TITLE: Regional Civil Society Partnership Technical Advisor

TEAM/PROGRAMME: WCA

LOCATION: A suitable location in the WCA region where there is a SC presence (Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire preferably)

GRADE: INTERNATIONAL 4

CONTRACT LENGTH: 2 years (renewable)

CHILD SAFEGUARDING : Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Regional Civil Society Partnership Technical Advisor will use his/her in-depth contextual understanding of civil society dynamics in West and Central Africa, his/her technical expertise on partnership and localisation and his/her relationship building skills to provide a critical link between the Save the Children’s global ambitions and country level technical work, strengthening our technical offer at the regional level.

The role will contribute to building capacity and fostering networks across country office staff involved in the partner lifecycle, and may lead regional strategic and project initiatives that strengthen localization and the organisational capacity, ownership and agency of partners and civil society organisations.

The role will support the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation tools to demonstrate impact in line with our partnership principles, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners and quality of our programmes. The role provides support to the sourcing of technical assistance for country office in both emergency and development programming. This role includes a strong focus on internal coordination and external representation on priority issues including civil society strengthening, civic space, responsible partnering and localisation. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Regional Programme Quality & Development Director, with a dotted line into Director of WCA/SA of Save the Children Sweden.

Staff reporting to this post: Dotted line management of technical staff in the region.

Budget Responsibilities: None

Role Dimensions: The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including Save the Children members, the SCI central Programme Quality & Impact team, advocacy colleagues, Regional Advisors in other sectors, technical counterparts in other organisations, donors, regional programming partners etc. In particular it is expected to maintain close contact with and accountability to the global Partnerships and Localisation teams.

Context : Humanitarian and development

Scope: Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, DRC

Primary Technical area: Partnerships and Civil Society Strengthening

Secondary Technical area: Localisation

Award funded: 100% (Sida CSO)

Annual Salary Level : $50,000 – $58,000 (offer will be based on experience/internal equity and financial ability).

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

Technical Leadership:

1. Capacity build and mentor Country Office Partnerships and Civil Society staff in the region; identify top talents, capacity gaps and facilitate opportunities for learning.
2. Facilitate Cross-Country Office learning between Partnerships and Civil Society staff in the region; identify creative ways to share learning, best practices and collectively address challenges.
3. Contribute to the global work-stream on Partnerships and ensure that learning from the region informs our global evidence and strategic direction in Partnerships, Civil Society Strengthening and Localisation.
4. Champion diverse partnerships across the Regional Office: work with colleagues across functions to raise the voice and uplift the profile of partners within the region.
5. Monitor regional contextual trends in relation to civic space (with CRG colleagues) to inform regional and global advocacy and programme strategies.
6. Support the implementation of the Localisation agenda at regional and national level.

Programme Quality in Design & Implementation:

1. Support Regional Office and Country Offices in the implementation and monitoring of the key strategic programme ‘Civil society Strengthening”, funded by Sida, to ensure high quality delivery in line with our partnership principles.
2. Support Regional Office and Country Offices with the design and proposal development for key strategic programmes and promote the co-design of programmes with partners.
3. Oversee the design, implementation & monitoring of regional partnerships and civil society strengthening programmes.
4. Support Country Offices to monitor the quality of their partner relationships.
5. Explore innovative opportunities and trends which could be applied in partnership and civil society strengthening programming in the region and support Country Offices to pilot, and document, new or updated tools and guidance.

External Engagement

1. In collaboration with regional New Business Development, contribute to regional strategic partnerships; identify partners and donors to strengthen our partnerships and localisation portfolio in the region, providing partnership brokering support to other regional colleagues as requested

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s Degree in social sciences, development, organisational leadership, international relations, or relevant field. Extensive and substantive relevant practical experience may be considered in lieu of a Master’s Degree.
• Partnership Brokering certification desirable.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• At least 7 years’ experience in the design and implementation of humanitarian and/or development programmes, with at least 4 years’ experience in partnership based programming or community based programming
• Track record of engaging civil society networks, NGOs and government agencies in WCA
• Familiar with organisational development methodologies, partnership principles, partnership brokering, participatory approaches and the localisation agenda
• Demonstrated experience in developing and leveraging partnerships for strategic achievement of organizational goals and mutually beneficial relationships
• Experience in organizational capacity development and significant training, facilitation and capacity building skills
• Demonstrated program design, monitoring and evaluation skills, including co-design with partners
• Experience of strategy development and planning
• Experience of context, capacity and policy analysis, and influencing and advocacy at regional/international level in order to hold duty bearers to account to realise children’s rights
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children
• Skilled at networking and representation in order to promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise and coordinate resources
• Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
• Fluent in English and high level of English writing skills.

KEY COMPETENCIES

Technical competencies:

• Inspires others to embrace the values and principles that underpin partnerships and the localisation agenda
• Leads formal and informal engagement with diverse, strategic partners based on shared, long-term visions
• Promotes the unique role of Save the Children in partnerships to promote the rights of children

Generic Competencies

• Being the Voice of Children: Utilises being part of a global movement to promote change in the policy and public sphere on child related issues
• Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Drives an enabling environment for gender equality and inclusion, and prioritising the most deprived and marginalised children