Policy Influencing Communications Specialist World Vision International (WVI)

With over 70 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 34,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Key Responsibilities:

Technical

• Engage relevant policymakers such as the Parliamentary Committee on Land & the Environment on various policy reviews, amendments, etc. that enshrine Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR)
• Organize & support events/ Forums/ Symposiums for advocacy & Influencing Land & Environmental issues, focusing on FMNR.
• Ensure World Vision Zambia participates in National Environmental events such as World Environmental Day (WED), Conferences, etc., to advocate for FMNR.
• Engage with consultants & researchers to review current policies/ regulations to identify gaps for amendments/formulation of new policies.
• Build the Capacity of staff and key stakeholders, including Community Forest Management Groups (CFMGs) in Citizen Voice & Action (CVA), towards sustainable management of the landscapes and the environment.
• Support Participatory Community monitoring of the environment, budgetary allocation & expenditure at the local level, and giving feedback (bottom-up advocacy/influencing)
•  Together with other stakeholders, lobby government to increase the number of forest officers and budgetary allocation in the Ministry of Green Economy & Environment to protect communal forests.
• Ensure that the information, education, and communication (IEC) materials are in place for effective implementation, including developing policy briefs for advocacy & influencing.

Management

• support planning of advocacy & influencing activities in the annual, quarterly, and monthly plans
• Conduct quarterly reviews with all project implementing sites on influencing activities to monitor progress towards achieving set objectives.
• Regularly attend National Land & Environmental Technical working group meetings and function as spaces for influencing.
• Facilitate advocacy / influencing pieces of training in  FMNR and other land restoration related for project partners, technical program staff, and other stakeholders to ensure effective implementation.
• Support staff orientation and participate in building the capacity of technical staff through coaching and mentoring for increased/enhanced competency
• Integrate Policy & Influencing into activity implementation and ensure gender inclusiveness and participation of youths in the project.

Planning and Budgeting

• Participate in budgeting for all project advocacy activities and monitor all financial expenditures on related budget lines
• Coordinate preparation of annual and quarterly plans with all other project team staff.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Conduct monitoring and supervisory visits to all project sites regularly i
• n liaison with the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist to capture relevant data for advocacy and influencing.
• Work closely with M&E to conduct quarterly Data Quality Assurance (DQA)   and document best practices and lessons learned from project interventions.
• Support the process of documenting best practices and lessons learned in liaison with the M&E Specialist to produce policy briefs
• Ensure support assessments and evaluative studies are carried out by the project to bring out issues for advocacy and Influencing

Other Responsibilities

• Show spiritual maturity, integrity, and energetic personality, through attendance of daily devotions and other spiritual nurture programmes.
• Supervision of quality implementation and prudent financial management in project sites and undertake performance management
• Carry out other activities as may be assigned by the supervisor

Qualifications

• Degree in Communication & Advocacy, Development Studies, Agriculture Sciences, Natural Resources Management, Forestry with a minimum of 7 years experience in the relevant field
• A Master’s Degree in Communications & Advocacy, Development Studies, Agriculture Sciences, Natural Resources Management, Forestry or its equivalent is an added advantage with a minimum 2 years of experience
• Experience in Program Management in a complex, international organization preferably NGO context
• Must have Strong Advocacy / Influencing skills with practical experience in leading advocacy works on project activities.
• Knowledge and understanding of World Vision operations would be an added advantage,
• Experience in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and report writing essential
• Must have excellent communications, interpersonal, analytical, decision making, conflict management, negotiation, networking, liaison, and donor engagement skills
• Ability to work in a cross-cultural environment and must be a mature Christian.
• Computer literate in Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Capacity to function well in a team and contribute effectively to team efforts.

Applicant Types Accepted:

Local Applicants Only