Advocacy Manager at Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Background

• The crisis in Nigeria is marked by brutal violence against civilians causing acute humanitarian needs and displacement. In the north-east, the 13-year conflict has shattered lives, infrastructure, basic services, and social fabric.
• Two million people are internally displaced across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
• Approximately half of these are living within local communities, putting increasing pressure on scarce resources.
• Access to food is limited, particularly in Borno state where most families are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity.
• Civilians, including aid workers, continue to be the target of deadly attacks by non-state armed groups and transport corridors are persistently insecure.
• In the north-west and north-central regions, violence and displacement are rooted in disputes over land and resources, which has been worsened by climate change, and criminality is on the rise.
• NRC has been present in Nigeria since 2015 and has been working to help displacement-affected communities meet their basic needs, improve their livelihoods, access essential services, and enhance their resilience to future shocks through our six core competencies: water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Shelter, Education, Information-Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA), Livelihoods and Food Security (LFS), Camp Management, and Protection.
• NRC provides immediate assistance during the onset of emergencies through the rapid response mechanism (RRM).
• With a workforce of 370 staff and a presence in key locations such as Maiduguri (in Borno State), Yola (in Adamawa state) and JOS (in Plateau state), NRC is able to respond to the needs of those affected by the conflict across North-East, and North Central Nigeria.
• These strategic locations have allowed NRC greater reach from the north and south parts of the North-East and North Central region and allowed NRC to contribute to bridging the gap between humanitarian aid and development cooperation, including by focusing on equitable access to basic services and strengthening the rights of displaced people and returnees.
• In addition to the Country Office and the above-mentioned Area Offices, NRC has sub-offices structures in Dikwa, Monguno, Biu, Mubi, Pulka and Gwoza.

Role and responsibilities

• The Advocacy Manager provides overall leadership, management and strategic direction to NRC’s policy and advocacy work in Nigeria.
• S/he is responsible for identifying opportunities and priority areas for advocacy, strengthening the incorporation of advocacy into all aspects of NRC’s activities, and guiding NRC’s advocacy messaging to promote a principled, efficient humanitarian response environment in Nigeria. S/he will also act as the focal point for all engagement with government stakeholders.

Generic responsibilities (max 10)

• Develop and implement country-specific advocacy strategy, aligned to overall country strategy.
• Line management, including the development of staff if applicable.
• Ensure advocacy coherence and reinforce effective synergies between programmes and advocacy by working closely with programme staff to integrate advocacy into programme planning and implementation.
• Ensure systematic training on advocacy and communication and build the capacity of technical staff.
• Provide high-quality analysis on key humanitarian and displacement trends and prepare evidenced-based policy briefing papers, policy position statements and other public-facing advocacy products when strategic and relevant.
• Liaise with other NRC Country, Regional and Global Representation Offices to coordinate the strategic delivery of advocacy messaging and to maximise impact.
• Advise on media lines and media strategy, ensuring potential risks associated with NRC’s positions are assessed and sign-off procedures are adhered to.
• Represent NRC to key stakeholders, strengthen strategic advocacy networks and identify opportunities to advocate NRC’s position.
• Act as a government liaison, and build and manage NRC’s relationships with government stakeholders.

Specific responsibilities

• Revise and update the NRC Country Office advocacy strategy as necessary.
• Management of Media and Communications Coordinator, including oversight of communication strategies and action plans.
• Keep Advocacy Matrix for NRC Nigeria updated.
• Active participation in relevant inter-agency working groups.
• Support the CCs advocacy events with stakeholders.
• Continuously identify and follow-up opportunities for influencing based on NRC Nigeria’s advocacy priorities, both in country and internationally through NRC’s Representation Offices.
• Ensure the provision of high-quality analysis on the humanitarian situation pertaining to displacement-affected population, contributing to improved NRC programmatic response and informing internal and external advocacy products.
• Support programme staff in incorporating and integrating advocacy into all aspects of NRC’s programme activities, strategy and budgeting.
• Ensure that relevant NRC Country Offices and departments (Field Operations, External Relations, Partnerships & Policy) are informed and briefed on response situation and priority advocacy issues.
• Actively network with other organisations involved in the response, and lead on development of joint field-based advocacy and positions towards target audiences.
• Prepare high-quality key messages, briefings, letters and other written materials for internal and external use, ensuring strong evidence-base in messaging and following agreed sign-off procedures.
• Draft and deliver necessary reporting documents.
• Seek fundraising opportunities for advocacy and contribute to the development of quality proposals, ensuring inclusion of research and/or advocacy activities on specific humanitarian and protection issues affecting displacement-affected where appropriate.
• Active member of the Country Management Group (CMG).
• Acting as a liaison with government stakeholders to enable NRC’s response.

Critical interfaces:
By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position are:

• Training and capacity building of staff: PMs and CMG in the country.
• Strategy development: Country Director and Regional Head of Advocacy.
• Development of advocacy products: Regional Head of Advocacy, Country Director, Head of Programmes, and Policy and Partnership (Policy and Advocacy Section) and External Relations Department as relevant.
• Information sharing with/ briefing of NRC Global (NRC Geneva, NRC Europe, Washington DC, London) on response situation and priority advocacy issues: Regional Head of Advocacy.

Qualifications / Competencies

• Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results.
• They are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following three categories:

Professional competencies:
Generic professional competencies for this position:

• Postgraduate qualification with a minimum of 5 years of relevant Manager/Adviser experience within the humanitarian field
• Experience working in complex and volatile contexts
• Experience working with government stakeholders
• Professional knowledge about humanitarian principles and the use of media for public advocacy
• Strong managerial and interpersonal skills
• Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal
• Context/Specific skills, knowledge and experience: (examples)
• Solid understanding of international legal and policy processes relating to displacement
• Documented/proven results related to the position’s responsibilities, particularly in analysis, drafting of messages, coordination and networking
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal (English)
• Knowledge of the Lake Chad Region
• Representation experience.

Behavioural competencies (max 6):

• These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job.
• NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies, the following are essential for this position:
  • Handling insecure environments
  • Strategic thinking
  • Empowering and building trust
  • Working with people
  • Initiate action and change
  • Analysing.

Performance Management:

• The employee will be accountable for the responsibilities and the competencies, in accordance with the NRC Performance Management Manual.
• The following documents will be used for performance reviews:
  • The Job Description
  • The Work and Development Plan
  • The Mid-term/End-of-trial Period Performance Review Template
  • The End-term Performance Review Template
  • The NRC Competency Framework.