Summary

The Manager, Policy and Advocacy will work with the Director, on developing VillageReach’s policy and advocacy agenda, mainly focusing on responsive primary health care, immunization and tech-enabled primary health care. The Manager, Policy and Advocacy, will provide policy analysis and keep abreast of innovative analysis across the suite of issues to support VillageReach’s policy and advocacy agenda. Specifically, they will undertake research and policy analysis, identify policy and advocacy opportunities, and prepare documents on critical policy issues. The position reports to the Director, Policy and Advocacy. This position can be located in Kenya, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda.   

Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

Policy Research and Analysis (40%): Undertake policy thinking and research on responsive primary health care, immunization and tech-enabled primary health care, including identifying policy objectives and critical advocacy and campaign opportunities.

Develop high-quality policy and research outputs, sometimes at short notice, that are focused on winning arguments to effect change and that can be used by senior leadership and colleagues across the organization, using VillageReach generated data and third-party data.

Influence Policy-Makers(25%): Engage and build relationships with policy-makers at all levels to advance policy priorities that improve health outcomes, ensuring the policy priorities align with country and global priorities such as SDGs and UHC.

Produce documents on key policy issues and identify forward-looking trends for – position papers, blogs, talking points, and briefings for senior leadership, senior policymakers and principals.

Engage with VillageReach’s communications team to develop, plan and deliver organization-wide policy campaigns.

Country and Program Support (15%): Provide support to country offices and the global team to identify key policy and advocacy opportunities and coordinate policy guidance on driving VillageReach’s core policy and advocacy priorities.

Build Partnerships (10%): Forge partnerships with a range of like-minded organizations, standard- setting bodies, research and policy experts, and other stakeholders to leverage knowledge-generation activities and advocacy opportunities to influence policy-makers.

Represent VillageReach in external policy and advocacy meetings and engagements related to their portfolio, including high-profile meetings as appropriate.

Business Development (10%): Working with the Director, identify opportunities to engage funders for build a healthy pipeline of funding opportunities for the policy and advocacy team. This includes working with programs and countries in identifying policy and advocacy opportunities in different business development opportunities.

Build and maintain positive and productive relationships with key stakeholders.

Other duties, responsibilities, and activities as assigned by the supervisor or the designee.

Competencies:

The following competencies reflect what is expected of all VillageReach employees; including examples of how one might demonstrate each of these competencies in one’s role.

Personal Motivation and Drive: Is self-directed in one’s approach to work, but asks for help when needed; holds oneself accountable; undertakes self-development activities; seeks to build and master new skills; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities within the organization

Collaboration & Effective Communication: Establishes and maintains effective relations with coworkers, partners & stakeholders and external parties; works collaboratively with others to accomplish organizational and team goals and objectives; works actively to resolve conflicts; expresses ideas and thoughts effectively; selects and uses appropriate communication methods and maintains meaningful communication with virtual coworkers and other parties to keep them informed

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: Takes personal responsibility for and supports others across the organization in creating and sustaining a diverse work environment where individuals are welcomed, valued, respected and supported; personally committed to attaining cultural competency including self-awareness of one’s own attitudes about culture and cross-cultural interactions; exhibits the willingness and ability to engage openly and respectfully around issues of race, colonialism, identity and culture; upholds equity in access to sharing of information, ideas, and opportunities throughout VillageReach

Commitment to Excellence: Produces a high output of work, both in terms of quality and quantity; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; monitors work to ensure quality; has a personal commitment to the mission of VillageReach

Solution Orientation & Innovation: Focuses on results and desired outcomes and how to best achieve them; gets the job done; sees opportunities for creative problem-solving while staying within the parameters of good practice; sees old problems in new ways and has novel approaches to solving those problems; contributes original and/or resourceful ideas to their area of responsibility; is able to consider and articulate risks and consequences of proposed innovations and factor these into decision-making

Requirements

REQUIREMENTS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This position has no supervisory responsibilities, but this might change in the future and may include supervision of interns from time to time. Supervisory responsibilities will be carried out in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws.  Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; monitoring performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; and addressing complaints and resolving problems.

Education & Experience:

Master’s degree or equivalent experience in public policy, public health or any development-related field with 5-7 years of direct work experience.

Significant research, policy analysis and policy advisory work in public health particularly in Africa

Significant experience of working on development policy in an NGO, think tank or government agency.

Experience of developing and overseeing the implementation of strategy

A demonstrable understanding of the links between advocacy, campaigns, policy-making, legislation, and implementation of programs.

Excellent research, writing, and analytical skills with the ability to synthesize complex policy documents and translate these for a wider audience.

Superb professionalism and diplomacy; ability to interact with high-level individuals internally and externally.

Entrepreneurial spirit; does not mind unstructured and sometimes unpredictable environments.

Quick turnaround research skills-must have the ability to seek out key facts and statistics that help explain complicated policy topics to broad audience.

Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, with shifting priorities and occasional heavy workloads.

Ability to work as part of a global team.

Other Qualifications:

Comply with VillageReach’s COVID-19 vaccination policy which requires full vaccination for in-person work or travel.

Established cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural and linguistically diverse groups.

Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working in rural, underserved and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low-income country a plus.

Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel) and comfortable in a fast-paced technical environment.

Oral and written English fluency is essential.