Advocacy Research and Policy Specialist World Vision Uganda

Enhance World Vision Uganda’s capacity in advocacy, research and policy influence for improved and sustained wellbeing of children as envisaged in the WVU National Office Strategy and Global Strategy- Our Promise. The jobholder will lead strategic level policy analysis, advocacy on policy formulation, adoption and implementation in the different programmes-supported by programme generated data and research evidence. While working closely with relevant internal and external stakeholders, the Specialist will contribute to enhancing World Vision Uganda’s programme development and implementation, utilization of programme generated data, public policy engagements, partnerships and coalition building.

Key Outputs/Responsibilities.
Programme development and implementation through advocacy
Work with the Technical Programme Leads to integrate advocacy in the design of programme strategies and annual work plans
• Collaborate with the Technical Programme Leads and Technical Programme Officers to track and organize advocacy interventions in each Technical Programme and Area Programme
• Generate quarterly and annual advocacy progress reports on national level advocacy and ensure all technical programme semi and annual reports comprehensively entail progress registered in advocacy and policy influence
• Support the grants acquisition team to integrate advocacy in the development of funding concepts and proposals
• Conduct training in policy and budget advocacy for technical staff including the Area programmes.
• Train and provide technical assistance to Programmes on the development and implementation of effective advocacy approaches on policy and programmatic issues
• Collaborate with the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning team to track advocacy outputs, outcomes and overall target reach

Public Policy Engagements and Influence
• Keep track of the national, regional and international legislative and policy agenda including commitments and leverage on emerging opportunities to advance the programmatic advocacy priorities in the different technical programmes
• Undertake periodic national and local level policy context analysis to inform World Vision Uganda’s position while ensuring World Vision remains proactive and responsive to emerging issues in light of the national strategy and Our Promise priorities
• Lead policy and legislative reform initiatives while working closely with policy makers as well as other stakeholders to influence policy change at national level
• Coordinate and support policy advocacy initiatives for the different technical programmes while ensuring the advocacy priorities are advanced as envisaged in the national strategy.
• Generate policy documents including briefs, position statements, motions, talking points and letters to support World Vision advocacy priorities
• Track and document all policy milestones registered including the wins for World Vision Uganda
• Support monitoring and accountability processes for national regional and international policy frameworks such as the UNCRC, UPR, ACRWC, SDGs
Evidence Based Advocacy
• Conduct periodic public policy research in line of the programme focus areas to identify critical gaps in policy development and implementation to inform policy change at the different levels
• Provide oversight for consultant(s) hire including development of the terms of reference for additional expertise to achieve the required data to support advocacy where necessary
• Leverage on evidence generated from programme implementation and evaluations for policy recommendations to support national level engagements
• Working with the relevant functions conduct research and produce advocacy materials including briefs, policy recommendations to support national and regional policy engagements
• Contribute to the developments and documentation of lessons learned best practices and experiences including reflection engagements

Partnership building, Networking and External Engagement
• Facilitate and support sector leads and technical program officers to influence the coalition agendas in the best interest of children through the different coalition processes
• Working in collaboration with Partnership Specialist, Faith and Development Manager and Regional Program Managers ,support processes for establishment and implementation of MoUs with different partners
• Nurture relationships with internal and external stakeholders for improved collaboration, policy influence and sustainability
• Represent World Vision as needed in national working groups and/or coalitions meetings while ensuring coordination of other working groups where WVU is represented by the technical leads
• Strategically position World Vision to lead and/or influence different processes including working groups and /or coalitions
• Coordinate and ensure World Vision events such as launches, dialogues key commemoration days and supporter actions are of quality and contribute to influencing policy change

Qualifications: Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience.
Education
• A University Degree in Development Studies, law, and other related courses in Humanities
• A postgraduate training in a related discipline will be an added advantage.

Experience
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in policy analysis and influence, budget advocacy, stakeholder engagements, including partnership and coalition building at local and national levels.
• Demonstrate ability to mobilize, influence, network and collaborate with relevant national level stakeholders including MDAs, NGOs Faith and Cultural Institutions.
• Experience with planning, coordinating and supporting policy engagements at national and district level
• Experience in project design and management would be an added advantage.

Technical skills
• Research and policy analysis
• Technical writing and documentation
• Strong advocacy and communication skills,
• Strong collaboration and networking skills