Senior Partnership Officer

Senior Partnership Officer

This is an exciting time to join a dynamic, newly expanded Partnership Team at Girls Not Brides. You will work closely with the Head of Partnership Development, playing a central role to strengthen Girls Not Brides’ work with alliances, networks and coalitions working to end child marriage at national levels, including official Girls Not Brides National Partnerships in Africa and Asia. This year, Girls Not Brides plans to increase emphasis upon the work it does with multi-agency National Partnerships in a number of countries. National Partnerships are crucial agents for promoting national-level policy changes, and advocating for the effective implementation of national strategies to end child marriage. You will also co-ordinate the piloting of Girls Not Brides Youth Engagement Plan – and play a key role in the development of a coherent capacity building strategy for the Girls Not Brides membership. NB The successful candidate will be expected to comply with Girls Not Brides’ child protection policy.

Accountability: Head of Partnership Development.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Provides critical support to strengthening Girls Not Brides National Partnerships and other networks/alliances the organisation works closely with at national levels:

• Identifies and responds to the priority capacity building needs of assigned National Partnerships
• Provision of/co-ordination of technical support in areas including advocacy, policy analysis, collective working, strategic planning
• Supports National Partnerships to link up with strategic actors and opportunities at national and international level in pursuit of furthering common objectives
• Supports the Senior Member Engagement Officer to identify and support National Partnerships to leverage funding
• Advises National Partnerships on methodologies to ensure that the voices of affected young people/at-risk groups are integrated into their work

Ensures the effective capturing and dissemination of learning from Girls Not Brides National Partnerships and facilitate effective sharing of learning between Girls Not Brides member organisations on partnership working:

• Acts as primary liaison for a range of Girls Not Brides National Partnerships in selected countries, ensuring the cultivation of strong relationships between National Partnership and the Girls Not Brides secretariat
• Supports the effective two-way flow of information between National Partnerships and the Global Secretariat
• Directly develops/co-ordinates and supports the documentation of best practice/lessons learned from National Partnerships – e.g. via case studies, reports

Co-ordinates implementation of Girls Not Brides’ youth engagement plan, with support from other members of the Partnership Team:

• Leads the development of capacity building resources aimed at young activists/youth-led organisations (either directly or via commissioning consultants)
• Facilitates structured youth engagement in 1-2 National Partnerships as part of a pilot initiative
• Monitors and documents lessons learned and successes from youth engagement activities

Contributes to the capacity building of member organisations:

• With support from the Head of Partnership Development, formulates a pilot capacity building plan for the wider Girls Not Brides membership
• Explores partnerships with individual experts and organisations which could provide capacity building support (particularly pro bono)

Actively contributes to the broader work of the Partnership team:

• Takes part in/contributes to non-National Partnership-related capacity building opportunities for Girls Not Brides members e.g. via online webinars
• Help ensure member engagement and capacity building opportunities are disseminated effectively across the membership
• Conducts membership outreach in assigned countries/regions

Requirements

Essential

• Considerable experience of working directly with civil society actors including time spent working for a civil society organisation overseas

• Direct experience of engaging with coalitions, alliances or networks
• A skilled capacity builder with experience of developing training materials, commissioning, as well as directly delivering training to NGOs
• A sound grasp of the key concepts underpinning quality capacity development
• Direct experience of working on advocacy initiatives and advocacy strategy development in a developing country context; policy analysis skills
• A sound understanding of the policy and advocacy dynamics around gender and/or youth/child rights in an international context, including understanding of some of the key players in these fields
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to work with a diverse range of actors from different cultural contexts
• Ability to build strong relationships while working remotely with civil society organisations
• Confident networker and ability to represent Girls Not Brides at high-level events
• Willingness to travel – sometimes at short notice.

Desirable

• Knowledge of French/Spanish/Portuguese or other languages
• Experience of working in South Asia or directly with civil society organisations in South Asia highly desirable
• Knowledge of youth engagement best practice/direct experience of working with young people
• Experience of working on social accountability processes in developing country contexts

Eligibility criteria and terms

A competitive salary and benefits package will be offered to the successful candidate. £35,000 - £42,000 + competitive benefits package.

How to apply

To apply, please send your CV and a brief cover letter demonstrating how you meet the criteria for this position to recruitment@GirlsNotBrides.org by 18:00 GMT on 1 September 2015 clearly stating “Senior Partnership Officer” and your name in the subject line. All applications (CV and cover letter) have to be submitted in English. We regret that due to the large number of applications anticipated, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.