Policy and Advocacy Specialist at Search For Common Ground

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict - away from destructive approaches towards cooperative solutions. With more than 600 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries across the globe.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Policy and Advocacy Specialist

Location: Port Harcourt, Rivers
Employment Type: Contract
Duration: 5 months

Job Description

• Search is seeking an experienced Policy and Advocacy Specialist for a consortium project in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States.
• The role will specifically support the engagement of high level stakeholders and implementation of high level dialogues towards addressing the conflict drivers in the Niger Delta at State, Regional and National levels during the 6 months No Cost Extension Period within the implementation timeline of the project.
• The project is funded by the European Union and implemented in consortium with Search for Common Ground, Stakeholder Democracy Network and Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta.
• The overall goal of the project is fostering inclusive community security approaches to address the systemic drivers of violence and criminality in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States.
• The position requires an experienced advocacy, policy analyst, conflict transformation, peacebuilding and or development expert, conversant with leading high level engagement at National level and the Niger Delta Region and in facilitating high level dialogues.
• The position holder must be organized and experienced in responding to real-time conflict, peace efforts, security and the overall aim of conflict transformation.
• The Policy and Advocacy Specialist must have good diplomacy skills and be capable of negotiating with challenging stakeholders and facilitating high level dialogue processes. 
• The position holder is expected to collaborate closely with the National Conflict and Policy Analyst in addressing local context, and dynamics.
• This position will be based in our Rivers office with frequent travels to Abuja, Bayelsa and Delta States. 
• She / he will work under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme Implementation; Niger Delta.
• The position holder will have no direct line management responsibility and collaborate with the Project Manager, Coordinators, Officers and Assistants.
• Bringing together three leading peacebuilding and development organisations in the Niger Delta, the consortium offers a holistic, community-centred approach to addressing core drivers of criminality, violence, and conflict in the region, with a specific focus on the empowerment and inclusion of youth in the security of their respective communities in the Niger Delta. 
• The consortium partners will leverage existing relationships with the action’s diverse target groups, including at-risk youth, local communities impacted by oil production and oil bunkering, state security actors, the private sector, journalists and media actors, key civil society organisations, and policymakers at the state, regional, national, and international levels, to secure broad-based buy-in and participation in the action. 
• Overall, the project is initiating a shift in the way that relevant actors think about and approach issues of oil bunkering, criminality, and security in the Niger Delta in favour of more bottom-up, human-centred perspectives.
• This institutional and social shift is necessary in order to sustainably reduce the prevalence of oil bunkering and other forms of criminality and violence in the region in the long-term.

The design of the action centres around four activity streams, each addressing a systemic driver of division, violence, and criminality in Bayelsa, Rivers, and Delta States: 

• Stream 1 will foster intra-community collaboration around issues of social exclusion, lack of economic opportunity, and environmental degradation.
• Stream 2 will build trust and collaboration between communities and government and security actors for more participatory, community-centred security operations. 
• Stream 3 will leverage arts- and culture-based approaches to foster social cohesion between divided communities both online and offline.
• Stream 4 will facilitate policy change to institutionalise community-centred security approaches at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels. 

Job Responsibilities
Representation and coordination:

• Under the guidance of the Head of Programme Implementation – Niger Delta, represents Search in the project implementation initiatives.
• Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy and lead in its implementation.
• Provides strong coordination support to NGOs, partners, and national authorities through the establishment of wider consultation and collaborative processes to achieve the project goal.

Lead the implementation of high level dialogues:

• Lead the planning processes for implementing high level Niger Delta dialogues at National, Regional and State levels.
• Lead the mapping of stakeholders and advocacy engagement to secure their participation at the dialogues.
• Facilitate high level Niger Delta dialogues at National, Regional and State levels
• Advises Country Management on program and high level stakeholder engagement needs.

Policy and Advocacy Program oversight, quality assurance, reporting:

• Ensures proper implementation of the policy and advocacy component of the project during the No cost extension phase. 
• Collaborate with the Head of Programme Implementation and Project Manager in attainment of project expected results in the implementation states, in close collaboration with the Head of Programme Implementation.
• Ensures effective application of results-based management methodologies.
• Develop and monitor project work-plans, effectiveness and achievement of results.
• Monitors budgets versus actuals and cash-flow for the policy and advocacy component of the project.
• Steer the project’s policy and advocacy activities to meaningfully address needs in the ever-changing context.
• Contribute to all donor and internal reports within internal deadlines and to expected quality.
• Build coalitions and networks with local partners for the project's effectiveness.

Leadership:

• Contribute to the discussions around overall strategy and direction of the country program and the organisation.
• Ensure that the project is maintaining a coordinated and agreed information exchange both internally and in its dealings with external parties.
• Ensure effective implementation and compliance with the overall finance and guidance manual, and compliance with procedures required by grant or contract agreements.

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Requirements
Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in a related area required, while a Master's in Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Project Management or related field would be an added benefit.

Required Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in high-level policy and advocacy, facilitating high-level dialogues, mainstreaming Do No Harm and conflict sensitivity into programming.

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Knowledge of and exposure to a wide range of peace, conflict transformation, governance, development and humanitarian issues.
• Good knowledge of the country context, context of the Niger Delta Region and ability to network with both civil society and public sector.
• Good interpersonal and networking skills, as well as the ability to conduct professional working relationships.
• Analytical capacity, including the ability to analyse and articulate peace, human security and conflict issues.
• Ability to work with people at all levels, ranging from high-level national officials to community leaders.
• Experience in setting performance objectives for teams and leading a team.
• Willingness to keep abreast of new developments on security sector reforms, policies,  laws and peace-building fields.
• Good knowledge of Niger Delta Region, including the political, economic, development and social dimensions.
• Basic computer skills (Microsoft Office Suite) and other software.
• Detail-oriented with ability to meet deadlines, both prescribed and self-imposed.
• Willingness and desire to learn while demonstrating self-initiative.
• Ability to adapt to new cultures and work in diverse environments.
• Demonstrated ability to foster a culture of respect and inclusion.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English are a requirement.

Application Closing Date
12th May, 2025.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

• Interested candidates should send the following to our Career Portal.
• Current resume
• Cover Letter (which includes expectations of compensation and projected start date)
• Please note that the system only has the functionality to upload two documents per application.
• Incomplete applications will not be accepted.