Policy Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

Position Summary

• The Policy Manager will support the execution of IPA’s evidence-based policy and practice impact and influence strategy, working with a portfolio of countries in West Africa. He/she will work closely with the global policy team, country office management, and policy staff in our offices in West Africa to identify, cultivate, and support strategic policy and practice opportunities that show promise in improving lives at scale. The strategic goals of the Policy Manager will be to work with colleagues to equip partners to use evidence in policy making and program design and pursue scale-up opportunities of promising programs; develop embedded evidence labs with Ministry partners; build strategic partner relationships; and host/manage policy events. The Policy Manager will write policy communications materials to inform policy making and program design and will also work closely with the policy team to support the development of funding opportunities to resource strategic policy projects and initiatives across IPA. This position reports to an Associate Director of Policy.

Responsibilities

Policy Strategy and Project Management Support

• Support a portfolio of country and sectoral policy teams to identify, cultivate, and manage high impact policy opportunities
• Combine insights from disparate areas of research into policy lessons for decision-makers who want to apply research to their policies and programs.
• Develop strategic tools to equip IPA staff and partners to use evidence in decision-making
• Build IPA staff capacity to share evidence strategically and build strategic partnerships through: developing and delivering focused training on policy skills; supporting teams to understand and use the policy Minimum Must Dos; building knowledge across teams on how to build a policy engagement strategy; and other policy tools
• Collaborate extensively across programmatic and functional teams at IPA to deliver on our policy strategy and share lessons across teams and contexts

Business Development, Grant Coordination, and Project Management Support

• Proactively identify policy fundraising and policy-relevant business development opportunities, and lead the pursuit of these opportunities in collaboration with global and country office-based staff
• Coordinate grant reporting and support deliverable management for a handful of global policy grants

Research Dissemination and Communicating Impact

• Provide guidance & proactive support to country policy & management teams in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables
• Support virtual and/or in-person events with coordination, planning, and presentation drafting and support
• Write original policy communications publications and materials to communicate IPA’s policy lessons to internal and external stakeholders. This may include writing and/or ghost writing original blog posts, policy briefs, website content, and other materials communicating IPA’s policy impact and strategy to internal and external stakeholders

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

• Conduct and publish cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA) for strategic projects
• Conduct cost-effectiveness evidence reviews and comparative analyses to inform decision-making
• Contribute to blog posts, website content, and other materials communicating about IPA’s CEA work to internal and external stakeholders

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field strongly preferred. Will accept additional experience in place of master’s
• 5+ years of relevant experience analyzing and communicating complex research results to various audiences, including at least 1 year
• of experience working closely with large NGOs or governments, preferably in a developing country context
• Knowledge of and demonstrated experience in the use of rigorous evidence for international development policy required
• Exceptional ability to understand academic research studies and analyze bodies of research
• Expertise in leading teams to draw policy lessons from these and communicating them to various audiences
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including clear, precise, non-technical written and presentation skills; requires a strong written “voice” and ability to write in various voices as needed as well as effective spoken communication and presentation style