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Senior Policy Advocacy Manager

Team description

WaterAid Liberia has recently completed its 2023-2028 Country Programme Strategy (CPS) which sets a 5-year building block towards delivering a more influencing-led programme over the strategy period. This new CPS does not only build on progress from previous CPS but also outlines key shifts in strategic focus required for a more catalyzed change to achieve maximum impact from our work in Liberia. Another key focus of the CP strategy is to harness existing partnerships for better results as well as building new partnerships and networking with key sector players including the government of Liberia and donors to ensure implementation of WaterAid Liberia’s Country Programme Strategy.

WaterAid Liberia as expressed in its Country Programme Strategy inspires to maintain a high-level profile in national and international level policy influencing and advocacy. The CPS is focused on WASH Governance and Sustainable Service Delivery in Urban and Rural areas, integrated in the areas of Health and Education. Advocacy for policy influencing and sector strengthening at the national and county levels are two critical essentials of the CPS. The gaps identified in the National Policy on Water, Sanitation & Hygiene are relating to poor institutional arrangements and policies, low sector financing, poor WASH infrastructures, limited sector performance monitoring, poor information management among others.

Job purpose

The Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager is an active member of the Senior Management Team (SMT). The role provides strategic direction on WaterAid Liberia’s overarching policy, influencing and campaigns work by facilitating the deployment of key advocacy tools including policy, research, campaigns, working with the media and lobbying towards contributing to addressing the systemic causes of WASH poverty in Liberia and globally. The position holder will lead the management and coordination of all WaterAid Liberia’s research, advocacy and policy work contained in its three programmes of 1) Universal Access to WASH in Todee District; 2) WASH for Public Health; and 3) WASH Financing, He/She will engage with the WASH sector and support coordination at the highest level in country, WaterAid West Africa and globally towards influencing sector policies and enhancing country-level linkages.

Strategic and Programme Management

• Ensure all WaterAid Liberia interventions and programmatic work aligns with the Global Advocacy strategy.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of strategic documents including advocacy framework, communication and campaign strategies and plans, etc. to support implementation of the Country Programme Strategy (CPS).
• As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), contribute to strategic direction, decision-making, corporate governance and WaterAid brand maintenance in Liberia.
• Ensure that all guiding principles, frameworks and strategies of WaterAid are consistently and coherently practiced throughout the implementation of the programmes.
• Build strong and influential relationships with multisectoral stakeholders through different means to ensure the influencing agenda of WaterAid Liberia is achieved.
• Directly manage and/or support implementation of advocacy and campaign related projects mainly through grant management, project planning, technical support and backstopping, and M&E.
• Lead all advocacy and influencing related activities across all programmes AIMs ensuring that designs, planning, implementation and reporting are intentional done using quality advocacy and influencing standards and approaches.
• Coordinate and provide supervisory and advisory support to stakeholders including GoL, international and local partners to guide strategic influencing work and expressively influence best practices to ensure that the CP is maintaining its sectoral leadership role in Liberia.
• Maintain good coordination and implementation of all research, advocacy and campaign work to strengthen interlinkages between all three programmes to ensure policies and practices are positively influenced.
• Represent the CP at forums and meetings and maintain high-level knowledge and connections with the wider social, political and economic contexts as well as sector-specific issues. Support CP-level planning and interventions as well as national initiatives including advocacy and campaigns aimed at strengthening systems, improving WASH financing and WASH and health integration.

Partnerships and Capacity Building

• Support partnership assessments and partners capacity building efforts on policy influencing and advocacy, and new frameworks, approaches and programme principles (eg System Strengthening, Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA), etc) to enhance the effectiveness of the overall programme.
• Foster partnerships with women-led organizations to accelerate WaterAid’s global agenda on gender equality and ensure gender empowerment and transformation are considered in programme designs and implementation.
• Ensure that the Liberia Country Programme has adequate and effective processes and systems for partnership engagement and management.
• Strengthen collaboration and develop relationships with other agencies working in the WASH and related sectors including networking with donors, other international organisations (International and Local CSOs and their Networks, UN Agencies, etc) at both local and national levels.
• Support civil society’s policy engagement in the WASH sector and work closely with national NGOs, CBOs, and CSO networks to strengthen capacity to effectively engage with national and local policymaking by lobbying and advocating for improvement in sector financing, strategic planning and high sector-level performance.
• Work with local CSO partners and the WASH sector to establish accountability forums and national platforms for advocacy and campaign-related activities.

