Social Development Advisor

Main purpose of job:

• This is an important role at the heart of British High Commission (BHC) Nairobi offering great opportunities to shape the development agenda to include the most vulnerable and marginalised groups and make a real difference to people living below the poverty line in Kenya.
• BHC Nairobi hosts over 400 staff covering roles on Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and the region. The UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership and the BHC Country Plan goals cover five pillars: mutual prosperity; security and stability; sustainable development; climate change; science, technology and innovation; and democracy and human rights.
• The Social Development Adviser (SDA) will sit within the Humanitarian, Resilience and Inclusion (HRI) Team responsible for ensuring that the UK’s portfolio in Kenya is effectively addressing the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable, building resilience and pioneering new instruments that catalyse greater government responsibility for service delivery. The HRI team is part of a larger Human and Social Development (HSD) Team which focuses on supporting Kenyan Government to deliver basic services to all its people. This is critical to Kenya’s sustained growth and vital as the country becomes an increasingly important trade and development  partner for the United Kingdom (UK) in the region. The HSD team covers a portfolio that aims to strengthen systems to deliver health, education and social protection safety nets that protect the poorest and vulnerable, while identifying sustainable pathways to increase the Government of Kenya’s (GoK) commitment on these essential services over time.
• The SDA will lead work on enabling UK delivery of all its development portfolio in Kenya while enabling GoK’s own systems to design and deliver solutions to tackling poverty and inequalities that limit development for all. The role holder will lead on undertaking social analyses, social impact assessments, and promoting civil society engagement in policy making. The role will also work across BHC Nairobi, providing social development technical support to strengthen evidence-based policy making. The post holder must be a motivated and experienced development professional with a commitment to overcoming poverty, ready to oversee, support and manage a wide range of programmes.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Lead on addressing exclusion in Kenya through BHC Nairobi policy and programmes portfolio. This will entail leading research, evidence and knowledge processes to bring out Kenya’s demographics, social relationships, and political economy. In addition, ensuring that these are shared widely to shape BHC Nairobi’s portfolio.
• Lead on providing cross cutting advice to business planning processes, reviewing portfolio investment proposals on key aspects of equity and inclusion and ensuring that they are in line with central policies and best practice.
• Lead delivery of social development advice to BHC Nairobi’s development portfolio.
• Work with advisers across other thematic pillars, and through engagement with stakeholders in GoK, and partners to promote the participation of the poor and excluded in shaping social and economic development; ensuring a greater level of social, economic and political inclusion to maximise opportunities for all; and ensuring greater levels of accountability in development and political processes.
• Provide leadership in ensuring the UK’s commitments to tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), all human rights and disability-related issues are delivered across HMG (His Majesty's Government) portfolio in Kenya, and links with Kenya Government. This will include working with Gender and Equalities team in HQ and leading the delivery and monitoring of the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategy with support from the Regional Gender lead and the BHC Nairobi GESI Working Group.
• Work across all the thematic pillar teams in BHC Nairobi as well as engaging HMG colleagues in the wider Kenya network to support implementation of UK foreign policy through supporting requests for VIP briefings, PQs (Parliamentary Questions) and HMG public reporting on social issues.
• Ensure clear link and contribute professionally to the SDA cadre while developing own professional expertise. All advisers are aligned to a professional cadre and are expected to share their knowledge and experience with the network of other cadre members, through 10% of their time.
• The post-holder is expected to be flexible and respond to emerging priorities or new workstreams as required. The post will report to the HRI Lead.
  • Technical Competency 1 – Social and Political Analysis
  • Technical Competency 2 – Poverty and Vulnerability and Analysis and Monitoring
  • Technical Competency 3 – Gender Equality and the Rights and Empowerment of Women and Girls
  • Technical Competency 4 – Empowerment and Accountatbility
  • Technical Competency 5 – Social Protection
• Please see the Civil Service Behaviour Framework and Social Development Technical Competency Framework for more information on the behaviours and technical competencies required for this role.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience  

• Minimum formal qualification, or equivalent, required is a bachelor’s degree in one of the following fields: Social and Political Analysis, Poverty and Vulnerability and Analysis and Monitoring, Gender Equality and the Rights and Empowerment of Women and Girls, Empowerment and Accountability, Social Protection, or any other relevant discipline.
• Five years minimum work experience in related field.
• Understanding of, and ability to influence, the structures, policies, programmes and processes at local and national.
• Proven ability to work closely and influence stakeholders on technical policy issues.
• Building systems for improved empowerment of poor and marginalised people and for greater accountability of state and non-state actors.
• Social protection knowledge and expertise
• Leadership, including in challenging environments and with broad dossiers.
• Engaging internationally – often on complex and sensitive matters.
• Experience of working across, diverse and engaging diverse teams, being flexible and able to adjust.
• Ability to conduct and interpret social and political analyses
• Experience in conducting poverty and vulnerability analysis and monitoring
• Understanding pf and experience in promoting gender equality and social inclusion across a range of different sectors

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience  

• Strong knowledge Programme management experience

Required behaviours  

• Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the Big Picture