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About Us
The mission of the Advocacy Accelerator (AAC) is to strengthen advocacy capacity, alignment, and impact in Africa (Anglophone and Francophone West & Central Africa) by providing space, online and in-person, for advocates, and the networks that sustain them, to share evidence, approaches, and expertise. Its vision is ‘a world where strong, coordinated country-based advocacy is a driving force for improvements in health and development’. The AAC aims to disrupt traditional models of development work and build an inclusive advocacy ecosystem that values peer-to-peer learning and local knowledge from the African experience. The AAC is consciously Africa-centric, leveraging technology to build vibrant advocacy communities across the continent. As part of its three-year strategy (2019 – 2021), the AAC aims at strengthening the advocacy ecosystem with a focus on advocates working in health and development, technical assistance providers and donors.
The core service offering is connecting advocates, technical assistance providers, donors (ATADS) and other stakeholders in the Anglophone and Francophone advocacy ecosystem to spaces where they can access knowledge, tackle challenges, co-design solutions, and contribute and share high-quality, field-tested resources for more impactful advocacy. As an inclusive organisation, the AAC seeks to go beyond supporting existing advocacy efforts to also provide services and amplify the voices of marginalised groups – lesbian, gay, and transgender groups, young people, the elderly and persons with disabilities to name a few. The organisation also looks at sector strengthening and approaches for example feminist advocacy and contributes to advocacy coalitions and partnerships strengthening. It aims to leverage technology to reach all the countries with a demonstrated need for its services and support while endeavoring to develop and nurture partnerships with like-minded organisations and individuals in priority countries during the three-year period.
We are seeking a Francophone West & Central Africa Project Officer Staff Consultant to provide project management and implementation support by implementing, supporting and strengthening the Content, Facilitation & Training (CFT) team and the Advocacy Communications (AC) teams. The AAC is a bilingual organisation. This role requires excellent language skills in both French and English.
The AAC is a unique entity, utilising the most effective, modern and out of the box thinking to meet its mandate. The success of the AAC depends on strong technical expertise and partnerships to ensure that the organisation has access to key competencies taking advantage of within limited resources. Accordingly, the AAC utilises a remote model to ensure a physical presence in both Anglophone and Francophone West & Central Africa (FWCA).
Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Advocacy Communications and Content, Facilitation & Training Leads, the staff consultant will provide:
- Project Management, Implementation and Representation of the CFT and AC team functions, internally and externally.
- Project Reports Development for smaller projects and for sections of larger more complex projects.
- Representation and Business Development of the AAC in FWCA through building a network of contacts and contribution to AAC sustainability by bringing in new projects.
- Contribution to applied Research and Evaluation
Other support: The consultant will provide any other programme or project support as needed and requested by the AC and CFT Lead.
Deliverables
The key deliverables under this consultancy include:
Content, Facilitation & Training
Curriculum Testing and Refinement.
- Support in the testing and refinement of advocacy-related educational and training curricula
- Review existing training materials/ curriculum and where applicable incorporate feedback from trainings into final curriculum
- Assists in collecting and analysing data.
- Monitor findings from evaluation data and continue to refine the curriculum (as needed).
- Conduct research and consult with key collaborators for curriculum development and refinement processes.
Facilitation.
- Provide technical support to a cadre of high-quality health and development advocates
- Assist in the development, delivery of content and support the implementation of training programmes
- Support in the establishment of a mentoring system and provide mentoring support and coaching services to course participants and as need arises
- Facilitate interaction and engagement in in-person and remote/ on-line training
- Implement roll-out strategy for the remote trainings as per CFT plans
- Provide feedback on documents submitted on the peer engagement platform
- Motivate participants to engage with the content and one another on the learning platform
Technical Assistance.
- Assist in providing advocacy strategy development support to select Partners
- Provide support, mentor and support partners doing the remote trainings.
- Support and coordinate set up of webinars and other on-line / in-person engagements as per CFT plans.
Monitoring and Learning
- Compile qualitative and quantitative learnings from learners for monitoring and evaluation.
- Facilitate learning opportunities and enable adaptive decision making based on lessons learned from the curriculum adoption processes.
