Lively Minds Advocacy & Systems Change Director Jobs in Uganda

Lively Minds Advocacy & Systems Change Director Jobs in Uganda



About the role

There's an urgent global need to improve early childhood care and education for preschoolers in hard-to-reach rural communities. The dominant ECD approach for this age bracket is to invest in a professional workforce & formal pre-primary provision. However, whilst important, this approach does not offer a complete solution.

It tends to prioritise “schooling” over learning and does not cater for holistic child development and wellbeing. This approach also requires significant infrastructure, personnel, training, is unaffordable and is slow to scale particularly to rural settings.

We believe that marginalised rural parents are the solution to the ECD crisis. We are seeking to bring about a paradigm shift in the sector so that more effort and investment is spent on community and parent run ECD solutions. We can showcase how to tap the enormous potential of rural parents as ECD providers. 92% of parents in our programme
have less than 2 years of primary education.

They are not paid for their work on the programme, nor are they provided with materials or infrastructure. We prove that with lighttouch support parents and communities are willing and able to bring about significant improvements in their children’s development.

A further benefit of focusing on parents is
that it provides opportunity to improve holistic child development, including early learning,
health and socio-emotional skills as well as improving parental wellbeing and empowerment. Additionally, increasing parental awareness and involvement generates demand for ECD services/investment and strengthens existing efforts.

We are seeking a passionate and entrepreneurial Advocacy and Systems Change Director who will disseminate our learnings and approaches widely and influence global ECD system, practices and policies, generating benefit for millions of children and parents.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

  • We have already started developing our advocacy & systems change strategy. This is likely to involve a) raising awareness among key policy-makers and investors of our policy alternative b) generating best practice and encouraging uptake of our ideas/approaches and methodology. You will help refine this strategy and will be responsible for delivering it

  • Disseminate our learnings, ideas, approaches and evidence by creating compelling decks, thought-pieces, presentations, blogs, submissions that showcase the programme and our learnings to the relevant audience & key stakeholders

  • Strengthen our relationships with senior global ECD stakeholders and represent Lively Minds at conferences, round tables, events, working groups with senior global ECD stakeholders

  • Keep abreast of and engage with developments and research in the global ECD space, identifying where we can contribute ideas and learnings, and sharing learnings that may improve our practices

  • Support government engagement teams in Ghana and Uganda to develop advocacy positions and objectives when they attend meetings/working groups

  • Work closely with our Monitoring & Evaluation team to communicate evidence that we are generating

  • Work closely with our
    Fundraising Team to raise awareness of our brand and organisation

  • Build a strong understanding of our operations and ways of working and showcase these externally

  • You may be assigned any other responsibility in agreement with your line manager, in contribution to Lively Minds work and in recognition of your experience and skills. It is therefore expected for staff to be flexible and willing to contribute to the work of the wider team.

    To succeed in this role, you will be

  • You are an entrepreneurial leader. You can work with minimal support and resources, and find creative opportunities to achieve goals and seek out new opportunities

  • You are an excellent communicator. Able to create compelling, high quality written material and able to command the attention of senior stakeholders through effective verbal communication

  • You are highly analytical. You will need to keep abreast of the policy and research developments and identify ways to further our advocacy and system change goals

  • You are able to deliver high quality work at pace and recover quickly from set-backs

  • You are willing to be hands-on and get on top of details. You will be co linemanaging a communications officer and graphic designer. But will need to be willing to take on all aspects of the role – from strategy, detailed planning, developing product to booking your flights to conferences.

  • Be comfortable working in a start-up environment. We have developed innovative
    approaches to our programme and to our internal systems. We work as a multidisciplinary team and are non-hierarchical and highly participatory. You will need to be adaptive, agile and open to new ideas, processes and ways of working.

    Experience and Skills

    Essential Experience and Skills

  • Proven experience of developing and delivering an advocacy strategy/bringing about policy or systems change

  • Familiar with policy, funder and/or research community in ECD or closely related field

  • At least 7 years experience in a policy or advocacy role

  • At least 2 years experience as leader of a team or function

    Desirable Experience and Skills

  • Advanced degree in ECD or related field

  • Experience working in sub Saharan Africa

  • Familiar with Ashoka system-change tools and methodology

  • Ideally have experience working either for a policy team/think-tank/funder/bilateral or
    multilateral funder

  • You will be expected to perform against the Lively Minds Competencies.

    How to Apply

    If this sounds like you, please send your CV and cover letter to jobs@livelyminds.org

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