and execution of communications products, influence strategies and audience targeting.
• Demonstrated experience in using with success key advocacy strategies such as networking, negotiating, lobbying, movement building, or policy development, etc.
• Experience working with reporters or members of the media preferred.
• Experience managing civil society strengthening projects in developing country context.
• Experience in carrying out power, legislation and policy and political analysis to inform strategies and projects.
• Experience in developing and delivering advocacy strategies.
• Strong knowledge of child and women’s rights and gender justice.
• A history of productive involvement with local partners, including from government, traditional leadership, and civil society.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing, implementing, and monitoring inclusive, gender-equitable development projects
• Demonstrated knowledge and background in community mobilization and engagement
• Demonstrated problem solving skills, collaboration experience, creativity and willingness to innovate
• Experience drafting project reporting and monitoring project progress
• Excellent written and spoken English language skills
• Experience of managing people and ability to build, develop and motivate a high performing team, prioritizing effective cross organizational working as a key element of high performance.
• Experience of managing budgets and planning and reporting protocols.