Sightsavers implements projects in over 30 countries in Africa and South Asia working to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote the rights of people with disabilities.

Contract: Permanent

Salary: Local Terms and Conditions apply

Job Purpose:

• To provide a link between the Sightsavers’ global advocacy and the advocacy work of country offices in Francophone countries.
• To advise on and support the effective delivery of Sightsavers’ country level advocacy initiatives.
• To lead Sightsavers’ influencing work around implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global, regional and national levels, ensuring that Sightsavers’ work is rooted in the change it wants to see in social inclusion, inclusive education and eye health.
• To manage, support and empower a Global Advocacy Officer within Francophone West Africa, who will work with you to support Sightsavers’ country offices to influence public policy.

Principal Accountabilities:

Lead technical advocacy support for Sightsavers’ country offices within Francophone West Africa, including line management of the Advocacy Officer (35%)

• Provide effective line management to the Advocacy Officer in Francophone West Africa, building their capacity to support country offices with developing and delivering influencing objectives within and outside of donor funded programmes.
• Lead on providing technical support to country offices for the development and implementation of strategic advocacy at the national level, both within and outside of donor funded programmes, to address systemic issues in eye health, universal health coverage (UHC), inclusive education and disability rights.
• Support country offices to develop long-term strategic advocacy plans (5-10 years), which include objectives around eye health, inclusive education, social inclusion, and cross-cutting issues.
• In collaboration with the relevant Global Advocacy Advisor, support country offices to engage at the national level on key global policy and regional advocacy priorities including UHC, CRPD, GDS, and global/regional meetings such as the 2021 Education Summit.
• Support national level advocacy towards key multilateral and bilateral donors such as FCDO with the aim of influencing, holding them to account on and partnering with them on their priorities moving forward.
• Provide technical support, training and capacity building to Francophone country offices for advocacy. This includes supporting country offices to identify change objectives, plan and implement advocacy activities, build relationships with decision makers and produce relevant resources.
• Working with the MEL team, support country offices with monitoring and evaluation of advocacy objectives, including using the Levels of Influence, and promoting the Sightsavers’ Advocacy Reporting App as a tool for monitoring outputs.

Coordinate Sightsavers’ international SDG advocacy (40%)

• Work with the Head of Advocacy to support the coordination of advocacy amongst partners, from the disability, health and wider development sectors, including through initiatives like Together 2030.
• Coordinate Sightsavers’ engagement with the High-level Political Forum.
• Work with colleagues in the Communications Team and the Campaigns Team to ensure that everyone in Sightsavers understands the SDGs and our role in delivering them.

Build partnerships with national and regional actors (5%)

• In collaboration with the other Global Advocacy Advisors, map stakeholders, and develop and build strategic partnerships and alliances with other key actors at the regional level, including regional intergovernmental bodies and the regional offices of multilaterals, to maximise advocacy opportunities and link global objectives to the regional level.

Support the delivery of Sightsavers’ global policy campaign at the national level (10%)

• Advise the campaigns team on tailoring the global policy campaign effectively to the national level to ensure real change is achieved and the campaign ‘adds value’ to existing national advocacy work.
• Support country offices to deliver the campaign at the national level, ensuring the campaign aligns with existing ongoing national advocacy objectives and will build momentum towards these whilst also fitting with the global campaign.

Engage in internal PGA and organisational processes as appropriate (10%)

• Ensure the development of an annual budget that covers the responsibilities of the role and adhere to regular PGA reporting processes.
• Support national delivery of SIM card reporting and ensure timely reporting of SIM across the region.
• Ensure that Sightsavers’ safeguarding policy processes are adhered to. Responsibility for reporting safeguarding concerns as they arise.
• Deputise for the Global Advocacy Manager and Head of Advocacy as required.

This is a highly varied and involved role and the above is not an exhaustive list of duties or required professional skills. Please see the Job Description for full details.

Knowledge (Education & Related Experience):

• Relevant academic qualifications in a social science
• Significant experience of working as an advocacy professional within INGOs and supporting national advocacy within a global advocacy strategy
• Significant experience of representing NGOs at a high level on critical strategic issues, including building relationships with and influencing senior officials within national governments, donor agencies and regional bodies
• Expertise in building staff capacities to develop and deliver effective advocacy strategies
• Experience of developing and implementing systems to record and measure the impact of advocacy activities
• Expertise in carrying out national level policy analysis and stakeholder mapping to develop effective advocacy strategies
• Knowledge of current issues and best practice in development particularly in health, education, rights, or governance

Skills (Special Training or Competence):

• Representing the organisation to external bodies at a high level
• Ability to think strategically and translate this into effective action plans
• Influencing organisational strategy and promoting change internally
• Ability to develop and implement effective advocacy plans and M&E systems
• Strong communication and relationship building skills with internal and external audiences
• Working effectively as part of an international team

Next Steps

Please complete and submit all applications in English.

To apply for this exciting new opportunity, please complete an application via our recruitment portal. We are particularly interested in learning of your motivations for applying.

As an equal opportunity employer, we actively encourage applications from all sections of the community. Sightsavers is a Disability Confident Leader and qualified people living with a disability are particularly encouraged to apply.

Sightsavers is an employer that does not tolerate any form of harassment and has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. All potential candidates will be subjected to rigorous background checks and controls.

Closing Date: 15 January, 2023

How to apply

Please apply here