Job Opportunity at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Department: Programs
Reports To: Sustainability Director
Job Level: E-1

Project Background
Initiated in September 2014, The Comprehensive, Coordinated Care for Children Project (4Children) is a five-year USAID-funded consortium of organizations led by Catholic Relief Services with partners Intra Health, Maestral, Pact, Plan and West at. 4Children designed to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for OVC affected by HIV and AIDS and other adversities. 4Children draws on global evidence, which illustrates that HIV and other adversities are best prevented and addressed when families and children have access to both high quality health and social welfare services. 
4Children helps countries to identify practical and appropriate policies, programs and services that reduce the risk of HIV and maltreatment and promote child well-being. It promotes approaches that address the unique needs of each child and family, including strengthening frontline social service workforce and case management systems.
The United States Government (USG) has made a significant investment in the prevention and response to HIV and AIDS in Nigeria over the past decade. Infiscal year 2015, more than 800,000 children benefited from PEPFAR-supported services. Currently, PEPFAR-funded OVC programming is occurring across the country in approximately 180 LGAs. Under PEPFAR3.0, approaches will focus on the highest impact interventions in key geographic areas where data demonstrate the highest prevalence of HIV. In Nigeria, this has resulted in the identification of32 LGAs where facilities report the highest prevalence of HIV. These LGAs, also referred to as “scale up” LGAs, will be the focus of intense PEPFAR-funded interventions aimed at significantly decreasing the rate of new HIV infections and successfully treating existing cases and controlling the spread of the disease.

Future interventions will have an increased focus on linking OVC and their care givers to HIV testing and counseling (HTC) and treatment and outreach to adolescent girls to prevent new HIV infections. Through this new focus, it is anticipated that 300,000OVC will be graduation or transitioned from current programming by end of fiscal year (FY) 2016 and an additional 600,000 OVC by end FY 2017.

To achieve these targets, 4Children will implement a two-year project focused on the provision of technical assistance to PEPFAR OVC Implementing Partners, Government of Nigeria entities and Networks to graduate and transition OVC households and children from care and support. To support these efforts, the project will strengthen programming around sustainability planning, case management and referral of OVC and vulnerable households to health facilities, household economic strengthening activities parenting, and youth/adolescent girl programming, as well as supporting the development of a HIV-sensitive social service system.

Job Summary

• The Advocacy Technical Advisor will liaise with and technical experts on issues related to advocacy, policy analysis and the development of an investment case in a sustained OVC-response, including HIV-sensitive social service systems at National, State and LGA levels.
• This information will be used to support the PEPFAR OVC Implementing Partners (IPs) and their collaborating CSO/CBOs and relevant OVC networks to develop and implement a joint advocacy agenda and strategy to increase Government of Nigeria (GON) commitment towards a sustained OVC-response and a HIV-sensitive social service system.
• S/he will work closely with short term technical assistance providers and PEFPAR OVC IPs to development a joint advocacy agenda and strategy, ensuring that advocacy messages are clear, evidence-informed whenever possible, and designed according to the specific needs, utilizing contextually appropriate language and delivery methods for the intended audience.
• The job holder will play a key role in ensuring that the experience and evidence created by the PEPFAR OVC IPs, CSO/CBOs and OVC networks is translated into advocacy evidence and tools to engage, convince and foster better understanding and eventual ownership by other actors such as government, academia and private sector to sustain the Nigerian OVC response and HIV-sensitive social service system.

Specific Responsibilities

• Explore opportunities and strengthen public financing mechanism of Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to secure investment for HIV-sensitive social service system.
• Strengthen the leadership capacity of SMWASD and other relevant GON entities to foster greater intragovernmental collaboration to develop child-sensitive budgets that support the OVC-response and a HIV-sensitive social service system aligned with Nigerian frameworks and policies in collaboration with the Government System Strengthening Technical Advisor and Zonal State Coordinators.
• Support PEPFAR OVC IPs to carry out assessments and use the results of this (or previous) assessments to develop, implement and track progress towards supporting HIV and child sensitive budgeting at the State/LGA levels.
• Strengthen the capacity CSO/CBOs and networks to advocate for a sustained OVC-response and a HIV-sensitive social service system; develop measures and tools to hold stakeholders accountable to commitments.
• Review PEPFAR OVC IPs, Zonal or State costed sustainability plans in view of identifying advocacy-related activities to inform policy-level advocacy interventions.
• Proactively identify and develop external relationships with private INGOs, private organizations, government agencies, legislatives and executive arm of Government and UN agencies to meet project advocacy objectives
• Work with PEPFAR OVC IPs/CSOs/CBOs/networks to develop, implement and monitor an evidence-informed joint advocacy agenda, strategies and tactics to increase GON ownership and commitment towards a sustained OVC-response and a HIV-sensitive social service system.
• Ensure high quality delivery of advocacy-related events, activities and communications necessary to deliver on project result on increased public and private social financing of HIV-sensitive social service system (e.g. workshops, position papers, briefings, consultations, roundtables, online media
• Leverage data from other 4Children Nigeria Technical Advisors, MEAL Manager and PEPFAR OVC IPs, CSO/CBOs and networks to inform the design and implementation of the joint advocacy strategy.
• Research the local private sector landscape, including local and international companies, investors, donors, institutions, and government entities to identify opportunities for partnership in support of social service system investment;
• Conduct structured outreach to potential private sector partners aimed at building partnerships to promote health service delivery and health systems strengthening, including OVC financing and investment;
• Support the selection and structuring of targeted public-private partnerships to ensure they have clearly-defined, mutually-beneficial goals that are aligned with the project’s strategic objectives;
• Provide high-quality written technical inputs to the project team’s strategies involving private sector outreach and the development of partnerships to promote sustainable OVC response.
• Maintain a database of potential private sector partners, including key points discussed at meetings to track and monitor partnership progress;
• Help develop a system for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting the effectiveness of these partnerships, in collaboration with project MEAL team;
• Secure a strong funding stream from private-sector engagement for OVC response to be implemented by community-level organizations in Nigeria.
• Identify and lead all advocacy efforts across project thematic areas

