Advocacy Officer at GOALPrime Organization Nigeria (GPON)

Reports To: Advocacy Specialist

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY 

Strategy development and implementation

• The Advocacy Officer will provide leadership in advocacy, learning, and policy support to the area office on Education, Child Protection, and Public Investment in Children, and ensure there is a coherent process linking the county and national level advocacy efforts.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of key budgetary cycle moments, law, and policy reform initiatives at the County.
• Ensures that all advocacy messages and documents are evidence-based and of high quality.
• In close collaboration with education, health, and Child Protection teams, the Head of Advocacy, Head of Health & Nutrition, Child Protection & Education TS, and Communication Manager, develop and implement county advocacy strategies that will seek to draw synergies in integration, CP, education, and MNH with other sectors. Responsible for the delivery of an annual implementation work plan.
• Develop and implement relevant context-specific strategies for effective education, child participation within the advocacy activities in collaboration with the field office teams and relevant staff at the country office.
• Support Programme Managers in identifying policy and practice change, which would improve child survival, learning, and protection outcomes for children.
• Support budget advocacy and budget tracking to improve revenue generation and public investment in children for child welfare interventions at the county level in collaboration with other CSOs.

Advocacy and Communications

• Lead the state monitoring and evaluation of advocacy-related objectives, mapping of key opportunities and events, organisation of GPON ‘moments’ and events.
• Linking to international process and in collaboration with field office staff and technical specialists, oversee the development of advocacy materials – including policy briefs, position papers, press releases, Questions and answers, and opinion pieces for county and national advocacy.
• Develop good knowledge of county government structure, political processes, and key decision-making structures and how to influence them on issues related to education, MNH, CP, and domestic resource mobilization. Conduct power mapping to identify and engage key influencers in the County for increased resource mobilization and allocation to child survival interventions.
• Develop emergency contingency plans in case of eventualities within the two counties, including through the use of household economy analysis(HEA) Baseline and Response Analysis information
• Lead the production and/or contribute to the development and dissemination of policy briefs/IEC fact sheets and county profiles to get Education, especially Breadth of Skills and other field office projects, including MNH and CP, on the policy agenda at the county levels.
• Build systems for research, analysis, and documentation that underpin evidence-based advocacy and influencing at the county level. This will include undertaking audience research and knowledge services mapping to inform communication and advocacy work.

Building Partnerships

• Identify local networks and coalitions and develop sustained partnerships/ alliances that are critical in the dissemination and/or application of research findings and/or learning to influence the policy and practice landscape. This includes representing GPON at strategic forums, networking with strategic CSOs, Head Teachers’ Associations, and other social movement processes that are relevant to GPON’s policy work.
• Support area offices to build partnerships with communities and programme beneficiaries in establishing accountability mechanisms, capacity building, and knowledge management.
• Support the capacity building of programme and field staff and key partners on advocacy through training, sharing best practices, and supporting learning and knowledge management.

Programme Development & Management

• Participate in proposal development processes, in particular liaising with relevant Technical Specialists and programme staff to ensure that advocacy approaches are integrated within and contribute to the achievement of project results and objectives, and that sufficient funds are budgeted for implementation.
• Participate in GPON programme meetings and related sessions to draw out research-based advocacy messages in programmes.  Keep abreast of current research, national and donor policies, and debates in Kenya, relevant to advocacy for Education.
• In collaboration with programme managers, monitor and evaluate child survival, development & protection communication and advocacy activities within budgets, ensuring that indicators and methods are in place to allow evaluation of the achievements and develop regular progress reports. Post holder will also contribute heavily to the design, development, implementation, and dissemination of any Education, H&N, CP, and DRM-related research.

Safeguarding

• Ensure that the gender component of the project complies with GPON’s safeguarding policies 
• Work with the project safeguarding officer to ensure that all gender and inclusion activities have a safeguarding risk assessment and mitigation measure in place 

Behaviours (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving, and role modelling GPON values.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance, and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development, and encourages their team to do the same.
• Widely shares their personal vision for GPON, engages and motivates others.
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships with their team, colleagues, Members, and external partners and supporters.
• Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• An academic qualification directly related to Political Science, Governance, International development, or Community development.
• At least 3 years of experience in advocacy work, as well as contributing to the development and implementation of advocacy strategies. Experience working within the education sector is an added advantage.
• Highly knowledgeable on Child Rights Governance, including Public Investment in Children
• An understanding of policy and legislative development processes at both national and county levels.
• Superior written communication skills, including the ability to translate complex arguments into accessible English for a non-specialist audience, and the ability to write articles that would be published in the mainstream press.
• Knowledge of the devolution processes and their impact on the CP and EIE sector.
• Excellent verbal communication skills, appropriate for high-level external representation (for example, lobbying county governors, ministers)
• Experience in developing advocacy strategies, knowledge, and understanding of a range of advocacy techniques
• Experience of effective teamwork and outstanding inter-personal communication skills
• Experience in coalition building and working with civil society actors to deliver change
• Fluency in spoken and written English and Hausa
• Commitment to GPON’s mission and values

The position is for Nigerian nationals only, and qualified female candidates based in Kastina are encouraged to apply.