REPORTING TO POSITION

Dotted line reports: Advocacy and Community Mobilization Assistant

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 2. The responsibilities of this post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children and young people. In the overseas context all posts are considered to be level 2 posts in view of potential situations which may allow staff unsupervised access to vulnerable children and young people. 

As part of these responsibilities the post holder will work with relevant focal points to support the establishment of child safeguarding systems, promote a culture of keeping children safe, and ensure that potential harm to children (by our own staff and/or as a result of how we do our work) is identified and addressed on an ongoing basis. The post holder should report and respond to interventions as determined by position related responsibilities identified in the Child Safeguarding Policy.

SCOPE AND ROLE PURPOSE: 

The Advocacy and Community Mobilization Officer will be responsible for the community engagements for ROOSC project. S/he will engage and mobilize local communities in Kaduna State to support the educational inclusion of out-of-school children. This role involves working closely with community leaders, families, schools, and other stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of education, address barriers to school attendance, and support the enrolment and retention of out-of-school children.

Alongside the Advocacy and Community Engagement Coordinator, the role will collaborate and work closely with the Education Coordinator, GESI Specialist, MEAL Coordinator, Child Protection officers, Advocacy, Campaign and Policy Manager/Learn, Project Director, Field Manager, and Community Mobilization and engagement Manager – ensuring that there is an effective and coordinated team spearheading SCI Nigeria’s influence towards an accelerated positive change for all children, specially girls, to access quality, safe, inclusive, uninterrupted and free education.

S/he will work closely with focal points on the implementation of the advocacy and community engagements. 

S/he will coordinate and oversee the Community Mobilization Assistant to ensure monthly, quarterly and annual advocacy reports that feeds into CO and donors report. S/he will work closely with the Advocacy and Community Engagement Coordinator, the CO ACCM Unit to develop relevant materials, such as but not limited to policy briefs/briefing messages, concept notes, guidelines and undertake actions to create enabling environment and promote increasing government and community commitment and action on children’s rights to education. 

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Community Engagement and Mobilization 

• Collaborate with the MEAL Coordinator, Education Coordinator and Advocacy and Community engagement Coordinator to conduct community assessments to identify out-of-school children and understand barriers to education.
• Work with the Advocacy and Community Engagement Coordinator and other TAs to develop and implement community mobilization strategies to increase awareness and support for education.
• Organize community meetings, forums, and events to engage stakeholders and disseminate information about the project.
• Foster relationships with community leaders, parents, teachers, and local organizations to gain their support and collaboration.

Advocacy and Community Engagement 

• Jointly develop, coordinate and manage Advocacy and Community engagements plans, in order to influence relevant stakeholders at the local level and achieve required changes at local government levels.
• Lead Advocacy and community engagements at local government and community levels on Universal Basic Education, develop key messages for influencing state policy reviews, processes and discussions.
• Champion, promote, coordinate and manage the implementation of out of school children Campaign Strategy in collaboration with the Advocacy and Engagement Coordinator and Advocacy, Campaign and Policy Manager Learn.
• In collaboration with the MEAL Coordinator, s/he shall track, measure, monitor and evaluate the quality of integration and implementation of advocacy and community engagement in the implementation of the project. 
• Contribute to the development of annual work plans, budgets, reports and document case studies and success stories on the ROOSC project. 
• Ensure maximum visibility of Save the Children according to the branding guidelines both internally and externally across relevant platforms. 
• Ensure that children are at the heart of advocacy and community engagements activities, and they are an integral part of Save the Children’s campaigning work.
• Ensure proper documentation and dissemination of major activities, successes and learnings related to ROOSC.

Strengthen Networking and Partnership

• S/he shall represent SCI Nigeria in local level engagements, and shall create, nurture, strengthen and maintain strategic partnership with other key stakeholders in the education sector at the LGA level. 
• Work with Media and Communication team, Education Coordinator, Safeguarding Officer and Project Director to develop case studies for the project and ensure that these meet Save the Children Child Safeguarding Policies
• In collaboration with the CO Media and Communication Manager, Advocacy, Campaign and Policy (ACP) Manager/learn, s/he will identify story ideas on lessons learned and experiences for development of success stories and other communication materials.
• Explore opportunities to communicate about ROOSC project deliverables and its impact internally and externally, with a wide variety of state and national level stakeholders using innovative methods.
• Act as SCI Nigeria’s representative at local government level as required, mainly in events relating to education advocacy, and community engagement. 
• Develop and maintain a professional network for governance issues within project state and within SCI Nigeria.
• Provide support and guidance to community-based organizations and parent-teacher associations to strengthen their capacity to support education initiatives.
• Contribute to the bi-weekly ACCM Country Wide coordination meeting and produce stories and case studies for publication in the monthly Jebb Times.

Others

• Participate in all ACCM activities, meetings, annual review workshops and trainings.   
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Advocacy & Community Engagement Coordinator, Project Director, Field Manager, ACP Manager/Learn or ACCM Director.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self- accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically
• Build strong influencing networks among policy makers, donors and CSOs to push the UHC agenda 

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks 

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity. 

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Level of Education – Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Education, Community Development, or a related field.
• Experience: At least 3 years of experience in community mobilization, outreach, or education projects, preferably working with marginalized or out-of-school children.
• Language Requirements – English – Excellent with a good knowledge of Hausa language
• Level of IT Expertise Required – Excellent 
• Ability to write very good position papers and policy briefings
• Strong analytical framework to clearly articulate and communicate our policy positions.
• Ability to be strategic and proactive when required to be able to keep advocacy plans dynamic and aligned to new policy and political developments.
• Ability to clearly communicate and easily relate to local government authorities.
• Able to demonstrate positive attitude, diplomatic, negotiator, and team player.
• Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment and respect for diversity
• Comply with the requirements of Save the Children’s commitment to protect children in accordance with the Child Safeguarding Policy

Prior Experience Expectations

• Building external networks
• Enhanced voice accountability
• Training and Facilitation