Lobby and Advocacy Officer at Simavi

Simavi

Powerful women, healthy societies. We strive for a world in which all women and girls enjoy their human rights to water and sanitation, resulting in healthy and just societies. By joining Simavi you will create a stage for millions of girls and women raising their voice around important issues, such as the climate crisis and social justice.

The Team

You will work from the Simavi office in Dhaka and will be part of the Our Lives, Our Health, Our Futures Programme Team in Bangladesh. You will report to the Programme Manager in Dhaka and work closely with the programme team in the Netherlands, mainly the project lead and the communications and lobby and advocacy advisor. The programme team in Dhaka is composed of the programme manager, financial officer and monitoring, evaluation and learning officer.

Your role at Simavi

Simavi is looking for a Lobby and Advocacy Officer to work from its office in Dhaka, Bangladesh on the Our Lives, Our Health, Our Futures Programme: empowering adolescent girls and young women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, to live with dignity and without violence. This programme is funded by the European Union and started in January 2019.

The impact of the programme is to enable and support young women and adolescent girls from indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh to transition into adult womanhood with dignity, and bodily and sexual autonomy, without violence, coercion and/or discrimination. The programme applies a holistic approach where we support young women and girls to identify, articulate and voice their needs (through services, advocacy. etc.) while the work with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), mothers, men/boys, community leaders and service providers is to ensure that these stakeholders respond to and engage with the needs, rights and priorities of young women and girls.

We are looking for an energetic, experienced professional on lobby and advocacy and with knowledge on women-centred programming, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence (GBV).

Your result areas

• Responsible for coordination the development and implementation of lobby and advocacy strategy of Our Lives, Our Health, Our Futures programme, which is developed and implemented by the local partners.
• Development and implementation of workshops and delivery of technical assistance to 10 civil society organisations in the CHT that are implementing the Our Lives, Our Health, Our Futures programme in the CHT.
• Coaching and follow-up with the local partners on lobby and advocacy activities being performed.
• Guidance local partners on the development of position papers and advocacy activities from the evidence of the programme, learnings and stories/priorities of the women and girls involved in the programme.
• Coordination of communication and visibility activities under Our Lives, Our Health ,Our Futures programme in Bangladesh.
• Liaise with key stakeholders in the SRHR sector to leverage support to the Our Lives, Our Health, Our Futures programme
• Support the preparation of multi-stakeholder events

What you bring

• You have an academic level of education (master degree);
• You have at least 5 years of relevant working experience in the sector;
• You have in-depth knowledge on different aspects of SRHR, women’s empowerment and/or gender-based violence;
• You have demonstrated experience in the development lobby and advocacy strategies, in participating and organising advocacy events and activities, in engaging with multiple stakeholders (public officials, etc.)
• You have demonstrated experience and affinity with working with civil society organisations in developing countries (incl. capacity strengthening);
• You have excellent communication skills (oral and written) in English and in Bangla within a multicultural context;
• You are result-driven and entrepreneurial;
• You are a team player and are open to others opinions
• Eligible to work in Bangladesh and to travel to the CHT

What do we offer?

An exciting and challenging position in an international working environment. Besides a fun and healthy working environment (e.g. weekly online bootcamp or yoga sessions, agile way of working), we are an equal opportunity employer meaning we don’t discriminate in our hiring practices and we actively seek a diverse applicant pool. Our five core values lie at the basis of everything we do: just, sustainable, empowering, inspiring, connecting.

We offer a consultancy agreement for 9 months for 40 hours per week with possible extension. The salary we offer depends on the years of working experience you bring along and will be within the salary range of BDT 70000 and 90000 – gross per month for 40 hours per week.