Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer

Position: Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer
Requisition Number: 3NPSR006864
Location: Kathmandu with frequent field travel
Position Status: Full-time, Regular

ABOUT MERCY CORPS

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action – helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future. Mercy Corps has been operating in Nepal since 2005, implementing programs in food security, agriculture, market development, financial services, youth engagement, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. We take a systems-based approach in our programming, with the aim of improving the lives and potential of vulnerable individuals and communities across Nepal.

PROGRAM/ DEPARTMENT SUMMARY

The Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance (ZCRA) is an alliance of nine organizations including international NGOs, private sector, and academic organizations, who have come together with the support of the Zurich Foundation to drive better policy and practice to reduce the negative impact of floods on peoples’ and communities’ ability to thrive.

The Alliance is implementing a 12-year vision through 2025. The current phase (phase 3, 2024-2027) represents the first cycle of this long-term vision. Previously, the Alliance completed its first phase in 2018, and its second phase in December 2023 and third phase will run till Dec 2027. During this time, The Alliance works together to achieve 12-year vision by implementing solutions, promoting good practice, influencing policy and facilitating systemic change. In Nepal, the Alliance is comprised of Mercy Corps and Practical Action, working together on joint outcomes aiming at:

• Building ex-ante resilience of communities at risk of flood and heat impacts across Nepal
• Improving early warning and early action in advance of probable hazards
• Enabling people who experience livelihoods losses due to floods and heat to recover quickly through compensation and/or insurance

Mercy Corps is leading the ‘influencing and advocacy’ work within the Alliance, as well as making substantial contributions to work streams on knowledge management, research, and piloting innovative field programming with communities, private sector, and government. In Nepal, the Alliance is comprised of Mercy Corps and Practical Action. The Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer will be part of a dynamic international team and play a central role in advancing Alliance work in Nepal and globally.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer assume responsibility to lead overall design, management, implementation, and coordination for ZCRA’s policy, advocacy and influencing work in climate resilience in Nepal. The Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer will provide strategic oversight and leadership to help ZCRA in Nepal to achieve its project advocacy and influencing goals with summary of key functions as follows:

Identify and lead formulation of appropriate advocacy and influencing strategies, plans, initiatives, research and implement them at federal, provincial, local and community level as required.
Actively lead the advocacy and influencing work including but not limited to disaster governance, disaster budget influencing and tracking heat governance, risk-informed planning, flood, heat, urban heat, drought private sector engagement in disaster management and climate change adaptation at project’s working areas engaging federal, provincial local and community stakeholders.
Develop advocacy and influencing materials and support the project in relation to its knowledge products.
Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with government agencies, alliance partner, peer organizations, development partners, civil society, and private sector, think tanks, research institutes and media for advocacy and influencing work.
The Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer primary focus will be on influencing in that country but will also likely engage with global advocacy around some or all of the Alliance’s priority themes (disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, governance, early warning system, nature-based solutions, heat, and urban).

Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer will work under the direct supervision of the Program Manager and work closely with Mercy Corps field-teams, Climate Resilience Alliance partner at the country level (Practical Action in Nepal) as well as Mercy Corps’ Regional Program and Advocacy Manager based in Bangkok, Thailand, and Head of ZFRA program based in the UK.

As gender and social inclusion (GESI), governance and environmental compliance are cross-cutting and core components of all MC programs and is required to own these components to ensure GESI sensitivity and integration, governance practices and environmental compliance are integrated into the program activities.

ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

The specific duties and responsibilities of the Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer include, but are not limited to the following:

STRATEGY AND VISION (15 %)

Develop advocacy and influencing strategy within the project contributing to country Strategy paper of MCN (Pathways to Possibility)

• Identify influencing opportunities at federal, provincial and local level for replication and scale up of project activities within and beyond MCN project areas.
• Provide necessary information on policy landscape and from the projects to Business Development Team for developing
• projects/programs related to Disaster Risk Management, Climate Adaptation and Emergency Response
• Support to Identify capacity building needs of partners for influencing and advocacy.
• Ensure stakeholder mapping and their actions related to climate and flood resilience in federal, province and working municipalities.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT (10 %)

A. PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

• Develop influencing and advocacy tools and capacitate the project team including partner staff to use these tools.
• Support to localize Climate Resilience for Communities tools and advocate for it.
• Design capacity building exercises on social mobilization, influencing and advocacy materials for effective project implementation.
• Support to produce high-quality reports for donors and SWC.
• Ideate appropriate events, campaigns and other actions for influencing and advocacy.
• Engage in Advocacy and Influencing related procurement.
• Work closely with program manager for budget management and reporting to donors and SWC.
• Support to monitor expenditures against budget and suggest modifications as necessary.

B. TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback to partner staff for quality performance and mitigate frequent turnover.
• Organize periodic capacity building exercises for partners based on capacity needs assessment.

INFLUENCE, ADVOCACY & REPRESENTATION (70%)

• Ensure Stakeholder mapping and analysis including climate, heat, drought and flood resilience interventions and planning at federal, and provincial level.
• Develop projects’ influencing and advocacy strategies especially on heat, flood, drought and emerging disaster and support province coordinator and partner led implementation at province and community level.
• Identify, document, and communicate the changes in context and policy at federal and province level to develop and or modify project’s influencing strategies if necessary.
• Develop appropriate influencing and advocacy materials for effective implementation of influencing and advocacy strategies.
• Lead high-quality policy analysis, briefing papers, research, knowledge products, media work and other advocacy content such as talking points, key messages and media releases that effectively communicate and promote ZCRA/Mercy Corps’ policy positions.
• Lead DRR budget advocacy influencing and tracking work at provincial, local and community level.
• Regular and on-going coordination with key government, non-governmental, donor, private sector and stakeholders related to the climate and flood resilience agenda at federal, provincial and local level.
• Regularly convey information to Mercy Corps’ Climate Resilience Alliance team as well as the project team.
• Network in the federal, province and local level to establish and maintain strategic relations with relevant local and international stakeholders, to continually inform, challenge, and improve Mercy Corps’ advocacy, strategy, and program development.
• Coordinate and closely work with Mercy Corps programs in support of a climate resilience agenda especially on heat, drought, flood; represent these programs to government and other external stakeholders as needed at province level.
• Provide representation, at the discretion of the Program Manager and or Country Director with relevant local and international governmental and non-governmental actors in different tiers of governments.
• Provide strategic inputs for Mercy Corps Nepal’s policy and advocacy related to climate resilience, DRR and climate change adaptation at the provincial, and lead province level influencing and advocacy work in close collaboration with the global team.
• Present Mercy Corps’ and Zurich work with relevant INGO and government networks to display thought leadership and influence policies and programs related to flood resilience, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation at province level.
• Contribute to the development of ZCRA’s global reports and policy positions.
• Monitor and analyze the progress of advocacy and influencing efforts, identifying, and capturing advocacy wins, case studies, gaps and challenges.
• Develop advocacy and influencing tools, training packages and enhance the capacity of partners and communities.
• Ensure gender equality and social inclusion in advocacy and influencing work.

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (5%)

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

OTHERS

• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
• Mercy Corps as a humanitarian agency is expected to respond as and when a crisis and humanitarian situation engulf. As MC employees, all staff are expected to be part of humanitarian and emergency response in addition to their regular roles and responsibilities.
• Other duties assigned by the Country Director.

SECURITY

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO BENEFICIARIES

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.
Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values always and in all in-country venues.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: N/A

ACCOUNTABILITY

Reports Directly to: Program Manager

Works Directly with: ZCRA Alliance III partners – Practical Action, Province Coordinator(s) and Mercy Corps’ other programs

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree in climate change, disaster risk management, social sciences or other relevant fields.
• At least 5 years relevant experience with designing, managing, and implementing policy research, advocacy and influencing initiatives in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation including system change approaches.
• Excellent ability to conduct policy and stakeholder analysis through rigorous document reviews and network development, and articulate policy recommendations for advocacy and influencing.
• Ability to scope, design, and lead research to build evidence base for programming and advocacy as well as program impact evaluation.
• Ability to summarize and persuasively communicate complex information in written and verbal form to different audiences, including experience leading the production of external written policy products.
• Team player can coordinate and facilitate tasks for program outcomes both internally and externally, with stakeholders including Alliance partners, national/sub-national/local governments, community groups, INGOs, NGOs, donors, UN, private sector and others.
• Ability to demonstrate an openness and willingness to learn about the application of gender, women’s rights, diversity and inclusion for all aspects of program work.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to effectively handle multiple tasks, work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English and Nepali.
• Demonstrated proficiency with the MS Office software (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint), design tools is required.
• Ability to frequently travel to remote areas and work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.

SUCCESS FACTORS

A successful Senior Advocacy and Influencing Officer will be able to develop and execute effective advocacy and influencing strategies backed by solid communication products and knowledge management to achieve the project’s outcome. S/he will be able to coordinate, collaborate and strongly influence community, local, provincial and federal stakeholders to amplify projects’ influencing agenda, replication, and scale of project’s achievement. S/he should have the ability to travel frequently to remote areas and the capacity to develop and deliver training packages and tools as required in the project districts.

The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

LIVING CONDITIONS / ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

The position is based in Kathmandu, and it requires up to 50% field travel to support country programs.

ONGOING LEARNING

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

SAFEGUARDING & ETHICS

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org).