Advocacy Communications
- To provide Project Management to develop, articulate and implement the AAC AC work plan.
- Implementation, adaptation & impact analysis by providing ongoing support to build upon the AC function through research on digital strategies and communities of practice and to implement the tools and processes to increase visibility of the AAC using both traditional and social media (The consultant will ensure a focus not only on implementation, but also adaptation to continue to accelerate community growth and foster greater online engagement).
- Website redesign and platform development by supporting the investigative agenda to continuously improve the AC platforms including for Francophone West & Central Africa.
- To collaborate with the KMC team to ensure continuity and flow between website, social media platforms and all AC Linking & Learning Platforms. Provide recommendations and review of website development materials as necessary and attend meetings as appropriate.
General
- Strategy Engagement
- Support the CFT and AC team Leads in various strategy engagement discussion as may be required. Work with the CFT team Lead to align content and training strategies.
- Administrative support
- Coordinate and organise events/ meetings and/ or logistical arrangements as need arises.
- Ensure day to day support to CFT and AC operations including and not limited to planning and organising events
- Ensuring the data base of FWCA ATADS is well organised
- Support the formulation and/ or review of existing standard operating plans and guidelines that are relevant to the AC and CFT portfolio
The Deliverables will be reviewed and certified as satisfactory by the Advocacy Communications and Content, Facilitation & Training Leads.
Qualifications and Experience
- Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Journalism, Communications, Public Health, Education, Development or other related field with preferred 2 additional years of experience in curriculum development.
- At least 5 years of experience working in advocacy at global, regional and country level.
- Technical capacity and understanding of advocacy and/or advocacy capacity strengthening in Francophone West Africa.
- At least 5 years’ experience in exemplary practice in curriculum, adult education instruction, and organisation and/or any equivalent combination of training and experience.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience as a full time communications, marketing, public relations or related fields with demonstrated success.
- Demonstrated experience developing and deploying partnerships with diverse stakeholders.
Competences and Skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication in French and English.
- Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in strategic communications for civil society organisations and/ or non-profit or community-based organisations.
- Ability to evaluate the effectiveness of existing curricula and make recommendations for improvement.
- Experience working on digital strategies.
- Experience is building online and in person communities in Africa.
- Experience in the provision of online platforms for diverse audiences in Africa.
- Ability to communicate diplomatically and professionally with a wide variety of constituencies.
- Strong ability to juggle competing time sensitive priorities.
- High degree of diplomacy.
- Problem solving and flexibility.
- Strong decision-making skills.
- Ability to prioritise and multi-task.
- Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with groups and individuals with diverse and competing interests or diverse perspectives.
- Ability to compare and/or judge the readily observable, functional, structural or composite characteristics (whether similar or divergent from obvious standards) of data, people or things.
- Ability to work independently.
Location and Team Arrangements
The Francophone West & Central Africa Project Officer Staff Consultant will be part of the Advocacy Accelerator team. The Advocacy Accelerator has physical offices in Nairobi Kenya. The consultant will work remotely.
The consultant will have regular contact with the rest of the Accelerator team and report directly to the Advocacy Communications and Content, Facilitation & Training Leads. The successful applicant will receive the necessary training (online) on her/his functions and ongoing support as needed from the Advocacy Communications and Content, Facilitation & Training Leads,
Consultancy Agreement and Remuneration
The Advocacy Accelerator works with all consultants on the basis of a Consultancy Agreement (not an employment contract). The Consultant is responsible for all taxes, benefits and other social insurance costs pertaining to the Consultancy Agreement.
The successful applicant will start as soon as possible. The initial Consultancy Agreement will be for the remainder of 2020, with a review period after three months. The Agreement will be renewed in 2021, subject to performance and available funds.
Application Process
We invite applications to be submitted to the Executive Assistant (Ms. Jane Ndung’u) at [email protected]. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled.
Applications must include the following:
- A cover letter;
- A curriculum vitae; and
- Contact details of at least two referees willing to be
Applications must be submitted in English. Only complete applications will be considered.
Diversity & Inclusion
Duly note that the Advocacy Accelerator is an equal opportunity employer. The Advocacy Accelerator has a commitment to inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective, and experience. We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, service providers, partners and those we work with.