Competencies
The following competencies (behaviors and characteristics) have been identified as key to success in the job. Successful candidates are expected to demonstrate these competencies:

• Judgement - demonstrates balanced and objective judgement based on a thorough understanding of 4Children target audience, project design and objectives. Makes the right decisions, taking account of conflicting views where necessary.
• Analytical Thinking - Able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts, explore and evaluate them systematically. Able to identify causal relationships, and construct frameworks, for problem-solving and/or development.
• Decision Making - Is ready and able to take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the consequences of the decision made.
• Imagination / Creative Thinking - Ability to transform creative ideas/impulses into practical reality. Can look at existing situations and problems in novel ways and come up with creative solutions.
• Planning and Organization - able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritizes and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources requirements.
• Resilience - Can maintain personal effectiveness by managing own emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations. Can demonstrate an approach to work that is characterized by commitment, motivation and energy.
• Influencing and Persuading - Ability to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behavior change.
• Communication - The ability to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information.
• Change Management - Can understand and anticipate the need for change. Builds frameworks to plan and manage the continuous process of change.
• Business Management - able to understand private sector and donor’s imperatives and relationships, appropriately applies investment principles in terms of achieving added value to alternative funding for the HIV-sensitive Orphans and Vulnerable Children Response in Nigeria.
• Managing relationships - Able to build and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people.
• Self-Development - able to identify and apply opportunities for learning and personal development.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):
These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.

• Serves with Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning

Technical Advisor Competencies:
These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each Technical Advisor to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results:

• Sets clear goals and manages toward them
• Collaborates effectively with staff and stakeholders
• Manages financial resources with integrity
• Applies program quality standards to project design and organizational

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Consultants and short-term technical assistance.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: 4Children Core Leadership and Technical Advisors; 4Children Nigeria Technical Staff; CRS Nigeria Programming, Finance, Procurement, and HR/Administration.
• External: Donors, 4Children consortium members, government ministries/institutions at the National, State and LGA levels, UN agencies, other PEPFAR implementers including UGM partners, LOPINS and all other PEPFAR OVC IPs, civil society and faith-based organizations providing OVC services, Child Protection and OVC Networks, research institutions, and relevant private sector entities.

Qualifications

• Advanced university degree, preferably in Communications, Business Development, International Relations/Development, Social Science
• A minimum of 3 years’ experience of influencing the policy and practice of governments and institutions through campaigning, advocacy and/or policy development.
• At least 3 years of relevant work experience with private-sector organizations in Nigeria;
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of Nigerian private sector stakeholders required; familiarity with local private sector actors preferred;
• Advanced technical expertise in advocacy - including planning, tactic selection, policy and political economy analysis, communications, network and coalition-building, etc.
• Experience conducting high-level advocacy including to government, donors and international organizations (e.g., UN agencies).
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to manage complex and sensitive relationships.
• Familiarity with the legislative, planning, budgeting and allocation processes at the LGA, State and Federal levels, particularly as it relates to child-related issues.
• Familiarity with the use of social auditing tools and network analysis in relation to support advocacy agendas a plus.
• Knowledge of GON and PEPFAR programming, process, guidance and frameworks is strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical, negotiation, facilitation/training and mentoring skills.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills in English.
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook as well as popular social media platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

Travel:

• The Advocacy Technical Advisor will be expected to travel within Nigeria and potentially outside of Nigeria to attend conference, workshops or other activities related to the project.

Disclaimer:

• This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.