LOCATION: Bangladesh
SALARY: Competitive
STARTING DATE: As soon as possible

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. GAIN is a Swiss based international organization that mobilizes public-private partnerships and provides financial and technical support to deliver nutritious foods to those people most at risk of malnutrition.  The organization is delivering improved nutrition to an estimated 700 million people in more than 30 countries, half of whom are women and children. 

GAIN fights malnutrition in Bangladesh through innovative and sustainable models that increase access to affordable nutritious foods and improve dietary quality among communities vulnerable to malnutrition. GAIN has a diverse portfolio of innovative programmes in Bangladesh as well as having successfully supported National legislation on fortification of edible oil with Vitamin A and facilitating the National School Feeding and Nutrition Policy and National Micronutrient Deficiency Control Strategy in close partnership with Government of Bangladesh and development partners. GAIN is uniquely positioned to be a leader in policy and advocacy for nutrition among the global health and business communities and is now seeking a Senior Advisor - Policy and Advocacy to drive this initiative forward.

Senior Advisor Policy and Advocacy, Bangladesh

Responsibilities
Reporting to the Country Manager, the Senior Advisor P&A will serve as an integral member of the senior management team (SMT).  The Senior Advisor is a strategic thought-leader and will be responsible for providing executive level direction and management oversight on public policy and advocacy functions that will set the agenda and create impact at scale among the most marginalised. S/He will also be an ambassador for the organization and will need to have and build relationships within the business, academia, political and public policy community. This is a highly visible role, both internally with the GAIN local and global team and externally as a representative and subject matter expert of the organization.  S/he will drive broader awareness and donor support for the organization by developing original and leveraging existing policy and advocacy programs.

Policy

• Stay abreast of political economy, public policy and social issues; assess the impact on key policy changes, budgets and ensure the development of informative policy papers, policy briefs, fact sheets, analyses which can be disseminated before a broad range of stakeholders.
• Lead the development of and conduct studies, policy analysis and research on various public policy issues and oversee the development of an annual research and analysis plan, with appropriate benchmarks; and identify appropriate data sources and reference literature.
• Map and analyze key policies, decision makers, key opinion formers and political leaders relevant to the nutrition arena, particularly related to malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.

Advocacy

• Develop an advocacy strategy to include close working with Parliamentarians, Parliamentary standing Committee/ Young Parliamentarians and Civil society.
• Engage with political leaders and parliamentarians, senior government functionaries, civil society members, trade and chamber bodies and business community, quasi-judicial bodies and other key decision makers to set the nutrition agenda in the country.
• Align partners with SUN (Scaling up Nutrition) movement in Bangladesh and encourage political commitment to the agenda.
• Provide technical support, engage and influence with potential stakeholders in Program Management Unit (PMU), Technical Advisory Groups, and Oversight Committee constituted through various programs under various Ministries.
• Liaise and engage with district level functionaries and local government members that can strengthen supplies and services relating to nutrition and nutritious products.

Visibility and Communications

• Develop Knowledge Management products, policy briefs, publications and document best practice and key learnings that have the potential to be scaled up, mainstreamed, used as advocacy tools and replicated in the country and the region. Facilitate dissemination of the success and learning to key stakeholders.
• Develop country website, write and coordinate newsletter articles related to nutrition and deliverables.
• Organise press briefings, develop media partnership, and facilitate media and policy roundtable discussions and press conferences to highlight GAIN’s project activities and successes.

General Responsibilities

• Develop an annual department budget and plan with appropriate input from internal and external stakeholders.
• Collaborate with country team to plan and formulate funding proposals, diversify business growth for Policy and Advocacy. Participate in fundraising and lead / direct grant proposal writing activity relating to policy and advocacy.
• Closely work with the program team to increase program delivery model effectiveness to ensure program quality and impact.
• Build capacities of the partners and country team to engage in influencing public policy, law and roll out people centred advocacy agenda at the field level.

Experience

• A minimum 15 years’ related public policy, policy reforms, drafting of the policies and legislations, advocacy, research and supervisory experience in a senior management role in corporation, foundation or non-profit organization are highly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of the Bangladesh nutrition program, legislative, public policy and political environment is preferred. Strong experience in working with Parliamentarians, Ministers and Constitutional positions/bodies in a reputed development organisation is a plus.
• A strong track record of understanding and influencing policy dialogue and implementation to improve program impact.  Direct experience in high level meetings and similar settings, in order to advocate, cultivate and negotiate significant partnerships.
• Proven track record of working with the media to raise the profile of a cause and/or organization.
• Ability to build and strengthen networks, strategic alliances, people based campaigns.
• Strong leadership experience in Policy and Advocacy.

Skills & Attributes

• Ability to both think and plan strategically, understand the structural and underlying causes of malnutrition,  being able to effectively communicate those strategies, as well as execute them within the deadline.
• Strong knowledge of program, policy, legislation, budget and advocacy strategies.  Ability to lead people based campaigns, prepare citizen’s report and integrate rights based approaches in policy and advocacy initiatives.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team. Ability to manage staff and consultants in connection with large scale events and projects.
• Comfortable with multi-tasking and operating in a fast paced, multi-faceted, and multi-cultural environment.
• Keen ability and interest in analysing data and trends to advocate around appropriate policies, and in understanding and analysing legislation, taxation policies, protocols and standards.
• Ability to effectively lead, manage and balance administrative responsibilities as a department head with capacity to deliver against organization goals and objectives.
• Ability to translate (written and verbal) complex issues into easily understandable formats for a range of stakeholder audiences.

Education

• Ph.D or advanced degree in Social Science, Humanities, Law, Public Policy, Public Health, Economics.

Other Requirements

• Excellent command of spoken and written English and Bengali is a must.
• International Work Experience.
• Experience in policy and advocacy outside Bangladesh will be an added advantage.
• Experience of working in the food industry or public health sector in Bangladesh is an advantage.

If you are interested, please, send your CV and cover letter via:  

http://jobs.gainhealth.org/vacancies/230/senior_advisor_policy_and_advocacy_bangladesh/bangladesh/

Closing Date: November 02, 2014