Nutrition Policy and Advocacy Adviser at Save The Children

The Role

• The post-holder will play a critical role in supporting Save the Children Nigeria Country office and partners to implement advocacy strategies and develop evidences which have significant impact on decision makers to the benefit of children in Nigeria.
• The role sits within the Advocacy Division but reports to the Nutrition team and will support the development and implementation of our advocacy strategy to achieve policy and political change at the highest level; it also involves engaging with state governments supported by Save the Children especially the WINNN implementing states, civil society networks and CS-SUNN, as well as international institutions and the private sector.
• The role provides political and policy intelligence to the wider Organisation; and forges advocacy alliances with key opinion makers globally.
• The Nutrition Policy and Advocacy Adviser while supporting the delivery of Save the Children’s nutrition advocacy strategy will work with partner organisations to ensure strong accountability for political and financial nutrition commitments and contribute to the development of nutrition-related policies, strategic frameworks and campaigns.
• The post holder will also be responsible for supporting multi-sectoral efforts in reducing the burden of malnutrition - including social protection, agriculture and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and improving the effectiveness of our global advocacy.
• He/She will work closely with colleagues across the Organisation to ensure our nutrition work supports the Organizational goal and also contributes to coordinated civil society efforts towards Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) at national, sub-national and local levels.

Main Responsibilities
In addition to the above role, the post holder’s responsibility will include:

• Ensuring that nutrition remains high on the national agenda and that additional, ambitious financial and political nutrition commitments are secured in the future
• Developing  a network of key contacts in the international policy community in Nigeria, governments, international bodies, corporations, the International Save the Children Alliance, NGOs and others as required, identifying opportunities and ensuring strong accountability for nutrition commitments
• Keep abreast of government affairs especially in the development of relevant policies and legislation
• Delivering targeted and strategic  advocacy support  to all Nutrition projects and interventions in the Country Office
• Providing support to the Head of Nutrition in the drafting of policy position papers, briefings, publications and responses
• Implementing the Organisation’s nutrition strategy, working with the Campaign team, the Food and Livelihoods team and beyond.

Working Contacts:

• Internal - Nutrition Team, CDGP , STEER and Humanitarian Nutrition team
• External - FMOH, MB&NP, NPHCDA, NAFDAC, SUN Network: CS-SUN & SUN Business Network, UNICEF, Action Against Hunger (AAH), Fhi 360 etc.

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Experience of leading development and implementation of policy and advocacy strategies and plans
• Superior written communications, experience of policy research, having written and published policy reports and briefings and evaluated evidence of their impact and
• Knowledge of nutrition issues, voice and accountability and, advocacy research methodology, Experience of drafting and presenting complex information to a variety of audiences in a concise and accessible way

Education:

• Post Graduate Degree in relevant field
• At least 5 years of  relevant experience in the public or  international development sectors

Skills:

• Strong networking, negotiation, influencing and stakeholder management skills
• Excellent planning skills and proven ability to learn and adapt
• Excellent analytical and political judgement skills
• Outstanding oral and written communication and presentation skills
• Solid background in working on cross-functional teams and able to coordinate activities with consultants and partners and  work effectively with evidence definition and translation groups
• Credibility to lobby, network, influence and represent SC at all levels
• Effective team leadership to ensure proactive, clear and timely response to research needs and competitive portfolio evidence support

Desirable:

• Experience working with Nutrition or Health programmes
• Experience of setting up and running events
• Experience of qualitative research techniques
• Experience in international development