Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public policy, development studies, agricultural economics, political science, communications or related field.
  
• Proven experience (10+ years) in leading international, regional and national advocacy and external engagement initiatives.
  
• Proven experience (10+ years) leading advocacy and engagement at all levels and with different stakeholders including government, civil society and private sector
  
• Experiences working with African regional institutions such as AU-IBAR, PANVAC, AU, etc
  
• Demonstrated ability to influence policy and investment decisions within the livestock, agriculture, or food systems sectors.
  
• Strong track record building and managing strategic partnerships and alliances with diverse stakeholders, including governments, donors, NGOs, research institutions and private sector actors.
  
• Project management skills, delegating responsibilities effectively, ensuring clear roles and accountability and aligning communication initiatives with institutional priorities.
  
• Ability to build social capital with partners and within ILRI and work with multiple teams.
  
• Experience in project monitoring, evaluation and learning
  
• Well-versed in using different communication, multi-media approaches and techniques, with a clear focus on targeting stakeholders effectively and achieving measurable impact.
  
• Commitment to excellence, ensuring high quality outputs under tight deadlines.
  

Relationship building and strategic partnerships

• Rapidly map stakeholder landscapes in focal countries and identify strategic entry points through ILRI colleagues, partners and existing networks.
  
• Build and sustain high-trust relationships with government officials, private sector actors, cooperatives and civil society across diverse country contexts.
  
• Identify, cultivate and manage relationships with private sector delivery partners.
  
• Leverage partner relationships as bridges to new stakeholders, using collaborative approaches to expand engagement.
  
• Coordinate with cooperative leadership and/or county/local governments to design and roll out scalable delivery models.
  

Project management and reporting

• Manage activity scheduling, budgeting, and financial tracking
  
• Manage project consultants working with the local level actors
  
• Prepare periodic activity reports, progress updates, and risk assessments.
  
• Manage contracts and deliverables for national partners and consultants.
  
• Ensure timely organization of workshops, consultations, high-level meetings and missions.
  
• Work closely with the MEL specialist to ensure that influence–engage–inform indicators are tracked.
  

Stakeholder Engagement, Facilitation & Political Economy Work

• Support the establishment and operationalization of the different types of stakeholder platforms and facilitate stakeholder consultations to diagnose regulatory, institutional and delivery bottlenecks.
  
• Support design and delivery of targeted communications and advocacy materials, communications campaigns and community-level engagement around the different components
  
• Monitor political economy dynamics and provide real-time strategic intelligence for adaptive implementation.
  
• Ensure the process is inclusive and attentive to gender, youth and marginalized groups.
  
• Monitor dynamics to address misinformation and disinformation and more broadly
  

Support linkages to regional and global agendas

• Support the management of the ILRI Advocacy and Investment Hub
  
• Identify ways to frame and position project outcomes for global and regional processes
  
• Track risks, misinformation trends, emerging policy issues in for global partners to pre-emptively address.
  
• Provide technical advice and support to ILRI projects and programs around advocacy and engagement
  
• Document project learning, outcomes and impacts to regional and global processes