Join Wa­t­erAid Swe­den as a Se­nior Ad­vo­cacy Man­ager to work in a vi­brant or­gan­i­sa­tion that makes a dif­fer­ence. It's an ex­cit­ing time to join our dy­namic and grow­ing Pol­icy and Ad­vo­cacy Team and lead our in­flu­enc­ing work on WASH and pub­lic health in Swe­den.

Background

With 10 years to achieve Agenda 2030, the SDG 6 tar­gets on clean wa­ter, de­cent san­i­ta­tion and good hy­giene are among the fur­thest be­hind. Achiev­ing uni­ver­sal, sus­tain­able WASH will re­quire a ma­jor mo­bil­i­sa­tion of re­sources, pub­lic de­mand and po­lit­i­cal will. Wa­t­erAid Swe­den’s Pol­icy and Ad­vo­cacy team works to ad­dress this chal­lenge by in­flu­enc­ing the pri­ori­ti­sa­tion of WASH in Swe­den’s in­ter­na­tional de­vel­op­ment agenda.

The Role

Re­port­ing to the Di­rec­tor of Pol­icy and Ad­vo­cacy, you will play a cru­cial role in shap­ing the way we in­flu­ence the Swedish Gov­ern­ment, Par­lia­ment, and Sida. This work will be based on Wa­t­erAid’s global ad­vo­cacy pri­or­i­ties and an ex­pert un­der­stand­ing of how WASH contributes to public health.

You will be re­spon­si­ble for de­vel­op­ing and de­liv­er­ing WASH ad­vo­cacy strate­gies from a pub­lic health per­spec­tive while play­ing an ac­tive role in the wider work of the Pol­icy and Ad­vo­cacy Team in Swe­den.

Accountabilities

1. Advocacy Leadership

• Together with advocacy colleagues, lead the development of advocacy strategies to influence the Swedish Government, Parliament and Sida. This involves contextualising global advocacy priorities, with a specific focus on the prioritisation of WASH in Sweden’s international development agenda, from a public health perspective.
• Maintain knowledge and analysis of the policy and practice of selected key targets in Sweden to inform the delivery of WaterAid’s advocacy work.
• Develop and strengthen existing partnerships with civil society allies and networks and other interested actors, develop joint advocacy objectives, campaigns and action and collaborate over strategic opportunities to advance and consolidate the WASH voice in Sweden.

2. Advocacy Delivery

• Coordinate and lead on the delivery of key advocacy strategies, working closely with advocacy and policy colleagues in Sweden and globally, as well as with communications, strategic partnerships and programme funding colleagues.
• Be responsible for coordinating, and sometimes producing, effective policy or campaign products to support advocacy efforts. • Plan, organise and coordinate strategic advocacy engagement at priority campaign moments and events.
• Provide occasional support to EU and UN advocacy colleagues.

3. Teamwork:

• Be an active member of the Policy and Advocacy Team as we scale up our ambition on WASH advocacy in Sweden and the Nordics across several thematic areas.
• Work closely with advocacy, communications, programme funding, fundraising and strategic partnership colleagues to identify opportunities to maximise the impact of WaterAid advocacy objectives towards priority targets.
• Coordinate with WaterAid’s global teams as part of delivering on work priorities, both learning from and contributing to the depth of experience across the wider organisation.
• Build excellent working relationships with Country Programmes and Federation members to understand the scope for amplifying advocacy efforts and rooting our messaging in on-the-ground experience.

Person Specification

Essential skills

• At least 7 years of advocacy experience, demonstrated by examples of strategic impact on policy change and experience of using policy, research, lobbying, public campaigning, media and digital work to influence a political agenda.
• Experience in influencing policy changes processes across: Swedish - International, public health and/or WASH development arenas.
• A keen political ‘savviness’ and an awareness of the potential for achieving political change, with proven experience of engaging with and influencing decision makers in Sweden’s government and parliament.
• Extensive experience of the techniques and skills required for effective advocacy project development, strategy development, and management.
• Experience as a media spokesperson and ability to give talks, webinars and participate in, and moderate, external panel discussions.
• Imaginative, creative and accurate written and verbal communications skills in Swedish and English (both are working languages), and experience of producing advocacy materials and resources.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to successfully manage complex and sensitive organisational relationships to achieve cross-organisational, collectively agreed goals.
• Ability to work under own initiative, self-starter, self-motivated.
• A postgraduate degree, or university degree, or equivalent work experience with experience in the multisectoral factors contributing to public health.
• Ability to travel to WaterAid’s global teams (predominantly based in our London office), Country Programmes or international events as required, up to 4 weeks per year (once Covid-19 related travel bans are lifted).
• Commitment to WaterAid’s values and a working style that reflects these.

Desirable

• Understands how the different Swedish Health Agencies relate and ideally have an established network within those agencies.
• Experience of working in an organisation or alliance on both the domestic and international level to achieve change.
• Experience of budget-tracking and understanding how spending on WASH changes over time.

Application and Notes

This is a per­ma­nent po­si­tion. The Wa­t­erAid of­fice is sit­u­ated in Solna.

Please send your CV and a personal letter to jobba@wateraid.se by 5th October 2020. In­ter­views will be held in late-Oc­to­ber, in Eng­lish, and the process will in­clude a pre­sen­ta­tion to the in­ter­view panel and a short test ex­er­cise to as­sess writ­ing skills. Fur­ther de­tails will be pro­vided to suc­cess­ful in­ter­view can­di­dates prior to in­ter­view. The in­ter­view process will ac­com­mo­date Covid-19 re­stric­tions.

Feel free to email any ques­tions re­gard­ing the po­si­tion to email jobba@wateraid.se or con­tact Vir­ginia New­ton-Lewis, In­terim Di­rec­tor of Pol­icy and Ad­vo­cacy, on +46 7536799 or by email: virginianewtonlewis@wateraid.org.

We look forward to receiving your application!