Job Title: Manager, Policy and Advocacy
Hiring Organization: Village Reach
Location – Locality: Nairobi
Location – Region: Kenya
Industry: Non Profit
Job Type: Full Time
Salary: KES
Date Posted: 07/14/2024
About
VillageReach
VillageReach
transforms health care delivery to reach everyone. We are driven by a vision of
a world where each person has the health care needed to thrive. VillageReach’s
goal is to reduce inequities in access to quality primary health care for 350
million people by 2030. We work with governments, the private sector, partners
and communities to build responsive primary health care systems that deliver
health products, information and services to the most under-reached. As a
locally driven and globally connected organization, VillageReach has offices in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and the United
States.
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
- 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.
