Technical Specialist- Partnerships and Policy [Open to internal and external applicants]

Position Purpose

The Technical Specialist will play a key role in the orientation, coordination, and communication of CAFI activities in DRC, acting as the national focal point for the secretariat to the government and implementing organizations. They will lead CAFI programmes via cross-program synergy development, national stakeholder engagement, and disseminating/communicating lessons learned.

Key Duties and Accountabilities

1. Country Engagement and Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the national focal point for the secretariat to the government and partner institutions.
• Drive and coordinate stakeholder engagement efforts in DRC to identify and document opportunities for strategic dialogue.
• Establish and maintain strategic engagement with relevant institutions, developing strategic partnerships with government institutions, donors, NGOs, the private sector, academia, civil society, and other stakeholders.
• Facilitate dialogue and advocacy mechanisms, forums, south-south cooperation, political and technical exchanges.
• Support country engagement with relevant multilateral and regional initiatives and fora.
• Participate in meetings with CAFI donors and partners, prepare and deliver presentations, and follow up with relevant counterparts.
• Prepare and coordinate generic and country-specific background materials, briefing notes, agendas, and meeting documentation.
• Proactively identify innovative opportunities to strengthen and create synergies between existing country and regionally led initiatives.
• Support the design of and delivery of strategic investments and engagement opportunities with donors and DRC government partners.
• Enable the development of standardised models for innovative financial support mechanisms.
• Synthesize and document lessons learned and best practices from CAFI programmes.

2. Policy Dialogue and Partnership Development

• Identify key engagement areas and develop engagement plans including actor mapping.
• Collaborate within technical and political outreach efforts with all stakeholders.
• Research and analysis of information to donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Develop texts for partnership agreements and identify solutions to resolve outstanding negotiating positions.
• Participate and represent CAFI in different development partner coordination mechanisms.
• Oversee the development of milestone monitoring matrices and the organization of annual partnership reviews.
• Facilitate dialogue between the DRC government and the CAFI Secretariat.
• Enable and strengthen the policy dialogue between CAFI and the DRC government.

3. Secretariat Management and Liaison

• Reviews and takes due diligence on the annual work planning and target setting for the CAFI DRC portfolio.
• Promote effective coordination and communication among CAFI supported programs and partners.
• Facilitate CAFI programming operations through identification, support, and monitoring of institutional capacity building projects.
• Coordinate and participate in quality control mechanisms to ensure the technical quality of project outputs.
• Mobilize partnership engagement for strategic interventions.
• Advise and support the CAFI communications team on policy dialogue related communications.
• Oversee the development and presentation of policy dialogue related topics for the CAFI Executive Board meetings.
• Contribute to resource mobilization efforts.
• Advise programming team on policy support programs and vice versa.

4. Knowledge Management and Advisory Services

• Identify policy-driven issues and synthesize best practices and lessons learned.
• Establish/strengthen national and international advocacy networks and implement relevant, high-impact advocacy with key partners.
• Coordinate and ensure integrated support in development of policies and institutions.
• Support policy advisory services that contribute to inclusive societal digital transformation.
• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks, communities of practice, and digital knowledge platforms.
• Organize and deliver training for operations/project staff on programme related matters.

Requirements

• Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Environment, Ecology, Forestry, Business Management, Law, Economy, or related field is required, or a first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional 2 years of qualifying experience.