Policy Advocacy Coordinator

Job Description

Zimbabwe Network of Early Childhood Development Actors (ZINECDA) in partnership with the National ECD Coalition of Lesotho (NECDOL), and the Malawi ECD Coalition are implementing a transnational project on strengthening the capacity of ECD coalitions for improved ECDE legislation, policies and measures in Southern Africa (TRANAC). The ZINECDA Alliance seeks the services of a Policy Advocacy Coordinator to implement an ECDE regional advocacy project in Southern Africa. The Policy Advocacy Coordinator will report to the National Coordinator. S/He will possess the following skills and competencies:

• Communication – speaks, writes and listens well;
• Problem-solving;
• Interpersonal;
• Strategic thinking;
• Report writing;
• Policy advocacy;
• Team building;
• Facilitation;
• Strategic planning.

The following are some of the tasks required by the position

Policy advocacy

• Proven experience in developing and implementing strategies in policy advocacy;
• Develops, plans, implement / oversee, and coordinate policy advocacy strategies and programs at national and SADC regional levels on early childhood development;
• Develop and implement national and regional policy advocacy strategy plan;
• Identify strategic partners and build national and regional policy advocacy teams for inclusion of ECD policies and frameworks in national and regional decision-making spaces;
• Build the capacity of partners, teams and employees in policy advocacy processes for ECD;
• Oversee and draw terms of reference for ECD policy advocacy monitoring, learning and evaluation;
• Oversee media strategy development and implementation.

Projects planning, coordination and reporting

• Plan, coordinate and oversee all ECD policy advocacy programs, evaluation and reporting;
• Produce draft narrative quarter, annual and projects / institutional policy advocacy, membership and networking reports;
• Develop and produce planning, coordination and reporting frameworks for projects;
• Develop and implement programming systems and structures for efficient and effective management of ECD policy advocacy, capacity building, networking and knowledge generation;
• Monitors and approves programming budgets.

Knowledge generation and networking

• Identify research gaps, trends and policy analyses;
• Design research and evaluation studies;
• Develop terms of reference, recruit, implement and review research studies;
• Facilitate validation and sharing of research.

Resource mobilization

• Identify gaps and niche ideas for proposal development and resource mobilization;
• Develop fundable proposals for all programming projects;
• Build a diversified programming funding portfolio.

People management

• Recruit, mentor, motivate and capacity build an efficient and effective programming team;
• Develop individual and team key performance / results areas for the programs;
• Appraise programming staff performance quarterly and annually.

Relationship building

• Assist in forging memorandum of understanding with various government, intergovernmental and civil society organisations for ECD policy advocacy, capacity building, networking and research;
• Represent ZINECDA on programming issues at national, regional and as assigned by the National Coordinator.

Qualifications and experience

• Possess bachelor’s and master’s degrees in any of the following combinations: public policy analysis, international relations, education especially in early childhood development (ECD), strategic management, law, developmental studies;
• Have knowledge of influencing governments and international government organisations;
• Have experience of or worked in government or in international NGO environment;
• Has excellent protocol, writing and communication skills at high level;
• Possess reporting, research skills and coordination;
• Is articulate in facilitation and presentation;
• Is able to mentor, train, motivate and coordinate other people in a unit nationally and regionally;
• Is a proactive thinker who identifies, prevents and solves challenges before they manifest;
• Is able to write winning proposals and mobilise resources for the unit and organization;
• Can work without much supervision.

To apply

All applications should be sent to ZINECDA by the 11th of February 2022 on the following email address [email protected]

Hard copies will not be accepted.