TERMS OF REFERENCE- POLICY ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES CONSULTANT

The deadline for this application has been restored to December 30th 2020 for fairness and to encourage more applications. All applications received will be considered. We regret any inconvenience caused.

DEVELOPING STRATEGIC POLICY ENGAGEMENT PLANS BASED ON THE OUTPUTS FROM THE SIGNATURE ISSUE POLICY LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization that carries out high quality, policy-relevant research on population, health, and education issues facing sub-Saharan Africa.

Background

Our teams orient their research agendas according to global and continental development priorities, driven by the belief that Africa and African-generated evidence must be at the forefront of decisions supporting improved growth and development.

APHRC’s priority research areas are Health Systems for Health (HSH); Data, Measurement and Evaluation (DME); Population Dynamics and Reproductive Health (PDRH); Urbanization and Wellbeing in Africa (UWB); Maternal and Child Wellbeing (MCW); Aging and Development and; Education and Youth Empowerment (EYE). Our research explores how improving outcomes in the above areas are linked to development and growth on the continent, and how those improved outcomes can help to shape policy, advance domestic resource mobilization, and enhance implementation of best practices at the national level.

We have seen evidence of our impact at national, regional and continental levels, with APHRC research being used in the setting of policy at the African Union, within regional economic communities, and in national and subnational decision-making and allocation of resources.

Therefore, APHRC seeks a consultant/agency to build on the gains made, through a consultative process with the various units ensuring the development of unit-specific and contextually viable policy engagement and communications strategies for different units based on the outputs from the signature issue policy landscape analysis.

Purpose

The consultant will be responsible for coordinating and leading the delivery of unit-specific policy engagement, advocacy and communications plans. Working collaboratively with unit leads, the consultant will lead to the formation and development of engagement strategies to ensure that APHRC’s technical analyses across the stated units are used to influence policy decisions in partner countries.

The duration of the consultancy is for an initial three months. The post holder will work closely with APHRC partners, other relevant stakeholders/allies in the listed research areas and with the Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC) division.

Scope of Work

The consultant will work in close coordination with the Executive Leadership Team and Signature Issues Taskforce and will be expected to develop seven policy engagement, advocacy and communications strategies for each research unit, drawing on the Center’s signature issues policy landscape analysis. In particular, the incumbent will perform the following tasks:

Policy and advocacy Engagement:

• Collect and analyze evidence of policy and practice opportunities, outcomes and the effectiveness of the Center’s policy and advocacy engagement approaches;
• Guide the unit teams in the mapping of the current practices on policy and advocacy engagement processes for the multiple thematic policies and strategies with recommendations for improvement;
• Formulate policy and advocacy engagement strategies to promote the uptake of technical policy analyses in national policy processes and dialogues;
• Development of an engagement plan with key stakeholders at all levels, state agencies, civil society organizations, etc. The engagement plan will have its own M&E plan to track progress, resulting from the developed strategy’s implementation.

Communications:

• Work with the unit teams to identify target audiences; (i.e.: line ministries, CSOs, local governments, local communities, media, academia, the general public, etc.)
• Identify the communication objectives for each targeted audience (stakeholder mapping) at the regional, national and local levels;
• Assess the communication capacities of all stakeholders;
• Identify the communication products and activities tailored to each audience, using the APHRC signature issues;
• Specify appropriate communication channels, dissemination methods and media such as video, print, web/online media, infographics, traditional media, and social media, among others, to effectively communicate key messages to specific stakeholders.
• Carry out communications training for APHRC internal stakeholders.

Deliverables

• Seven policy and advocacy engagement and communications strategies for each research unit, that includes a robust monitoring, evaluation and learning framework for tracking progress

Required Skills and Experience

• Advanced university degree (Masters ore equivalent) in international development, development, public policy, communications, or a related field;
• At least five years of relevant experience in policy, advocacy or communications working with government, multilateral organizations and/or NGO/civil society organizations;
• Hands-on experience/knowledge with policy engagement or advocacy efforts on international development issues, and an affinity with the topics of population and/or health;
• Demonstrated experience in the conception, design and management of policy engagement strategies;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills;
• Ability to work on complex issues in politically sensitive environments;
• Aptitude to work with flexibility and strategic thinking both individually and as part of a team.

If you meet the criteria above and are interested in this opportunity, please email consultancies@aphrc.org   and copy jgichuki@aphrc.org  with the subject: Policy Engagement and Communications Strategy Consultant. Attach the items listed below.

• Suitability statement that express commitment to availability for the entire period of the assignment.
• Cover letter of no more than one page
• CVs of consultant/s, proposed for this assignment
• An indicative budget

For more information about APHRC visit www.aphrc.org

APHRC is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the protection of children