Deadline:  24 July, 2024

Location: West Africa

Tearfund is seeking to fill the position of Regional Advocacy Advisor, West Africa.

Tearfund is a Christian organisation partnering with the local church wherever possible to see change in the lives of those in greatest economic need.

Responsibilities

• Work with countries to develop and review all the country’s strategies to ensure that advocacy is prioritised, implemented and measured in line with Tearfund corporate strategy and good practice
• Work with countries to conduct stakeholder analyses and develop a stakeholder engagement plan for the achievement of the countries’ strategies
• Develop a regional advocacy strategy as an enabler for the achievement of country strategy outcomes
• Explore and implement inter-regional advocacy initiatives for West Africa/ECA/SEA and Pan-African collaboration on campaigns and engaging the African Union (AU)
• Contribute to the proposal development processes in the regions by providing technical input and quality assurance during the assessment and design processes
• Contribute to fundraising processes that emerge from Tearfund’s strategic and action plans
• Contribute to IT systems development that will grow the effectiveness of Tearfund’s advocacy and movement building
• Conduct desk-based research on policy and practice issues in the region
• Engage local movements, community groups and partners on priority issues on an ongoing basis in order to allow a bottom up setting of the policy and practice agenda
• Identify, leverage, monitor, and maintain an overview of needs and opportunities for advocacy issues
• Identify advocacy channels to be used for the achievement of advocacy objectives
• Develop, carry out, and monitor advocacy strategies for agreed priority themes
• Monitor the public policy, development and humanitarian environment across the region, providing briefing papers, and analysis, and recommending appropriate public policy responses
• Document, record and disseminate lessons learnt from advocacy initiatives implemented by staff, partners, and other organisations, and share this learning with staff across Tearfund
• Represent Tearfund in external advocacy engagements and distil learning from the engagements to the country teams
• Manage key relationships with churches and decision makers
• Work with the DMEAL teams in the countries and at the region to mine data to inform advocacy efforts
• Work with the regional thematic and communication staff to develop advocacy products and curate content for advocacy messaging
• In close collaboration with the Regional Communication Officer, advise on any media work or campaigns that include policy messages and have advocacy objectives
• Help develop the voices of activists and church leaders, providing them with platforms to influence policy and practices
• Discern and communicate narratives, with local allies and partners, that can unite action and influence thinking in the public square
• Represent Tearfund at relevant interagency technical and coordination network

Requirements

• Graduate degree or equivalent, preferably related to Development or Humanitarian Studies, Advocacy, Policy or International Relations
• Experience in liaising with policy-making organisations
• Good knowledge of movement building
• Good understanding of development issues and international relations
• Understanding of the role of public policy in development
• Understanding of policy reforms in the African French-speaking countries
• Eight years, minimum, of proven knowledge and experience in advocacy, this could be within the NGO sector, government, or churches
• Experience in policy knowledge and research
• Experience in writing reports and policy briefings
• Experience in strategy plans and formulation
• Experience working in coalitions
• Strong networking skills
• English proficiency
• Ability to write reports and policy briefs
• Ability to research and analyse information
• Ability to be flexible and to cope with changing priorities and plans
• Ability to articulate issues using evidence compellingly
• People developer and motivator
• Humanitarian motivation
• Emotionally and spiritually mature
• Influential, diplomatic, assertive, has tact and determined
• Willingness to travel and live in basic and potentially insecure conditions
• Concern for the poor and commitment to social justice
• Ability to lead group times of biblical reflection, worship and prayer
• Strong team player
• Understanding and sensitivity to cross-cultural issues
• Flexible and adaptable to ever-changing environments

To apply or for more information, click here.

Photo source: Tearfund UK