Support WaterAid localization agenda by ensuring projects and programmes are locally led /driven and globally connected for greater impact, applying key principles of empowerment, participation and ownership.

Fundraising and Financial Management

Conduct regular high-quality analysis of the latest developments in sector policy, budgets and performance, with a focus on the national WASH context to support programme development and fundraising.

• Ensures the design of quality projects and proposals that are in line with the Country Programme’s strategic priorities and responsive to grant funder requirements.
• Ensure compliance with donor requirements by the Advocacy and Communications Team
• Support WaterAid donor reporting processes and ensure quality and timely reports in line with donor and WaterAid standards.
• Work collaboratively with the Fundraising Manager and other relevant staff to develop and sustain donor relationships.

Research, Monitoring and Reporting

• Lead the preparations of technical reports and advocacy documents – learning papers, briefing notes, case studies, position papers- and other advocacy tools for influencing and campaign purposes.
• Lead the CP in conducting informative research by developing research concepts and proposals, undertaking implementation, disseminating findings and facilitating learning in the CP and at sector level.
• Lead research including landscape analysis, scoping study, political-economy analysis (PEA), policy gap analysis, etc to determine the next course of interventions in line with the strategic aims of the CP engagements.
• Support the CP in managing the Programme Planning, Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting System for periodic work planning, performance reviews and learning to be able to track progress and improve programme quality.
• Work effectively with other departments to promote policy-practice linkages, and the culture of learning/knowledge management to consolidate the CPs intervention for greater impact.
• Lead and /or support the development of high-quality mid-year and annual reports of the CP as well as specific donor reports relating to all CP’s programmes with reflections on implementation and impact of programmes.

People and Team Management

• Lead the CP’s Policy and Advocacy team and be responsible for line managing of team members and will also support recruitment, performance management and development of staff in the team in line with the demands of the CP strategy.
• Provide capacity-building support and empower other staff members s to gradually take on major advocacy and influencing responsibilities with the CP.
• Ensure smooth teamwork within and across the different units and management lines within the programmes department while enhancing integration among the programme departments and support functions.
• Encourage and promote empowering and collaborative leadership, effective management, and a culture of openness, innovation and accountability in line with WaterAid’s values.
• Other: Perform any other duties assigned by the Country Director and designated person.

Skills / Abilities / Personal Qualities

• • Strong Management / Leadership skills
  • Coordination and Networking- ability to coordinate all CP’s operations, manage internal relations and network with appropriate partners including government
  • Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.

• Monitoring — Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself and partner organisations to make improvements or take corrective action.

• Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others and maintaining them over time.

• Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

• Active Learning — Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

• Initiative — willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.

• Written and Oral Expression — Communicating information and ideas in writing and speaking so others will easily understand.

• Analytical Thinking — Analysing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems.

• Facilitation/Presentation Skills — Good facilitation of meetings and workshops.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• 4-year University Degree in Social or Political Sciences, WASH, Public Health, Development Studies, Economics.
• Experience in an International Development Organisation.
• Knowledge of WASH and Health Policy issues.
• Minimum of 10 years overall work experience.
• At least 5 years in a senior management position in an international development agency.
• Strong Advocacy, campaigns and research skills.
• Good knowledge of public finance and the national budgeting process.

Desirable

• Knowledge of International Development with emphasis on WASH, Rural Development and/or Health Sector(s)
• Master’s Degree in Related Field.

Specific Knowledge

• Basic understanding of Government & CSO structures/ operations.
• Sector Analysis
• WASH sector of Liberia

Apply

Kindly apply by sending your CV and cover letter to recruitmentwli@wateraid.org by January 15, 2025. The subject line of your email should read “Application – Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager”

Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

WaterAid believes in a fair and transparent recruitment process. It however reserves the right to accept or reject any application.

Please note: to apply for this role you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in Liberia.

No recruitment agencies, please